Ten years of Klimahaus Bremerhaven, the climate change museum

The Klimahaus Bremerhaven 8° Ost in Germany is the first museum in the world that addresses climate change. The iconic building designed by the architect Thomas Klumpp is located in the old harbour area of the German city and is celebrating its tenth anniversary this year.


The Klimahaus Bremerhaven 8° Ost  (Climate House Bremerhaven 8° East) is so much more than just a museum. This is the first museum in the world that features exhibits addressing themes like climate change and weather, and it plays an important part in disseminating climate experiences. Visitors can take in a number of climate zones along the eighth meridian east: setting out from Bremerhaven, they travel down through Switzerland and Sardinia then Niger and Cameroon before heading right down to Antarctica and returning back up through the great circle to Samoa and Alaska before returning to Germany. On the way, they learn all about the connections between weather and climate to get a clearer understanding of the reasons behind climate change.
The other areas - Perspectives, World Future Lab and Offshore Center - focus on the diversity of the blue planet, the connections between weather and climate, climate change that occurred in the past and forecasts for the future. Spectacular installations and elaborate sets, interactive exhibitions and multimedia stations are as much part of the exhibition concept of the Klimahaus Bremerhaven as live animals and plants.
When seen from a distance, the building itself designed by the architect Thomas Klumpp with Eickworth + lggena from agn Niederberghaus und Partner GmbH could be a ship or a cloud. But no matter what it reminds you of, the Klimahaus building, formed of two separate volumes, is a standout architectural accents in the Old Harbour of Bremerhaven. The external glass skin and the roof supported by an aluminium structure surround a concrete internal construction.
Only cutting-edge computer technology for the design of the three-dimensional deformed surfaces made it possible to actually construct this unusually shaped museum. The 10,000-m2 glass shell comprises about 4,700 differently shaped glass panes, which were put together in a construction that is 125 m long, 82 m wide and almost 30 m high, with only a few millimetres’ tolerance. The 1,200-ton substructure encloses the building and uses elements such as frames and stringers - traditionally used in shipbuilding - to create the facade.
The elaborate staging of the various theme areas inside the building covers a gross area of 18,800 m2, with about 11,500 square metres of this open to the public. The remaining space is mainly used for the exhibit’s technical equipment, such as the huge water treatment plants for the three large aquariums. 
Anyone who makes climate change their theme must, of course, set an example when it comes to sustainability. For this reason, the designers behind the Klimahaus building developed a sophisticated concept for efficient energy use right from the outset. So, despite all the technology used for the exhibition, the Klimahaus does not cause carbon dioxide emissions. Which is pretty amazing when you think that the elaborate settings take you through extreme temperatures - from hot deserts to freezing Antarctica and lots of audio-visual installations are adopted throughout the exhibition. The intelligent combination of tried and tested technologies and innovative concepts leads to an amazing result: the Klimahaus emits less than 300 grams of CO2 per visitor. 
The Klimahaus Bremerhaven 8° Ost opened in June 2009 and its partners include the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research (AWI), the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology (MPI-M) and the German Meteorological Service. The Klimahaus is celebrating its tenth anniversary with a series of special events, which include family celebrations as well as a conference on the issue of a correct and environmentally-friendly lifestyle in the era of climate change, to name just some of the initiatives particularly targeting the younger generation who will be forced to face global warming.

Christiane Bürklein

Project: Thomas Klumpp
Location: Bremerhaven, Germany
Opening year: 2009
Images: courtesy of Klimahaus Bremerhaven - see captions
Find out more: https://www.klimahaus-bremerhaven.de