I t's structure is very modern by Amsterdam standards, and that gives away its function as the city's museum of science. At first glance it appears to be a grain storage facility jutting one-hundred feet out over the IJ River and Amsterdam's harbor. Symbolically, it appears to be a huge ship ready to sail into the harbor like the dozens of other ships docked nearby. But its shape is not the only odd thing about this building. For starters, the main entrance is on top. To get there, you must walk up a gentle slope of hundreds of stairs that actually make up the roof of the building. For the less-adventurous or physically active, there is a ground-level entrance, but you miss the view of the city from up top, and it's a relatively easy walk. And as if things weren't strange enough on top, the newMetropolis also marks the point where a tunnel burrows below and under the harbor, giving the building a tenuous existence, unable to find peace in the heavens or on earth and dangling precariously over the water. Inside there are all the usual science museum exhibits divided into five neighborhoods -- Energy, Humanity, Interactivity, Science, and Technology. Unlike most science museums, this one promises to update its exhibits as technology advances.
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
