Architecture Competition Win by HerrerosArquitectos in Norway
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The munch museum and stenersen museum collections
HerrerosArquitectos
CONCEPT
The future complex formed by the Munch Museum MM and the Stenersen
Museum Collections is not only to safeguard and disseminate a basic heritage of
the history and character of Norwegian culture; we find ourselves faced with a
unique opportunity to develop a contemporary museum concept drawn from a
transcendental urban role and a historical responsibility as a cohesive element for
the community not only of Oslo but of all the nation. The is conceived as an
institution which is open to the city and highly visible, which must be visited
many times in a lifetime because of its dynamic programs but also because of its
power as a place of concentration, walks and daily relaxation in its terraces and
cafes or even because of its shops.
POSITION AND POSTURE
The building is located “on the side” at the end of the Pauselkia peninsula,
avoiding the cones of perception which ensure views over the fort from the
surrounding mountains. With this position we aim to intensify the tension
between the fjord and solid ground, but also to avoid the arrogant gesture of
placing it frontally, in order to move respectfully to one side, letting the space
and view flow towards the sea. As can be seen, especially in the model, its
dimensions express in an almost anthropomorphic manner its respect towards the
historical city and its shared space with the Opera house, understanding that if
the fjord is a beautiful landscape, where it wants to look on to is the coastline,
where it meets the shore and where the most valuable exchanges occur for the
city’s life. Its gesture of slightly inclining its top (without affecting the
functionality of the rooms) proudly emphasizes the value of the public ground
generated at its feet. This “figurative” condition is also an approach to Eduard
Munch’s work and its exuberant language in which naturalism and abstraction
find a unique expression for the times of transition during which he lived.
ORGANISATION
Once the position and posture are chosen, the next decision consists of very
clearly separating two independent pieces which divide the programme into
“dynamic” (spaces of free access, public uses and circulations) and “static” (the
museum itself).
The fundamental pieces in the dynamic space are the lobby and the vertical
public circulation system. The lobby continues the treatment of the open space
making it enter the building as a portion of covered plaza. This houses the
reception, main restaurant, event hall, cinema, spaces for the sponsors, shops and
the exhibition about the history of the artist Munch. Forming a right angle with
the lobby, a vertical screen is laid out which accompanies the movement of
people resolving accessibility to the rooms and other sections through platforms
which also function as distributors, rest areas, viewpoints and small cafes. The
distributor on the first floor also has a cafeteria in parallel with the arts deposit
(which could remain partially on view for the public) which extends in a deck
over the over the plinth cover surrounded by a sheet of sea water which will
never freeze as it is part of the building’s energy system. Lobby and circulations
involve a kinetic experience both for the users and for the image of the building
through the transparencies of its West facade with its enigmatic materials.
The “static” space is made up of a succession of exhibition rooms and
operational sections of the museum. The packet of plants with different heights is
in turn divided by a vertical core which organises the whole in two room sizes
(650m2 and 325m2) of maximum neutrality without it being necessary now to
differentiate those dedicated to permanent or to temporary exhibitions. Among
these, physical spaces for the public are reserved which house the sections for
restaurants, management, educational programme and library. The use of this
room is reserved for the definitive programming but it could be used for the
largest works in the collection, a space reserved for special temporary exhibitions
etc. All the rooms have a versatile and universal lighting system as well as
different services (data network, water, strength…) in order to be able to accept
all exhibition formats and resources.
The general circulations system which runs along the West facade is completed
with the transversal service and maintenance core, whose main piece is the large
format tall lift for works of art (5x4x5m useful). All the floors have alternative
emergency exits, installations room and public toilets.
The lower floors of the museum house the technical services, differentiated
delivery for art and services, car park, installations, maintenance workshops,
archives, offices for staff etc. All of this is resolved with the maximum
operational level and rationality separating the works of art from the ground as
indicated in the competition requirements.
In general, we consider the programme fulfilled and, more importantly, the
special system activated for the project, according to which, other uses, heights
of the rooms or locations of complementary services can be put forward without
affecting the project’s essence.
STRUCTURE
The two parts into which the building is divided are resolved with differentiated
structures: concrete for the “static” program of the museum, steel for the
“dynamic” program of the public areas.
The museum is built as a vertical concrete box of 16 m of free light hermetically
sealed except when the program requires opening of spaces. It is built with four
40 cm thick screens which form a prism whose long sides require buttresses
(60x30cm) every 6m which embrace lightly post-tensioned flagstones. The gap
resulting from leveling up the buttresses in order to have exhibition rooms with
continuous walls generates an installations chamber which is highly versatile and
which runs along the building and ensures exhaustive control of the networks in
each room. The transversal core collaborates in the general inertia of the
structure in the wind direction. The necessary gaps for the museum’s operation,
especially in the anterior screen are resolved without problems by substituting the
buttresses for pillars of up to 100x30cm and bracing the edges with virtual
beams.
The metallic structure which makes up the stack of circulations and the plinth
offers the maximum open space and lightness in contrast with the tectonic
presence of the museum’s volume. The platforms are resolved with a light
framework supported on beams every 3 m which are supported on the concrete
screen without transmitting momentum and on the substructure of the transparent
closing. In the lobby, two lines of supports receive metallic beams supported on
the screen and ending with a projection in the main façade.
CONSTRUCTION SYSTEMS
As a whole, the museum aims to be a construction event based on establishing
few rules and scarce materials which resolve all possible situations. Once the
concrete work has finished, the rest of the work will be dry, of great precision
and with a clear purpose to renounce any superfluous element. Plasterboard
walls, easily substitutable continuous floors, subdivisions of high quality
partitions for the complementary programs, exposed ceilings, installations with
minimum presence etc. form a system of compatible equations in which space
prevails over the construction and environmental quality over the material.
FAÇADES
The façades surrounding the building have the same geometry but two very
different types. The basic plastic resource is an external protection based on an
undulating translucent surface with three different wave passes which aim for an
enigmatic and evanescent expression of volume stimulated by the variations in
natural light, clouds and weather features in general as well as the building’s own
artificial light. In the concrete Museum, its vibrant surface is built in
methacrylate and acts as the protection of the projected insulation which
eliminates thermal bridges. In the lobby and circulations screen, it is built in
frosted glass and behaves like the outer sheet of a double facade which offers a
flat curtain wall on the inside with large size glass pieces, and between them the
necessary steel structure. In order to deliver this intrinsic aspect of our proposal,
we have consulted and will continue to develop both the technical and
performative aspects of the façade systems with the most competent consultants
in the field of climate, material and structural optimization.
LIGHTING
All museums must pay careful attention to the lighting of their rooms, and this
one will not be an exception. However, it is not appropriate now to speak about
something which will be a reason for deep reflection. Nevertheless, we do want
to highlight the lighting in the building itself as a high percentage of the time it
will be perceived in the darkness with all the nuances that this has for the city of
Oslo. The buildings presence at the entrance of the fjord, its capacity to become
a signal and beacon for the city, the lighting possibilities of its translucent facade,
of the water sheet or the circulations system as a succession of vantage points
must be fully exploited.
Munch Museum Competition : main page with images
Munch Museum Building : Energy and environment. sustainability strategy /
Mechanical systems / Housing / Financially viable solutions / Stages
MUNCH MUSEUM AND STENERSEN MUSEUM COLLECTIONS, OSLO 2009
International Competition by Invitation. First Prize. Gross Floor Area: 16,000 m2
Client: HAV Eiendom AS, Oslo Kommune
Architecture: HerrerosArquitectos
Project Directors: Juan Herreros, Jens Richter y Paola Simone
Collaborators: Riccardo Robustini, Luís Berríos-Negrón, Carmen Antón, Verónica Meléndez, Ángela Ruiz, Joanna Socha, Paula Vega
General Consultant : IDOM International
Landscape Architect: Thorbjörn Andersson
Model / Jorge Queipo / Federico López
Model Photographs
THE MUNCH AREA, OSLO 2009
International Competition by Invitation. First Prize. Gross Floor Area: 50,200 m2
Client: HAV Eiendom AS, Oslo Kommune
Architecture: HerrerosArquitectos
Project Directors: Juan Herreros, Jens Richter y Paola Simone
Collaborators: Riccardo Robustini, Luís Berríos-Negrón, Carmen Antón, Verónica Meléndez, Ángela Ruiz, Joanna Socha, Paula Vega
General Consultant IDOM International
Landscape Architect: Thorbjörn Andersson
Model / Jorge Queipo / Federico López
Model Photographs
World Architecture : e-architect - a guide to key buildings across the globe
Petter Dass Museum, northern Norway
Snøhetta
picture from Snøhetta
Bodø Nye Kulturhus - Norwegian Architecture Competition
Winner : DRDH
picture from DRDH
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Comments / photos for the Munch Museum Norway Architecture page welcome:
info@e-architect.co.uk
Munch Museum Oslo Building : page - adrian welch / isabelle lomholt
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