Forecourt Urania Berlin

Urania’s mission is to make scientific knowledge tangible and to convey its “magic” to visitors. The approach of looking at science from the big to the small is reflected in its broad programme of events. But what holds the world together at its core? What principles can be rediscovered in both the large and the small? The video experiment “Powers of Ten” by Charles and Ray Eames shows a zoom from astronomy to microscopy. The result is astonishing: The initial and final stage of the zoom seem quite very similar. Both at the scale of a galaxy and within an atom, elements move through a vast empty space. The motif for the Urania forecourt represents trajectories of movement. Lines in the ground covering trace movements, a motif that leaves it open whether the paths of movement are orbits within a galaxy or within an atom. This openness to interpretation and the avoidance of reference to a particular discipline creates a universal scientific motif that reflects the open, wide-ranging approach of Urania.