Work submitted for the competition
"Best Interior Diploma 2020/2022".
The project "Nucleus - beauty of science" is a concept for an exhibition center promoting science by showing its beauty. The adaptation of the vast interiors of a ruined and abandoned locomotive shed provided an opportunity to create a new cultural space in Wroclaw.
Nucleus is intended to awaken interest in phenomena and discoveries that, though often invisible or unassociated with science, are delightful constructs. Exposure to the nobility of forms is expected to change our cool perception of science and awaken our hunger to learn about the peculiarities of the world around us.
animated presentation of the diploma project
© Anna Semrau-Lech
The center's arrangement is an invitation to four autonomous thematic departments: astronomy, mathematics, microbiology and artificial intelligence, in which installations provide opportunities for interactive exploration of the world of knowledge. New technologies, combined with the structures that define the spaces, transport visitors to environments where they will be able to encounter aspects of phenomena up close and in a new perspective that they would probably not pay attention to in the narrative of dry scientific facts. In other words, the exhibition space has been shaped in such a way as to allow visitors to have a direct experience - a first contact - and reveal the essence of scientific wonder.
The project could be built in a former locomotive depot in Wroclaw
© Anna Semrau-Lech
building and elevations
An important assumption in the adaptation of the building was to respect the fact that the building was entered in the register of monuments, the author also wanted to emphasize its post-industrial beauty. The project involves modernizing the building's facade and adding a viewing terrace on the roof with built-ins signaling its science-related exhibition character.
The project involves modernizing the building's facade and adding a viewing terrace
© Anna Semrau-Lech
According to the plan, the central part of the terrace will feature a glass dome shielding the exits to the roof from the internal stairs and passenger elevators. The windows are covered with reflective panels with applied matte reliefs reflecting the shape of the windows from archival technical drawings. The arrangement of structures on the roof, exterior arrangements and compositions of architectural forms inside the building allude to the shape of a sphere and the phenomenon of propagation of gravitational waves.
main hall
© Anna Semrau-Lech
interiors
The project involves adapting the facility to accommodate up to 500 visitors at a time in a building with an area of 4,478 square meters on level 0 and 933 square meters on the mezzanine. The interior design is based on a non-enclosed space plan, which allows for a spontaneous flow of visitors between the exhibition areas, the mezzanine cafeteria and the roof terrace.
mezzanine space
© Anna Semrau-Lech
The zones interact and cast light on each other, just as different sciences influence each other. The relativity of colors and the aforementioned penetration of light are meant to show the interactivity and beauty of the world of science. The design of the structures defining the space of each thematic section required matching the needs of mapping, projection, mechatronics and other new technologies and media. The essence was to find such proportions of forms that visitors would feel part of the individual, contractual science habitats.
MICRO zone
© Anna Semrau-Lech
The exhibition departments allow visitors to experience and even interact with the world of scientific phenomena. Among other things, guests can look forward to: in the MICRO zone, rooms with an environment that reacts to the activity of visitors' brain waves; in the AI section, a journey into the world of anatomy with nanobots; in the ASTRO zone, rest in the environment of gesture-controlled Solar System planets with animations of the sounds of these objects.
ASTRO zone and MATH zone
© Anna Semrau-Lech
The MATH booth offers, among other things, the opportunity to interfere with mathematical notation and modify animations showing the self-similarity of fractals, while the common zones offer gravity attractions. Additional enrichment and support for visitors, including care for visitors with disabilities, is to be provided by intelligent systems linked to NUC robots.
MICRO zone, water habitat and bioluminescence
© Anna Semrau-Lech
The Nucleus project is a reaction to today's low interest in science and is an attempt to reverse this disturbing trend. The educational aspect and awakening of humanistic reflection on science and technology is also an important goal.
Anna SEMRAU-LECH
Illustrations: © Author
