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Science
Financing now in place from private donations. The University of Copenhagen's Museum of Natural History will be in the heart of the city
The University of Copenhagen (UCPH) now has the DKK 950m funding needed to start building a new international world-class museum with 14 million different objects on display. This makes it into one of the largest collections in the world.
This is according to a press release Wednesday which stated that a further DKK 550m funding had been received from private donations.
The project will join the Zoological Museum, the Geological Museum, and the Botanical Museum and will be located within the Botanical Garden in the heart of Copenhagen.
From the year 2020, giant whales, exotic plants and rare meteorites will be on display, as well as the museum’s newest inhabitant, the dinosaur Misty.
The firm Lundgaard & Tranberg architects and architect Claus Pryds have designed the museum which is now co-funded by DKK 550m donations from private foundations.
“With these generous gifts from the foundations, the University of Copenhagen has a unique opportunity to strengthen our work within outreach, research and education. We decided to join our three museums of natural history back in 2004. We now celebrate the results of a ten-year effort and I am very grateful for the support we have received throughout the entire project,” says the university’s rector Ralf Hemmingsen.
Once the new museum opens its doors you can meet the loneliest spider in Denmark. Only one specimen has been found in Denmark and has never been found since, anywhere in the world.
It will house the world’s largest and most complete collection of whale skeletons. Visitors will be able to learn more about the ancient meteorites of our Solar System.
The new natural history museum will be placed on the edge of the botanical gardens.
Historical buildings will be preserved and will be interconnected through glass buildings and greenhouses that elegantly unify the old and the new.
The many exhibitions are below the surface.
It is expected that the number of visitors to the museum will triple to more than 400,000 a year.
See the design of the new museum in the gallery below this article.
clba@adm.ku.dk
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