NEMO Science Museum

A green ship on the water

You will see it before you reach it. The big green building on the Oosterdok, close to Centraal Station, looks like the bow of a ship rising out of the water. It is NEMO, the science museum, and it is built for children to touch everything.

The motto is Hands On. Most exhibits are experiments, not objects behind glass. You try the phenomenon yourself, whether it is physics, chemistry, biology or how people behave. About 38 percent of visitors are under 18, and in 2023 the museum drew 725,000 people. The aim is to get young people excited about science and technology, and it works on a good share of the adults too.

Built on top of a tunnel

The building dates from 1997 and was designed by Renzo Piano. The shape is not random. It echoes the entrance of the IJ tunnel, mirrored relative to the ground. That fits, because the museum stands right on top of the tunnel. Its foundation piles, like those under the tunnel itself, are 95 metres long.

The story of the museum is older than the building. It began in 1923 as the Museum van den Arbeid, founded by the painter Herman Heijenbrock. In 1954 it became the NINT, the Dutch Institute for Industry and Technology. Both lived in other parts of the city, on the Rozengracht and then the Tolstraat. In 1997 the museum opened as NewMetropolis in the green building you see now. After money trouble in 2000 it started again as Science Center NEMO, and later as NEMO Science Museum.

What is inside

The permanent displays are split into themes. Fenomena is about natural phenomena. Technium is about technology. Elementa takes in astronomy and chemistry, and it holds the Lab, where visitors can do a real laboratory experiment. Humania is about people in all their facets. On the roof terrace is Energetica, about energy from sustainable sources.

Behind the interactive displays sits a quieter collection of about 20,000 objects. Most of it came from the former Energetica public centre, whose own collection came from the old KEMA museum and the Amsterdam municipal energy company. It centres on lighting, installations, power generation and storage, and household electrical appliances. Most of it is kept in a depot in Amsterdam-Noord.

When you are standing there

Start outside. Walk round the building and look at how the green hull slopes up from the quay. Then think about what is underneath you: the tunnel, and those long piles driven deep into the soft ground. It is a good place to see how much engineering Amsterdam hides below its water.

The water views matter too. From the quay you look across the Oosterdok toward the old shipping quarter, and the maritime museum in the old naval storehouse is a short walk away. Boats on the IJ pass close by. Inside, keep an eye out for the families. The best part is often watching a child work out a mechanism for the first time and refuse to give it up.