Prime Property Award 2012

INSPIRIA Science Center is designed as one of the most advanced science centres in Northern Europe and is part of a long-term plan to make knowledge the most important asset of the Østfold Region in Norway. This ambitious plan is reflected in the architectural aspiration, as the trifold form is designed as a communications platform merging the environment, energy and health.

The interior program includes 70 interactive exhibitions, workshops and the most advanced planetarium in Northern Europe and the science centre is expected to attract more than 100,000 visitors every year, mainly school trips, families and tourists. Long-term plans to include the community will be addressed by annually offering over 40,000 students of the area a free trip to visit the venue. In line with the science centre’s sustainable focus the students will be transported by hybrid busses.

INSPIRIA Science Center combines communication and architecture into an inspiring and eventful whole in order to provide new spaces for learning and supports the idea of sustainability as a window of opportunity to increase the quality of life between humans and the environment. INSPIRIA Science Center is thus designed as a passive house in close contact with both nature and the users, as glass enclosed wings extend from the focal circular atrium creating a dynamic heart to the building.

By merging the architecture and the science centre’s focus on the environment, energy and health, INSPIRIA Science Center is designed as a vibrant communications platform. In this way, the science centre is designed as a striking building, which in itself constitutes an identity-laden branding of INSPIRIA Science Center by uniting the science centre’s activities into a single concept.