Danish Maritime Museum Helsingoer, Elsinore Building, Denmark Architecture

New Danish Maritime Museum Elsinore

Helsingoer Building, Denmark – design by BIG, architects

Danish Maritime Museum Building : main page on this building

photo © Adrian Welch

19 Sep 2013

New Danish Maritime Museum Helsingoer

Design: BIG architects

New Danish Maritime Museum Building, Sjælland, eastern Denmark

In the presence of Her Royal Highness Queen Margrethe II, BIG will celebrate the completion of the New Danish Maritime Museum on Saturday, October 5.

image from Uniform

The new 5.000 m2 Danish Maritime Museum is located at the UNESCO World Heritage site in Helsingør, just north of Copenhagen in a unique historical context adjacent to one of Denmark’s most important buildings, the Kronborg Castle – also known from Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
Placed within an old dry dock below ground, the museum seeks to reflect Denmark’s historical and contemporary role as one of the world’s leading maritime nations. By arranging the galleries in a continuous loop around the dry dock walls, the dock becomes the centerpiece of the exhibition – an open, outdoor area where visitors experience the size of the ship.

“Prince Hamlet’s Castle, with its fortifications, masonry, and tower skyline is one of Denmark’s greatest tourist attractions. And due to preserving the views of the Castle’s towers we were not allowed to even stick out a meter above the ground level. We considered it architectural suicide to fill the dry dock with program and therefore decided to empty the dry dock and wrap it with the museum, making it the centerpiece of the exhibition. Instead of drowning the dry dock with galleries we would leave it open. A new kind of urban space – open for new ideas and life.” Bjarke Ingels

A series of three two level bridges span the dry dock, serving both as an urban connections, as well as providing visitors with short-cuts to different sections of the museum. The harbor bridge closes off the dock while serving as harbor promenade; the museum’s auditorium serves as a bridge connecting the adjacent Culture wharf with the Kronborg Castle; and the sloping zig-zag bridge navigates visitors to the main entrance. This bridge creates a dynamic tension between old and new as the visitors descend into the museum space overlooking the majestic surroundings above and below ground. The long and noble history of the Danish Maritime unfolds in a continuous motion within and around the dock, 7 meters below the ground. All floors – connecting exhibition spaces with the auditorium, classroom, offices, café and the dock floor within the museum – slope gently creating dramatic and sculptural spaces.

David Zahle, Partner-in-Charge comments: ”For 5 years we have been working on transforming the old concrete dock into a modern museum, which required an archaeologist care and spacecraft designer’s technical skills. The old lady is both fragile and tough; the new bridges are light and elegant. Building a museum below sea level has taken construction techniques never used in Denmark before. The old concrete dock with its 1,5m thick walls and 2,5m thick floor has been cut open and reassembled as a modern and precise museum facility. The steel bridges were produced in giant sections on a Chinese steel wharf and transported to Denmark on the biggest ship that has ever docked in Elsinore. The steel sections weigh up to 100 tons a piece and are lifted on site by the two largest mobile cranes in northern Europe. I am truly proud of the work our team has carried out on this project and of the final result.”

On Saturday October 5, Her Royal Highness Queen Margrethe II, will cut the ribbon to mark the grand opening whereafter the New Danish Maritime Museum is open to the public for outdoor activities, exhibitions and events, making the museum a cultural hub in the region throughout the year.

New Danish Maritime Museum – Building Information

BIG credit list:
Partner-in-Charge: Bjarke Ingels, David Zahle
Team: John Pries Jensen, Henrik Kania, Ariel Joy Norback Wallner, Rasmus Pedersen, Annette Jensen, Dennis Rasmussen, Jan Magasanik, Jeppe Ecklon, Karsten Hammer Hansen, Rasmus Rodam, Rune Hansen, Alina Tamosiunaite, Alysen Hiller, Ana Merino, Andy Yu, Christian Alvarez, Claudio Moretti, Felicia Guldberg, Gül Ertekin, Johan Cool, Jonas Pattern, Kirstine Ragnhild, Malte Chloe, 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

Collaborators:
Alectia, Rambøll, Freddy Madsen Ingeniører, Kossman Dejong

Danish Maritime Museum

The Danish Maritime Museum (Danish: Handels- og Søfartsmuseet), operated by a private foundation since 1915, is currently located at Kronborg Castle in Helsingør, Denmark. Its collections cover Danish trade and shipping from 1400 to the present day. Address: Kronborg 1, 3000 Helsingør, Denmark www.mfs.dk

New Danish Maritime Museum Helsingoer images / information from BIG architects

BIG Architects

Location:Helsingoer, Denmark