Prince Philip Science Museum, Valencia

The Prince Felipe Science Museum is the brainy member of Valencia’s City of Arts and Sciences. Unlike ordinary buildings that stand still, this one looks like it’s mid-stretch in a yoga session — elongated, flexible, and almost alive.

Designed by Santiago Calatrava, the building resembles the skeleton of a giant whale, which is fitting for a place devoted to science: indeed, very few things can say “interactive learning” quite like walking into what looks like the ribcage of a futuristic sea creature. Construction began in the mid-1990s, and, after a symbolic inauguration in March 2000, the museum officially opened on November 13 of that same year.

Its scale is hard to ignore. The museum covers more than 40,000 square meters and rises about 55 meters high, giving it the kind of presence that makes nearby buildings seem like they forgot to stand up straight. Its long white frame, glass façades, and open interior spaces were created to feel light, spacious, and energetic — basically the opposite of that science classroom you may remember from school...

Inside, the museum focuses on hands-on discovery, with exhibitions dedicated to electricity, genetics, space, zero gravity, and other subjects that sound intimidating until someone lets you press a button. The aim here is not “please admire science from a safe distance,” but “touch it, test it, question it, and maybe leave knowing why things spark, float, spin, or glow.”

The museum also hosts changing temporary exhibitions, so the experience is not frozen in time. One visit might lean toward robotics, another toward astronomy, another toward the marvels and mysteries of the human body. And for film fans, the building may look familiar, too, as it appeared in the “Tomorrowland” movie in 2015, where its futuristic profile required almost no Hollywood exaggeration.

So, if you have ever wanted to explore science inside a whale skeleton designed by a starchitect, congratulations. Valencia has planned your afternoon...