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Amsterdam
NEMO Science Museum, Amsterdam

NEMO Science Museum

Oosterdok

NEMO Science Museum is the largest science centre in the Netherlands. Its green copper building, shaped like the bow of a ship, was designed by Renzo Piano and opened in 1997. It stands in the water of the Oosterdok, on top of the entrance to the IJ road tunnel.

Before you hear it, a guess

Renzo Piano made this roof a public square. What did he think Amsterdam was missing?

This building has no ground of its own. It stands on the mouth of a road tunnel, and its shape is that tunnel turned upside down.

Stand back and take in the whole shape: a green hull, tilted up out of the water of the Oosterdok like the bow of a ship. Now look at the low end, towards the city. A road runs in underneath the building and disappears.

That road is the IJ tunnel. It opened in 1968 and takes cars under the harbour to the north of the city. Its mouth reaches far out into the dock. When Amsterdam’s museum of technology wanted a new home, this is where it was put: on top of the tunnel.

The architect was Renzo Piano, from Italy, and he let the tunnel decide the shape. Where the road goes down, the building goes up. It is a mirror image of the tunnel, rising out of the water. The green skin is copper. Copper turns this colour when it oxidises. There are few windows, on purpose. Inside, nothing was to draw the eye away from the experiments. Piano called that plain inside the noble factory.

“Where the road goes down, the building goes up.”

Then there is the roof. Piano wrote in his notes that Amsterdam is a one-dimensional city. He missed what most great cities have: a square with a view over the town. So he made the roof a sloping square, about 22 metres up, and anyone may climb the outside stairs to it.

The museum opened here in 1997 as NewMetropolis and became NEMO in 2000. Its story goes back to 1923, when the painter Herman Heijenbrock founded a museum of labour. From the top you look over the old city, and across the water to the old storehouse of the admiralty with a sailing ship beside it. Under your feet, the cars are still going down.

What to look for

  • The tunnel mouth

    Go to the low end of the building, towards the city. The road that dips under it there is the southern entrance of the IJ tunnel.

  • The copper skin

    Walk up close to the wall. The green is not paint. It is copper that has oxidised. Piano’s office chose it because it is light and strong and needs little upkeep.

  • The square on the roof

    Take the outside stairs on the east side to the top. This is the piazza Piano wanted for Amsterdam. It was laid out afresh in 2025 with more than 75 kinds of flowers and plants.

  • The ship across the water

    From the roof, look across the Oosterdok for a big pale building with a sailing ship moored beside it. It is the old storehouse of the admiralty, now the maritime museum, and the ship is a replica of an East India ship.

Key facts

Opened
1997, under the name NewMetropolis
Architect
Renzo Piano Building Workshop, 1992–1997
Stands on
The southern entrance of the IJ tunnel, opened on 30 October 1968
Skin
Copper, oxidised green
Roof square
About 22 metres up
Named NEMO
2000
Began as
The Museum van den Arbeid, founded in 1923 by the painter Herman Heijenbrock
Address
Oosterdok 2, Amsterdam Directions

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Sources

The dates, names and figures on this page were checked against published references. These are the records for this place. The story is Lookstory’s own telling of them. Last updated October 2026.