The construction is now complete – soon the crowning glory will be added to Wisdome Stockholm

The unique architecture has attracted international attention, and the building has already won prizes for its spectacular design. The crowning glory for Wisdome Stockholm at the National Museum of Science and Technology will be the shingle roof – 120,000 pieces of hearty pine that will adorn the billowing construction. At the same time, cutting-edge visualisation technology will be installed within the wooden dome – enormous data clusters and projectors that will provide the 3D scientific experiences for the 300 m2 screen surface.

Ever since the first spade broke the ground in February 2022, Wisdome Stockholm has been the focus of a huge amount of attention. The building has attracted international admirers, and its spectacular wooden architecture has already been awarded a number of prizes. In early December, the National Museum of Science and Technology will be opening the doors to Wisdome Stockholm – the new dome-shaped theatre in which complicated scientific research and relationships will be transformed into breathtaking experiences for children and adults, for school groups, and as a venue for corporate events.

A building that pushes the boundaries

The architects Elding Oscarson have designed a building that challenges – it puts both materials and construction concepts to the test, and pushes the boundaries of what is possible. With an immense span of 48 metres, the curved roof is completely self-supporting without central pillars using a so-called gridshell technique, with both bent and twisted beams that can only be seen in a handful of places anywhere else in the world. The 25 layers of the chequerboard construction comprise 20 kilometres of LVL boards, which have been shaped and assembled on-site with a margin of error of less than 1 millimetre. Nothing like this has ever been done before.

At the centre of the hall is the large wooden dome, which contains seating for 100 people and features cutting-edge visualisation technology. The dome is 12 metres in height and 22 metres in diameter. The construction consists of 277 unique wooden triangles that are assembled into hexagonal shapes before being hoisted into place.

In order to realise the vision of the architects and the building designer Florian Kosche, the Museum turned to Blumer Lehmann, which has been responsible for the construction of some of the world’s most famous wooden buildings. This Swiss family-owned company combines more than 100 years of craft and tradition with globally unparalleled expertise in parametric design – a process in which 10,903 components are assembled in a 3D model. This method makes it possible to simulate a construction down to the finest detail. The building of full-scale models of certain sections has also been necessary, for test purposes.

There have not been any pre-existing solutions that we could apply, so it has been a huge challenge that has required close collaboration between everyone involved – the museum, Elding Oscarson, Vectura, Blumer Lehmann, Stora Enso and Oljibe. Many of the solutions and methods used have had to be specially developed for just this building, and we have all learned a great deal that we will be able to take with us in future projects. Every week, we have hosted several site-visits from colleagues in the industry, and we have been happy to share our experiences. In this way, Wisdome Stockholm is helping to drive Sweden’s wooden construction industry forwards. Astrid Stenberg, Project Manager, National Museum of Science and Technology

From the very start of the project, the spectacular architecture has attracted huge interest. The unique construction has been rewarded with distinctions such as the World in Property Award and the Swedish Design Award, and has also attracted the attention not only of designers, architects and actors within the wood industry, but also of the general public. Several companies have already made bookings for events both inside the dome and in the large wooden hall outside, and tickets to the first performances in the dome will soon be released for sale.

We knew that the proposal we had tendered would demand something quite exceptional. It was challenging – perhaps even bordering on impossible – but we also had a strong conviction that it could be done. For us, this was no fantasy but a chance to really test the limits of what is possible when building with wood. It has been a difficult but inspiring journey that has resulted in something fantastic. There are many things that have had to come together. The innovative construction, of course, but we are equally as proud of the spatial experience and the way in which the building opens up the entire museum, which is exactly as we had envisioned it. It is almost a magical feeling to see Wisdome Stockholm become reality. Johan Oscarson Elding Oscarson Architects

Sustainable materials from Swedish and Finnish forests

All the sustainably produced wooden material from Stora Enso has now been delivered and assembled. This includes CLT (cross-laminated timber) for the dome and the café inside the building, which comes from their Swedish factory in Gruvön, and LVL (laminated veneer lumber) for the pillars and roof construction, which comes from their Finnish factory in Varkaus.

The building work is still continuing, but visitors to the site can already sense the atmosphere generated by the magnificent wooden hall, with its billowing ceiling with an immense span of 26 x 48 metres, built entirely without any internal supporting pillars.

We are proud to be the main partner and supplier of wood for Wisdome Stockholm, which marks a new generation of buildings at the museum. It is a fantastic landmark for sustainable and innovative building with wood. Wisdome Stockholm pushes the boundaries of what is possible to build with wood. Jessika Szyber, Business Development Manager at Stora Enso.

The fossil-free heating of the future – a research project 250 metres below the ground

Deep under ground, below Wisdome Stockholm and the Museum of Science and Technology, a European research project is being conducted with the aim of developing more-efficient solutions for geothermal heating. The project is a collaboration between the heat pump manufacturer NIBE, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, and Research Institutes of Sweden (RISE), together with several European actors, and aims to develop even-more efficient heating systems and to reduce dependency on fossil fuels.

At a depth of around 250 metres beneath Wisdome Stockholm is an innovative geothermal heating system that combines advanced control technology and a large number of sensors to optimise the building’s heating and cooling requirements. By varying the output from 10 different boreholes, the surplus heat and heat from the building are stored when cool air is retrieved from the ground, and vice versa. This type of control system will also enable large buildings to achieve more-efficient heating in the future.

The technology controlling the climate for Wisdome Stockholm will be positioned so it is visible to visitors, together with an educational installation that visualises what is taking place behind the scenes in order to not only heat the building but also to cool the powerful technology that creates the experiences inside the dome.

Breathtaking adventures with leading visualisation technology

Installed in Wisdome Stockholm is some of the world’s most advanced visualisation technology. The cinema screen, which is actually a 2.5-tonne aluminium dome, perforated with 52 million tiny holes, is 308 m2 in size and surrounds the audience in all 360° – a so-called fulldome. Six laser projectors with 8K resolution and a 10.1 sound system are connected together with a cluster of 14 powerful computers and high-performance graphic cards to create 3D experiences, where, for example, a pilot inside the dome can control the journey on an interactive, interplanetary voyage between planets, moons and out into the universe. The technology can be adjusted to tailor the content and experiences to different visitor groups, such as families with children, high school students, adult evening visitors or corporate events.

An educational tool that makes the world easier to understand

The world-leading visualisation technology enables experiences that make science and complex relationships easier and more fun to understand. Enormous amounts of data can be processed and recreated in the form of clear and explanatory relationships and models. And it is not only space that becomes the setting for an interactive adventure – included among the prize-winning Wisdome productions are those featuring the latest research about the microcosmos, the climate and digital superpowers, all of which have a clear connection to the school curriculum, with material to work on in the classroom both before and after the visit.

At least 70% of our sensory cells are found in the retina, and 90% of all the information that reaches the brain is visual. When we see an image, the brain processes enormous amounts of data in just a few seconds, and is able to analyse connections and relationships that would be hard to discover. This is why it is important for researchers to work with the visualisation of data. Visualisation also makes it easier for us to remember what we have learned, because our brains store memories in the form of images.

Wisdome Stockholm allows us to discover the world around us in 3D – just as we do in real life. The ability to scale up or down and to move around freely through time and space makes it possible for us to comprehend distances, microscopic dimensions, and chains of events over the course of millions of years or within a millisecond.

What’s on in the dome

After opening, Wisdome Stockholm will present two film productions and several different live shows in Open Space. The offering will subsequently be expanded with additional films, as well as temporary programme activities, such as live performances by guest artists in interaction with the dome technology.

Making Magic 3D - A Visual Effect Story

In the magical world of visual effects, anything can happen. Making Magic tells the story of how programming code is transformed into unbelievable adventures in films and video games – and how they are affected by the natural laws that govern the real world. Join us on an exciting journey and discover how effects are made – from equations to explosions.

VAST 3D – A cosmic journey through time and space 3D – A cosmic journey through time and space

Space is incomprehensibly large. Our inquisitive nature and thirst for knowledge have inspired us to explore space and to learn more about the universe. But there still remains an incredible amount for us to explore. In the dome show VAST, we embark on a journey further out into space than any human has ever been. Everything that we see on this journey is based on genuine data that has been collected as a result of mankind’s technical advances and many years of research.

OpenSpace LIVE

Join us on a journey out into the universe – an interactive dome show in 3D. Together with a pilot inside the dome, we can leave the Earth behind us, travel past the International Space Station, carry on towards the Moon and other astral bodies, and continue outwards beyond the confines of our Solar System.

The National Museum of Science and Technology’s educators have developed various shows and performances for school groups, small children and adults, and have created a live show in the OpenSpace visualisation programme, which is designed to visualise the entire known universe and to depict the ongoing work to explore the cosmos. OpenSpace uses the latest real-time data and makes research into the cosmos accessible to the general public. The OpenSpace project is a collaboration with NASA.

For bookings

Wisdome Stockholm opens in December 2023. Tickets will be available for purchase in September.

For school groups, please contact skolbokning@tekniskamuseet.se or visit tekniskamuseet.se/skola

For corporate events, please contact eventbokning@tekniskamuseet.se or visit tekniskamuseet.se/konferens-och-event