Poll
MAGNA CENTRE- THE KINGDOM OF SCIENTIFIC ADVENTURES IN THE HEART OF BRITISH STEEL INDUSTRY
 | CONVRSION OF FORMER INDUSTRIAL SITES |
| MAGNA CENTRE- THE KINGDOM OF SCIENTIFIC ADVENTURES IN THE HEART OF BRITISH STEEL INDUSTRY | |
| Location | United Kingdom Templeborough Templeborough Steelworks |
| Ownership | Municipal |
| Finance | Public - private partnership,Mixed |
| Projects readiness | Finished project |
| Project authors | The Magna Science Adventure Centre won the 2001 RIBA Stirling Prize for its architects Wilkinson Eyre Architects, Mott MacDonald's and Buro Happold's |
| Internet links | www.magnatrust.org.uk; |
Magna Science Adventure Centre is an educational visitor attraction, primarily appealing to children. It is located in a disused steel mill in the Templeborough district of Rotherham, England. The site is formerly home to the Steel, Peech and Tozer steel works (also known as Steelos). In 50 AD it was the site of the Templeborough Roman fort. The principal exhibits are divided into five pavilions, Earth, Air, Fire, Water and Power (The last one is very small). There is also a large outdoor play area and water play area. The site, often used for staging events, conferences and gigs, won the Enjoy England Gold Award for Business Tourism in 2006 as well as many other awards for the high quality of product.
The creative, development, funding and building process was led by Stephen Feber, who selected the design team, led by Wilkinson Eyre, architects and Event Communications, exhibition designers. Tim Caulton directed exhibition development, introducing spectacular exhibits that bridged science and art, such as Ned Kahn's fire tornado, "The Big Melt" (described below) and works by San Francisco 'artist in electricity' Cork Marcheschi. Magna's exhibitions won the Best Exhibition category at the 2002 Design Week Awards. The Magna Science Adventure Centre won the 2001 RIBA Stirling Prize for its architects Wilkinson Eyre Architects, Mott MacDonald's and Buro Happold's innovative use of space in the old steelworks. Visitors are often as impressed by the building itself as the attractions contained within it.
"The Big Melt" Display
Every hour on the hour Magna holds a display called "The big melt". Its purpose is to demonstrate how steel was made in an electric arc furnace until the steelworks closed in 1993. An authentic looking furnace is imitated with several fog, spark, flame and smoke machines, loudspeakers, lights, and blasts of rapidly burning propane which are ignited at appropriate points in the show. In theory the show can be repeated up to four times an hour, but in practice it is usually run once an hour, or twice an hour if visitor numbers are very high. 150 foot high and a third of a mile long, the £46m Lottery funded Millennium Commission project, Magna is the UK’s first Science Adventure Centre. Inside the building, the Magna experience is divided into six parts - Four architecturally stunning and gadget-packed pavilions and two multimedia shows. The pavilions are themed around the four elements. Earth is an enormous underground cave, reached by low winding tunnels and alleys, the Air pavilion is a 50 foot long ‘zeppelin’ ominously suspended 100 foot overhead, the Water attractions are housed within a gigantic, elegant steel wave and the Fire pavilion is a charred, darkened area surrounded by lightning storms and walls of fire.Linked by suspended walkways, scissor lifts, stairs and tunnels, each of the pavilions are jam-packed with challenges and games relating to the elemental themes. Race to move rocks with a JCB or explode a rock face in Earth and target giant water canons in Water.
In Air you can spin on the gyroscopic chair and in Fire you can watch an awe-inspiring 5-metre high fire tornado – these are to name but a few.
The two Multimedia shows are a testament to the spiritual roots of the building. Formerly the famous Templeborough Steelworks, the cavernous shed was once the workplace of 10,000 steelworkers and the recipient of a telegram from PM Jim Callaghan for its services to the industry. These shows bring to life the sounds, sights and intense atmosphere that earned Templeborough the nickname – ‘The Anvil of South Yorkshire’. The first show is ‘The Face Of Steel’ a 100 foot high floor-to-ceiling 3-D collection of projected film and imagery, this is the largest multi-media display in the UK. Climb amongst the screens and sounds to reach the main walkway and access to the pavilions within heart of the building. The second show – ‘The Big Melt’ is undoubtedly one of Magna’s most breathtaking features. Heard and seen from almost every part of the building, the show is set around the original Arc furnace, unused since the days of Sheffield’s booming steel industry. In a pyrotechnic and audio display powerful enough to shake everything underfoot and overhead, the steel making process is perfectly re-created (except for the absence of thousands of tons of molten steel of course and the melting temperatures!).
