The Science Centre was born out of a governmental initiative in hiving off the scientific-related exhibits from the then National Museum of Singapore into a separate institution so that the latter could specialise in its artistic and historical collections. This idea was first mooted in 1969 by the Science Council of Singapore, and was subsequently approved by the government, who was keen to promote scientific education in the rapidly modernising country keen to tap into the technological sector.

The SCS building's architecture was decided by an architectural design competition organised by the Science Centre Board. Raymond Woo's entry was selected, and was thus commissioned as the architect for the project. Built at a cost of million on a 60,000 m² site in Jurong East, it was officially opened on 10 December 1977 by Dr Toh Chin Chye, who was the Minister-in-charge of the Science Centre Board. On 7 December 2007, the Science Centre rebranded itself to be known as "Science Centre Singapore" .