Denmark’s only science centre has undergone a mass redevelopment, with its new spiraling copper staircase the centrepiece of the former brewery.

Originally opened in 1991, Experimentarium, in Hellerup, adopts a hands-on approach, with visitors able to try out a number of scientific experiments. After starting renovation works in 2014, plans were hampered when the building was largely destroyed by fire, delaying progress for several months. The centre reopened in January with two additional floors added on top of the 110-year-old building.

At the helm is the executive director of three years, Kim Gladstone Herlev, who has been at Experimentarium since January 2003, where he started as director of communication.

“It’s always been a challenge to be in a building originally intended for different purposes,” says Gladstone. “We became a huge success in Denmark. Everyone knows Experimentarium and because of that we saw the opportunity to do something really amazing here.”

The building uses the foundations of the city’s old Tuborg beer bottling plant, retaining the first floor of the brewery and building the DKK880m ($126m, €118m, £100m) expansion above it.

“We built on top of the history, the history of science in fact, because the brewing process is science,” says Herlev. “It has the same footprint on the ground but it’s twice the size it was before.”

Due to its expansion, Experimentarium has room for 16 new exhibitions – all brand new and built over three storeys, following the theme of the centre as “universes”.

“The idea is that we are like a ‘city’ and we make small universes within this construct,” says Herlev. “One universe could be themed like a factory of ideas, another could be the cinema, or the beach, or the harbour. The design of each of these 16 universes is very different. Some will be high-activity areas, some will be reflective areas – that’s the idea.”

Phoenix from the ashes
The 2015 fire, which “more or less completely destroyed” the building, occurred in the midst of redevelopment. Because of the ongoing works, the science centre’s staff and exhibits had – by a good stroke of fortune – been temporarily moved to Papirøen in Copenhagen Harbour, meaning while the building had been gutted the majority of the collection was safe.

Rising like a phoenix from the ashes, Herlev has ambitious plans for the reborn Experimentarium science centre.

“At Easter we will open our rooftop where you can be outside doing open-air science experiments, which is very exciting,” he says. “In January 2018 we will open the first floor, which will be a science city for kids aged one to five years old. We do not have many museums that cater specifically to children in Denmark so this is a very exciting thing for our country.

“Our aim is to be among the five best science centres in the world within the next few years. If you compare us to facilities in Europe, Experimentarium is different from a lot of other science centres,” Herlve says. “We’re able to show things that have never been shown in this context before. It’s very exciting.”