ARoS Aarhus Museum of Art (2004)
Schmidt Hammer Lassen - SHL
Facts:
Architect
schmidt hammer lassen architects
Client
Aarhus Municipality
Area
17,700 m²
Construction sum
€ 40 million excl. VAT
Competition
1997, 1st prize in open international competition
Status
Construction period 2001 - 2004
Engineer
Niras A/S
Acoustic engineer
Jordan Acoustics
Landscape architect
schmidt hammer lassen architects
Awards
2004, Aarhus Municipality’s Architecture Prize
2004, FX Awards Best Museum
2004, InSitu Prize
Description:
This striking art museum is the cultural centrepiece of Aarhus, Denmark’s second largest city. The museum is designed specifically to welcome visitors, straddling a public thoroughfare that transforms the building into a bridge linking two of the city’s cultural centres. This public route through the museum provides a vital connection with the network of streets beyond, encouraging dynamic interplay between the museum and everyday life.
The building, set into the sloping site, has a footprint of 52 x 52 metres and stands almost 50 metres high. In contrast to the apparent severity of the exterior, the dazzling white interior, flooded with daylight, presents a sequence of highly organic sweeping curves that define the different levels of the building.
The interior curving walkway divides the museum into two distinct wings: the exhibition wing with its gallery spaces and the service wing housing a restaurant, administration offices, conservation area, workshops, storerooms and a library.
A spectacular spiral staircase rises up from the museum walkway, a sculptural form wrapping around two lift shafts, together providing dramatic connections to the exhibition galleries. High-level bridges traverse the canyon of the atrium space, creating dynamic connections between the two core areas of the museum.
Download:
Copyright is held by schmidt hammer lassen architects for all images appearing on this website.
The downloading or electronic copying of material for use by the media or for non-commercial use is permitted subject to copyright laws and restrictions and provided the images are not altered or manipulated in any way.
When using the images, drawings or diagrams, please credit schmidt hammer lassen architects.
Extra Stuff:
Art and Architecture
The evolution of a museum
One of the main purposes of ARoS Aarhus Museum of Art is to make art a real option for people. With the public road that passes straight through the museum, the building ceases to be a formal cultural institution, but acts as a mediator between art and the general public.
ARoS is also intended as something of a blank canvas; in effect a space that can be physically affected by artists. It is conceived as a work of art in itself, a dynamic civic monument that is continuously evolving and resistant to any kind of static condition.
This sense of engaged and engaging evolution is vividly illustrated by two projects: ARoS ON FIRE by Thyra Hilden and Pio Diaz, and Your Rainbow Panorama by Olafur Eliasson.
When ARoS caught fire
On January 17, 2007, flames could be seen rising up inside ARoS Aarhus Museum of Art. Around 5 pm that evening, the museum apparently caught fire. Fortunately, this was not a real fire but a spectacular art installation created by the Danish-Argentinean artistic partnership of Thyra Hilden and Pio Diaz, who used the museum building with its large expanse of glass façade as a projection screen for video projectors with vivid images of flames which appeared to be devouring the entire building. This art installation lit up the sky for 15 days, and with this symbolic burning of ARoS, Thyra Hilden and Pio Diaz intended to make the public reflect on the damage and destruction caused by fire.
At the same time, this symbolic fire was intended to make people consider their own instinctive reactions, which may have wavered between fear and fascination. With ARoS ON FIRE, the museum broke out from its own four walls and took art into the heart of the public arena with a confrontational artwork that would force people to rethink their personal relationship with fire. This dramatic installation was part of the artists’ international art show entitled "City on Fire - Burning the Roots of Western Culture", which has been shown in major cities throughout Europe and soon in South Asia and the USA.
In order to view this page you need JavaScript and Flash Player 8+ support!