Herning Center of the Arts Denmark, Jutland, Design, Building, News, Image

Herning Center of the Arts Denmark

HEART : Danish Architecture in Jutland – design by Steven Holl Architects

page updated 7 Sep 2016

Herning Center of the Arts

Herning Center of the Arts Building

Design: Steven Holl Architects

Topping Off News

Steven Holl Architects’ Herning Center of the Arts, Denmark, to be topped off on 30 May 2008

New York City, – Steven Holl Architects’ Herning Center of the Arts in Herning, Denmark will be topped off on May 30th 2008. The Herning Center of the Arts unites, for the first time, three distinct cultural institutions: The Herning Art Museum, the MidWest ensemble and the Socle du Monday. The new Center is intended to be an innovative forum combining visual art and music.

Herning Center of the Arts Building info from Steven Holl Architects 230508

Steven Holl Architects’ Herning Center of the Arts, Denmark, breaks ground on 25 June 2007

New York City, June 25th 2007 — Steven Holl Architects’ Herning Center of the Arts in Herning, Denmark breaks ground today. The Herning Center of the Arts unites, for the first time, three distinct cultural institutions: the Herning Art Museum, the MidWest ensemble and the Socle du Monde. The new Center is intended to be an innovative forum combining visual art and music.

In November 2005, Steven Holl Architects won the international competition for the Herning Center of the Arts, with a design fusing landscape and architecture in a one-level building. The project will include permanent and temporary exhibition galleries, a 150-seat auditorium, music rehearsal rooms, a restaurant, a media library, administrative offices and an active landscape, and is scheduled to be completed for the turn of the year 2008/09.

The 2005 jury reported: ‘The design perfectly meets the competition’s wishes for a combination between openness and treasure trove’. In addition, it answers the desire for a flexible building in terms of how and when it is used. The building will often be open when the actual museum is closed. A majority of the jury agreed that this building will make the new Herning Center of the Arts into something significant and exciting.’

The design for the 5,600 sqm center aims at “building the site”. In transforming the flat field, a new 12,000 sqm landscape of grass mounds and pools conceals all the parking and service areas while shaping inspiring bermed landscape spaces focused on reflecting pools positioned in the south sun. Herning’s prominent relationship with textiles and art formed the inspiration for the design concept.

Steven Holl states: ‘Part of the current art collection is housed in an old shirt factory in Herning. This 1960s building was designed†in the form a shirt collar and is across the street from the site. It was the interaction between the factory owner and Arte Povera artists such as Pierro Manzoni that enabled such a special collection of art to exist in Herning. A fabric theme is carried throughout the project from the shape of the building which resembles a collection of shirtsleeves viewed from above, through the wall finishes. Drawing further on the work of Manzoni in his A-Chrome series, a textile mesh is utilized in the formwork of the white concrete.

The curved roofs utilize a two way truss system able to span in multiple directions allowing for a freedom between the roof structure and plan. The undersides of the interior are a simple white plaster emphasizing the geometry of the roof. All gallery spaces are orthogonal and simple with fine proportions in respect to the art, while overhead the curved roof sections bring in natural light. The internal gallery walls in lightweight construction can be moved as per a curator’s requirements.

Green aspects of the design, including a geothermal HVAC system and grey water recycling, set this apart as an exemplary design for 21st century museum architecture.

Herning Center of the Arts Denmark : Steven Holl Architects

Steven Holl Architects

Steven Holl Architects is currently working on several projects in Scandinavia. In addition to the Herning Center of the Arts, the office is working on the Knut Hamsun Center (Hamary, Norway) and two residential projects, T-Husene (Copenhagen, Denmark) and Meander (Helsinki, Finland). The Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art (Helsinki, Finland, 1998), is considered to be one of Steven Holl Architect’s most important museum works, recently joined by the highly lauded Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art (Kansas City, MO), which opened on 9 June 2007

Steven Holl Architects has realized cultural, civic, academic and residential projects both in the United States and internationally. Steven Holl is a tenured Professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture and Planning. In 1976 founded Steven Holl Architects, which has now offices in New York and Beijing with a staff of 52. The firm has been recognized internationally with numerous awards, and the work has been widely published and exhibited.

Currently under construction is the Linked Hybrid mixed-use complex (Beijing, China), the Nanjing Museum of Art and Architecture (Nanjing, China), the Vanke Center (Shenzhen, China) and the NYU Department of Philosophy (New York City). Recently the office has won a number of international design competitions including Herning Center of the Arts (Herning, Denmark), CitÈ du Surf et de l’OcÈan (Biarritz, France), Sail Hybrid (Knokke-Heist, Belgium), Meander (Helsinki, Finland) and Vanke Center (Shenzhen, China).

Location: Herning, Jutland, Denmark