“Five color-coded theme-based areas invite visitors to take a close look at what the future has in store…”

“In the center of Nuremberg’s historic district, “Das Zukunftsmuseum” (The Future Museum) – an offshoot of the Deutsches Museum Munich – will open on 18 September. The inviting museum on the banks of the Pegnitz is located in the Augustinerhof, a new building locality created by Staab Architekten. ATELIER BRÜCKNER designed the permanent exhibition. It covers an area of 2,900 square meters. Generously dimensioned window openings, which illustrate the two-storeyed nature of individual parts of the museum, allow light into the new buildings and enable views towards the outside.

The Future Museum in Nuremberg presents Science and Fiction designed by ATELIER BRÜCKNER.
Photography: Daniel Stauch

Five color-coded theme-based areas invite visitors to take a close look at what the future has in store: “Work and Daily Life”, “Body and Mind”, “City System”, “Earth System” and “Space and Time”. The exhibition emphasizes the juxtaposition of science and fiction and shows how they interact with each other. Do the exhibits stem from science, have they already been implemented in practice, or are they soon to be ready for industrial production? Or are they pure fiction and simply infeasible? They include inventions of science fiction in literature and films but also thought experiments and ideas from scientific theory.

The Future Museum in Nuremberg presents Science and Fiction designed by ATELIER BRÜCKNER.
Photography: Daniel Stauch

The modular exhibition elements fit into a basic pattern, which can be envisaged as a grid on the floor. This triggers associations with a virtual 3D space that provides scope for one’s own imagination and design ideas. The three-dimensional layout that is presented has an industrial and clearly structured look. Fair-faced concrete surfaces, suspended light rails, and technical connecting elements have an industrial character. All the exhibition elements follow the basic grid pattern, the matrix of the museum.

The Future Museum in Nuremberg presents Science and Fiction designed by ATELIER BRÜCKNER.
Photography: Daniel Stauch

In addition to the exhibition areas on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd floors of the building, there are laboratories on the ground floor, a robot workshop and a tinkering area, called a future workshop, on the 1st floor as well as a section enabling VR time travel (project in cooperation with Cologne University) on the 3rd floor.

The Future Museum in Nuremberg presents Science and Fiction designed by ATELIER BRÜCKNER.
Photography: Daniel Stauch

The starting and endpoint of the tour through the museum is a spacious, two-storey forum which has steps for sitting on and is surrounded by LED strips with news tickers. Suspended centrally in the space, there is a remarkable kinetic media cube with an edge length of 3.75 metres that awakes curiosity and stimulates people’s interest in visiting the exhibition. The cube is fitted out with nine LED screens, each of which can independently be moved and rotated by 180 degrees. At a certain point, they all face forwards together, outward beyond the frame, and form a single screen surface that is suitable for presentations.

The Future Museum in Nuremberg presents Science and Fiction designed by ATELIER BRÜCKNER.
Photography: Daniel Stauch

As a summary of the visit to the exhibition, the screens show the themes, objects, and the color scheme of the exhibition areas. Evaluation of the museum game is envisaged for the presentation mode: while walking through the exhibition, the visitors collect selected exhibits with their wristbands. At media stations, they can then process their selection and submit an estimate of the opportunities and risks of the new technologies. Every day, their answers to such questions as those listed below are discussed live in the forum:

What is people’s attitude towards genetic scissors? Is it permissible for us to alter the genome of embryos? Should we use robots for social care tasks? How can we achieve the mobility turnaround? Will meat come from the laboratory in the future? Should humankind explore space? These are questions that the museum asks in different places. Media steles with “future designers” supply contrary arguments. Students who have been specially schooled in ethical questions are F-Coms (future communicators) and act as direct contact persons for visitors.”

The Future Museum in Nuremberg presents Science and Fiction designed by ATELIER BRÜCKNER.
Photography: Daniel Stauch

All images © by Daniel Stauch and ATELIER BRÜCKNER.

Subscribe to our newsletter!