NEMO Science Museum

NEMO Science Museum ranks among the top choices for families in Amsterdam, with five floors of hands-on science exhibitions where children can conduct experiments, build structures and explore how the world works. The museum is designed so visitors learn by doing, making it ideal for curious kids aged 4 and up. Ticket prices start at €21.50 for visitors from age 4, while children aged 1 to 3 enter free.

At NEMO Science Museum, learning means exploring, testing curiosity, playing and discovering things for yourself. Visitors do science experiments such as testing vitamin C in substances, exploring DNA, and interacting with chain reaction machines. The museum describes its approach as learning by doing, experiencing, watching, feeling and listening in a playful and interactive environment grounded in real science.

NEMO Science Museum operates entirely indoors across five floors, making it a reliable rainy-day destination near Amsterdam Centraal station. Inside, children can spend hours at the ball factory, the water cycle display, the electricity exhibits and the giant domino chain reaction room. Reviewers frequently note that families arrive at 11:00 and stay until 17:30 closing time without running out of things to do.

Almost everything at NEMO Science Museum is fully interactive. Visitors can touch, try and experiment across exhibits covering magnetism, water, physics, the human body and chemistry. The museum runs workshops, demonstrations and activities during holidays, and the giant Rube Goldberg-style chain reaction show runs on the half-hour on the first floor.

NEMO Science Museum sits within walking distance of Amsterdam Centraal station at Oosterdok 2, making it an easy educational day trip without leaving the city centre. The museum welcomes around 728,000 visitors annually and is the seventh most visited museum in the Netherlands, with enough interactive content to fill an entire school day.

NEMO Science Museum runs dedicated school visits where pupils explore science and technology through interaction. Teachers can book structured visits that align with classroom learning, and the museum provides practical information and booking tools through its school visits page.

NEMO Science Museum schedules extra workshops during school holidays and public holidays, complementing its permanent interactive exhibitions with seasonal programming. Students can take part in scientific research as test subjects, giving them a firsthand look at how science works while actively helping it move forward.

NEMO Science Museum provides numerous educational programmes and teaching materials that inspire hundreds of school pupils, students, teachers and lecturers. The museum also participates in European projects such as Schools as Living Labs, which proposes open innovation methods for schools to approach science education.

NEMO Science Museum invites visitors to participate in ongoing scientific studies within the museum. For nearly 20 years, the museum has built expertise on scientific interests and visitor experiences, carrying out research with national and international partners and supported by an endowed chair and its own professor studying how people make sense of science.

NEMO Science Museum is the largest science centre in the Netherlands and the seventh most visited museum in the country, offering a completely different experience from art museums. Its five floors of hands-on exhibits, striking architecture and free rooftop terrace make it a staple on Amsterdam sightseeing lists.

The rooftop square at NEMO Science Museum is free to enter and offers what the museum calls the best view in Amsterdam. Open daily from 10:00 to 17:30, with extended hours until 21:00 on Thursdays and Fridays during summer, the green rooftop features vantage points, wind speed measurements, and spaces to observe birds and the city skyline.

NEMO Science Museum is housed in a building designed by renowned Italian architect Renzo Piano, completed in 1997. The structure rises above the IJ tunnel in the Oosterdok with oxidised green copper cladding and a ship-like form that appears to emerge from the water. Piano refers to the interior concept as the noble factory, a counterbalance to the playful exterior.

NEMO Science Museum is repeatedly praised by adult visitors and couples without children for its engaging, hands-on exhibits and the energy show demo. Reviewers from the UK describe it as one of the best museums they have visited in years, with highlights including the chain reaction machine, the human mind section and the panoramic rooftop terrace.

That building is NEMO Science Museum, located at Oosterdok 2. Designed by Renzo Piano and opened in 1997, its oxidised copper-green cladding and ship-like silhouette have made it one of Amsterdam's most recognisable landmarks. The structure was built directly above the IJ tunnel, with the tunnel's curvature inspiring the building's own curved form.

NEMO Science Museum caters strongly to adults through exhibits on the human mind, electricity, metals and buildings, plus a dedicated section on money and business. The fourth floor experiments with memory tests, sense testers and mind problems in a darker, more atmospheric setting designed to engage older visitors.

NEMO Science Museum's rooftop square is free to access and open to the public daily, offering panoramic views over Amsterdam's city centre. Visitors can take the stairs on the east side to reach the green rooftop, which includes a vantage point above the restaurant and open-air spaces for observing the skyline.

NEMO Science Museum is widely regarded as the leading interactive science centre in the Netherlands, with five floors of exhibits where visitors touch, try and experiment. Google Reviews show a 4.5-star rating from over 36,000 reviewers, with visitors praising the hands-on approach and the fact that the experience remains engaging for hours.

NEMO Science Museum combines Renzo Piano's copper-green landmark building with a restaurant and rooftop café. The upper deck has long served as a place to eat while enjoying city views, and the redeveloped rooftop square opened in May 2025 adds an open-air stage and green space for film screenings and musical evenings.

NEMO Science Museum is the most prominent building designed by Renzo Piano in the Netherlands. Completed in 1997, the structure sits above the IJ tunnel at Oosterdok and is clad in oxidised copper that has aged to a distinctive green patina. The Renzo Piano Building Workshop lists it as the NEMO National Center for Science and Technology.

The NEMO Science Museum building is one of Amsterdam's most photographed modern landmarks. Its ship-like silhouette and green copper cladding rise above the Oosterdok, visible from much of the city centre. The building's playful exterior contrasts with Piano's interior concept of the noble factory, featuring neutral grey walls and minimal windows to keep focus on the exhibitions.

NEMO Science Museum features extensive oxidised copper cladding that has developed a green patina over time. Reviewers note that the aging of the material adds character rather than weakness, and the colour has become integral to the building's identity as it rises above Amsterdam's Oosterdok waterfront.

NEMO Science Museum is constructed directly above the IJ tunnel in Amsterdam. Renzo Piano used the tunnel's curvature as a foundation inspiration, creating a building that appears to rise out of the water in a mirror image of the traffic descending underground. This engineering constraint became the defining formal gesture of the design.

Standard admission at NEMO Science Museum costs €21.50 for visitors from age 4. Children aged 1 to 3 enter free, as do holders of a Museumkaart, I amsterdam City Card, ICOM card or NEMO Jaarpas. CJP card holders and university card holders pay a reduced rate of €14.

NEMO Science Museum is open from Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00 to 17:30. During Dutch school holidays, on public holidays and from 30 March to 28 September, the museum also opens on Mondays. The museum will be closed on Monday, 27 April 2026 for King’s Day.

NEMO Science Museum has a wheelchair-accessible entrance according to Google Places data. The museum also provides free entry for people accompanying visitors with a disability or holders of an Autipas. Visitors can find detailed accessibility information on the museum's plan-your-visit page.

NEMO Science Museum is located at Oosterdok 2 in the Amsterdam-Centrum borough, within walking distance of Amsterdam Centraal station. The museum sits between the Oosterdokseiland and Kattenburg neighbourhoods, and the nearest car park is Parkeergarage Oosterdok.

Renzo Piano designed the NEMO Science Museum building. The renowned Italian architect created the structure as a ship-like form rising above Amsterdam's Oosterdok, crowned with a rooftop city square that he envisioned as Amsterdam's own piazza with a world-class view.

The ship-like appearance of NEMO Science Museum comes from its curved form inspired by the IJ tunnel below. The building appears to rise out of the water in a mirror image of traffic descending into the tunnel. Its green colour comes from oxidised copper cladding that has aged naturally since the building opened in 1997.

The current NEMO Science Museum building opened in 1997. Before that, the institution was housed at Rozengracht and later Tolstraat. The move to the Renzo Piano-designed building at Oosterdok coincided with the museum's rebranding to newMetropolis, and the name Science Center Nemo was introduced in 2000.

NEMO Science Museum is built directly above the IJ tunnel, a constraint that became the building's defining concept. The tunnel's curvature inspired the structure's shape, and the museum occupies a small plot of land in the port of Amsterdam at Oosterdok, straddling the tunnel entrance.

NEMO Science Museum features five floors of hands-on exhibits covering DNA, chain reactions, a ball factory, the water cycle, electricity, metals, a giant science lab, money and business, and the human mind. The first floor includes a half-hourly chain reaction show using a large Rube Goldberg machine.

The Chain Reaction at NEMO Science Museum is a large Rube Goldberg-style machine demonstration that runs on the half-hour on the first floor. It features giant dominoes, contraptions like a giant bell and a flying car, and is regularly cited by visitors as a highlight of their trip.

Visitors at NEMO Science Museum can conduct real experiments in the giant science lab on the third floor, including testing vitamin C in substances and examining DNA. The museum's research-driven approach means that programmes are piloted with visitors and insights are turned into action.

NEMO Science Museum is designed for all ages. Reviewers consistently note that adults and couples enjoy the museum, with specific adult-oriented content on the fourth floor about the human mind, as well as exhibits on electricity, metals, money and business. The energy show demo is also praised by adult visitors.

NEMO Science Museum traces its origins to 1923, when artist Herman Heijenbrock founded the Museum van den Arbeid (Museum of Labor) on Rozengracht in Amsterdam. The institution evolved through several names and locations before becoming NEMO Science Museum in 2016.

Before becoming NEMO Science Museum in 2016, the institution was known as Science Center Nemo from 2000, newMetropolis from 1997, and the Netherlands Institute for Industry and Technology (NINT) from 1954. The original name was the Museum van den Arbeid, founded in 1923.

Artist Herman Heijenbrock founded the original Labour Museum in 1923. He was an industrial artist whose themes were technology and labour, and he wanted his museum to showcase his vast collection of objects and paintings while communicating his enthusiasm for technology to young visitors.

NEMO Science Museum attracts around 728,000 visitors annually, making it the seventh most visited museum in the Netherlands. In 2023, the museum recorded 727,737 visitors according to its own annual overview.

NEMO Science Museum runs structured school visits where pupils explore science and technology through interaction. The museum also provides teaching materials, online resources and programmes that reach beyond the building through Kennislink, NEMO's journalistic platform that monitors scientific research and reveals major new developments.

For nearly 20 years, NEMO Science Museum has built expertise on scientific interests and visitor experiences. Its research ranges from scientific studies to practical applications, often carried out with national and international partners. NEMO even has its own endowed chair and professor studying how people make sense of science.

Kennislink is NEMO Science Museum's journalistic platform that monitors scientific research and reveals major new developments. It extends the museum's educational mission beyond the building by helping people find answers to society's big questions through accessible science journalism.

NEMO Science Museum provides teaching materials and educational programmes that inspire hundreds of school pupils, students, teachers and lecturers. The museum's online presence and partnerships extend these resources beyond the physical building, and it participates in European education projects such as Schools as Living Labs.

Access to the NEMO Science Museum rooftop square is free of charge and open to the public. Visitors can reach the roof by taking the stairs on the east side. It is open every day from 10:00 to 17:30, with extended hours until 21:00 on Thursdays and Fridays during the summer months.

The NEMO Science Museum rooftop square features a green space with plants that support biodiversity, wind speed measurements, cloud study areas, sun and star observation points, and a new vantage point above the restaurant. Visitors can observe birds, learn about sustainable urban ecology and enjoy what the museum describes as the best view in Amsterdam.

The redeveloped NEMO Science Museum rooftop square officially opened on 22 May 2025, celebrated by the Mayor of Amsterdam Femke Halsema. It opened to the public the following day, 23 May 2025, as NEMO's gift to the city of Amsterdam in the year the city celebrates its 750th anniversary.

NEMO Science Museum has a restaurant on the fifth floor and a café on the rooftop square where visitors can enjoy drinks, meals and snacks with city views. The rooftop venue is available for events and private hire, including the panorama hall and the rooftop square itself.

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