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Natural History Museum unveils £78m learning centre dedicated to Charles Darwin

By Daily Mail Reporter
Updated: 02:35 EST, 17 July 2009

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The Natural History Museum today unveiled a £78million 'concrete cocoon' dedicated to natural historian Charles Darwin.

With 17million insects, three million plants and 40,000 shelf spaces, the eight-storey centre is the museum's biggest expansion since it moved to South Kensington in London in 1881.

The collection, from tarantulas to metre-high poisonous plants, aims to introduce millions more people a year to the man who devised the theory of evolution.

Visitors to the Darwin centre will be able to interact with scientists, such as Helen Weir, seen here with a dead tarantula

The centre has been named after the natural historian Charles Darwin

The Darwin Centre will be regulated at 17C to provide perfect conditions for some of the planet's rarest lifeforms.

Curators were today moving the final specimens into the cocoon, which will open on September 15.

A viewing deck allows visitors to watch the museum's 220 scientists at work and they will hold regular talks for the public.

Paul Bowers, project director for the public galleries in the Darwin Centre, said: 'We've been a research institute for more than 100 years, but most people don't know that.

'To let people see what we actually do is a big step forward for us.

'I've been working on this project since 2003, so it's going to be an amazing moment when the first person comes through the door.'

The new building also includes the David Attenborough Studio, where scientists will take questions from the public and host learning activities for schools.

The centre has an area where visitors can bring in objects or animals they want identified.

Mr Bowers told the Evening Standard: 'Our researchers are really looking forward to being able to interact more with the public - they are all incredibly enthusiastic about what they do, and I think that will come across in the talks they give.'

Dr Michael Dixon, the museum's director, said: 'For many years, hundreds of Natural History Museum scientists have been working behind the scenes to better understand our planet.

In the cocoon: Dr Michael Dixon, Director of the Natural History Museum, at the new Darwin Centre due to open in September

'Now, not only will our visitors really understand why the work of our scientists is so important, they will be able to interact with real specimens and scientists. We hope this will really bring the experience to life for them.'

The cocoon, which is 65 metres long and 28 metres high, has been compared to a spaceship as well as an egg and is the largest sprayed concrete curved structure in Europe.

Mr Bowers said: 'We were very careful to think about how we interact with the old building, and this new structure really brings the entire site together.

'We were very conscious of the history of the building, so you can actually see right into the main dinosaur hall f rom the ent rance hal l to the cocoon.'