Rasmus HjortSHøJ

Category: Bond
Award
The granting of UNESCO World Heritage Site status usually heralds preservation, but for the Danish Maritime Museum, it spelled eviction. Ousted from its space inside Helsingør’s Kronborg Castle in order to allow for the restoration of the period interiors as required by the UNESCO nod, the museum moved to a new purpose-built facility in a former dry dock next door. New York– and Copenhagen-based Bjarke Ingels Group’s design for the 77,500-square-foot structure couldn’t protrude above the ground, in order to preserve views of the castle, and complex site conditions in the sunken dry dock itself led to an innovative solution: a series of steel bridges, fabricated from welded box structures, span the tight site and contain the museum’s galleries, auditorium, administration and education spaces, and café. More than 150,000 visitors are expected to tour the facility in its first year.

See all of the winners of ARCHITECT's 2014 Annual Design Review here.

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The Danish Maritime Museum, designed by BIG.
Rasmus Hjortshøj The Danish Maritime Museum, designed by BIG.
The museum, as seen from grade.
Rasmus Hjortshøj The museum, as seen from grade.
View of the museum's bridges from the dry dock.
Rasmus Hjortshøj View of the museum's bridges from the dry dock.
View into the auditorium volume.
Rasmus Hjortshøj View into the auditorium volume.
Aerial showing the castle and the new museum.
Rasmus Hjortshøj Aerial showing the castle and the new museum.
Site plan showing proximity to Kronborg Castle (at right).
Courtesy BIG Site plan showing proximity to Kronborg Castle (at right).
Plan.
Courtesy BIG Plan.
Section through dry dock.
Courtesy BIG Section through dry dock.
Bridge section.
Courtesy BIG Bridge section.

Project Credits Project  Danish National Maritime Museum, Helsingør, Denmark
Client  Maritime Museums
Architect  Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), New York and Copenhagen—Bjarke Ingels and David Zahle (partners-in-charge); Annette Jensen, Jeppe Ecklon Karsten, Hammer Hansen, Rasmus Rodam, Rune Hansen, John Pries Jensen, Henrik Kania, Ariel Joy Norback Wallner, Rasmus Pedersen, Dennis Rasmussen, Jan Magasanik, Alina Tamosiunaite, Alysen Hiller, Ana Merino, Andy Yu, Christian Alvarez, Claudio Moretti, Felicia Guldberg, Gül Ertekin, Johan Cool, Jonas Pattern, Kirstine Ragnhild, Malte Kloe, Marc Jay, Maria Mavriku, Masatoshi Oka, Oana Simionescu, Pablo Labra, Peter Rieff, Qianyi Lim, Sara Sosio, Sebastian Latz, Tina Lund Højgaard, Tina Troster, Todd Bennet, Xi Chen, Xing Xiong, Xu Li (team)
Engineer Rambøll i Danmark
Fire Consultant  Freddy Madsen Rådgivende Ingeniører
Client Consultant  Alectia
Exhibition Design  Kossman.dejong
Construction  E. Pihl & Søn, Jakon
Technical Installation  H. Helbo Hansen
Landscape Architect  Anlægsgartner Jens Ravnholt
Size  77,500 square feet