(Blasieholmen and Nybroviken in StockholmPhoto: Jeppe Wikström)
On December 1, 2011, the Nobel Foundation and the City of Stockholm signed a declaration of intent to work jointly towards the creation of a permanent Nobel Prize Center, to be located on Nybroviken, an inlet of the Baltic Sea in the heart of Stockholm, Sweden. They have agreed on a site on the Blasieholmen peninsula that is owned by the City of Stockholm.
"Through the Nobel Prize Center, we want to create a contemporary meeting place for Nobel Laureates, researchers, students, school pupils and a curious general public. The center will provide a world-class experience and will serve as a base for our efforts to disseminate the message of the Nobel Prize on the importance of knowledge, humanism and peace," says Lars Heikensten, Executive Director of the Nobel Foundation.
The Nobel Prize Center at Nybroviken will be the new focal point of the Nobel Prize and will underscore the role of Stockholm and Sweden as the home city and home country of the Nobel Prize.
"With this project, we are demonstrating Stockholm’s ambition to be a world-leading knowledge region that promotes education, innovation and research. A center that can shed light on all aspects of the Nobel Prize is an eagerly awaited tourist attraction in Stockholm," says Sten Nordin (M), Mayor of Stockholm. "It will be of great importance to a younger generation, who can be inspired here to seek knowledge and to embrace their curiosity."
The Nobel Prize Center can be completed by 2018 and will among other things contain an enlarged Nobel Museum, enabling its public activities to expand. The intention is that the center will eventually also house the activities of the Nobel Foundation and Nobel Media. In order to create a landmark building of high quality, there are plans to launch an international architectural competition during the autumn of 2012.
For supplementary material, see the Nobel Foundation press room on the website Nobelprize.org. This includes an information folder, a report from the working group on a Nobel Prize Center and Nobel Museum in Stockholm which has examined potential locations, as well as illustrations.
