28 Oct 2014
Eco-designed Moesgaard Museum opens at new location
BY Kim Megson
Denmark’s Moesgaard Museum – which is dedicated to the country’s archaeology and ethnography – has reopened after its collection of artefacts was moved a short distance across the city of Aarhus into a new £41m (US$66m, €52m) home.
The museum’s Managing Director, Jan Skamby Madsen, wanted a new site that would “give three generations a shared museum experience.” He assembled a team of designers, architects and scientists to make the space as innovative and sensory as possible.
The most striking feature of the 16,000sq m (172,223sq ft) building – designed by Danish firm Henning Larsen Architects - is the unusual sloped grass roof, which from a distance appears to grow out of the natural landscape. It provides a view of the surrounding forest from the top and will be used by the public for summer picnics and winter sledging.
The museum has three separate sections of differing height. They contain gallery space, an auditorium, conference rooms, a café and a gift shop. The architects said: “The building is designed like a varied terraced landscape inspired by archaeological excavations, gradually unearthing the layers of history and exposing lost cities, allowing the visitor to move through a vivid sequence of exhibitions and scientific experiments – like a traveller in time and space.”
External foundations have provided £7.4m (US$12m, €9.4m) in funding to upgrade the exhibitions, including one featuring the world’s best-preserved bog body - the Iron Age ‘Grauballe Man’.
The relocation of the museum was partly funded by Aarhus University, which now occupies the museum’s old home, Moesgaard Manor. The Danish Ministry of Cultural Affairs, the municipal government and five private foundations have also provided financial backing for the construction and management of the new site.
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