The opening date is set. After a major renovation and expansion, the new Maritime Museum Aquarium will open to the public on Saturday, December 10. Extensive festivities are planned for the opening weekend.
– We will welcome the public to a grand opening weekend on December 10-11, says Carina Sjöholm, museum director.
But until then, there is still extensive work to do to get all the pieces in place.
– The museum has just taken over the building after the major renovation and extension carried out by Higab and the staff can now start moving into the empty premises. Intensive work is now beginning to build the new exhibitions, the aquarium and the public areas ahead of the opening in December, says Carina Sjöholm.
FACTS: The new Maritime Museum Aquarium
The Maritime Museum Aquarium closed in September 2018 for renovation and expansion. After the museum was vacated, work began in January 2020, and just over two years later, the construction project has now been completed and the park restored. When the museum reopens on December 10, 2022, visitors will encounter a brand new Maritime Museum and Aquarium underground.
Here are the main changes:
- A new and larger entrance facing Karl Johansgatan.
- A museum park with larger green spaces and a new café with outdoor seating facing south.
- A brand new underground aquarium building with ten times the water volume, 1100 square meters. The aquarium contains about 15 aquariums, the largest of which holds 400,000 liters of water and a living coral reef.
- A unique experiment and water lab for children and education – Ocean Lab.
- A new exhibition in the underground Aquarium with the world's oceans at its center.
- New basic exhibition Sea of stories which occupies over 400 square meters and overflows with dramatic history at sea and over 300 objects from the museum's collections.
- New basic exhibition Big Blue where children and their adults can experience and explore the sea through educational play.
- A new children's exhibition where the youngest visitors can discover the sea with all their senses has been designed by students at Child Culture Design at HDK.
- New, temporary photo exhibition The legacy of the shipyards about life in Gothenburg's shipbuilding industry.
- Better accessibility with new stairs and elevators.
