Project: Ordrupgaard Museum - Snøhetta Extension
Award: Civic – Libraries and museums, Silver, 2022
Location: Charlottenburg, Denmark
Architect: Snøhetta
Client: Ordrupgaard Museum
Ordrupgaard Museum is home to Northern Europe's most comprehensive collection of French and Danish art from the 19th and early 20th century. Originally built as a three-winged country mansion in the neo-classical style during World War I, the museum was expanded by a modern glass and black lava concrete extension in 2005, designed by Zaha Hadid.
The latest extension by Snøhetta, is mostly underground, but also partly excavated from the landscape. It creates a holistic and continuous path throughout the entire museum and its surrounding park and gardens, linking Hadid's extension with the museum's original building. It features brand new, subterranean exhibition spaces, two of which create a continuation of Hadid's exhibition space, and three specially dedicated to one of the museum's main attractions: its extensive and permanent collection of French impressionistic paintings.
Design highlights
The new extension and its exhibition spaces allow for a circular movement through Ordrupgaard, creating a continuous movement through the museum's rich collection and lush gardens. The largest of the three main exhibition spaces can be partly seen from the outside as a monolithic, steel-coated sculpturesque structure. Just like a hidden treasure that reveals itself as it appears during excavation, the structure glistens in the landscape. Contrasting with the reflective steel exterior, the inside of the exhibition spaces creates a sense of softness and comfort, echoing the design of a classic vintage jewelry box, with its hard, metallic exterior and soft, velvety lining on the inside.
Photo credit: Laura Stamer / Snøhetta
- LEAD ARCHITECT: Julie Aars