Henning Larsen Architects to revive the Moesgaard Museum in Aarhus, Denmark

New beginnings are in sight for the Moesgaard Museum in Aarhus. Designed by Henning Larsen Architects in collaboration with Kirstine Jensens Tegnestue, the museum's new environment will showcase a permanent collection and world-class exhibitions in unique formats. The museum will also host various cultural public events for all to enjoy.

The re-designed museum will be open to the public this October.

Below, Henning Larsen shared with us an interview they had with Museum Director Jan Skamby Madsen. Check it out for project details.

"It was all about creating the opportunity to facilitate our knowledge in a way that is interesting for both children, parents, and grandparents. There should be something for everyone in spite of their previous prerequisites”, Museum Director, Jan Skamby Madsen, who was among the originators of the new museum, explains.  

Throughout the last 17 years he has followed the project from the preliminary discussions up until today. For him, the starting point for a new museum was a burning desire to facilitate culture history in a new and different way. Before long, the dream will become reality. In October, Moesgaard Musuem will bring life to the ancient stories of curious explorers, gory battlefields, and former species of the human race. This will all come together in the new surroundings designed by Henning Larsen Architects in cooperation with Kirstine Jensens Tegnestue."

"Travelling with the Vikings:  The 750 m2 foyer is the heart of the museum. It contains service functions such as ticket sales, a café, and a wardrobe, but the most important function is that it connects the foyer with all of the exhibition halls of the museum and gives access to the many terraces with views overlooking the bay and the  surrounding landscape.

On the other side of the ticket sales, which is connected to the main entrance of the museum, visitors can glance down onto the permanent exhibition  “Seven Vikings”. In this exhibition, the visitors are invited to an eventful journey to Aarhus in the Viking age and out into the world with some of the most prominent, local personalities from that era. 

'The exhibition challenges the traditional concepts of exhibitions and uses the latest knowledge and technologies. You can go on a journey with the Norwegian Prince and warrior Harald Hardrada to Constantinople, where he was a mercenary in the army of the Empress. With him you can experience  the mysteries of the East with palaces and churches', Director Jan Skamby Madsen says and points at a reconstruction of the famous mosque Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, scaled 1:10"

"The whole truth: Everything in the exhibition is new. Burial mounds and districts of towns, faces and people have been reconstructed and built for the new museum. The exhibition is the biggest in the museum and with a floor-to-ceiling hight of 12 meters it is possible to communicate the impressive collection of Moesgaard on several levels. Thus the exhibition reflects the archaeological excavations which gradually unearth the layers of the history...

'Facilitating in this manner, we do not know with a 100 percents certainty that things actually happened this way. However as Nobel Prize Winner and author Seamus Heaney said: 'When you present something you have got to be able to say, that this may not be the whole truth, but there is a lot of truth in it'. I think that that is really well put', the visionary director, who himself is a trained archeologist and a researcher on large, international excavations, says."

"Safety in a league of its own:  'This room is the biggest of its kind in Northern Europe', Jan Skamby Madsen exclaims as he steps into the massive exhibition hall, which will contain the special exhibitions of the museum. In the furthest part of the room, the workmen are recreating a bog, which will be the pivotal point of  the first special exhibition of the museum: an exhibition about Moesgaard and the creation of the new museum.

"The special exhibit is placed in direct connection with the commodities court, which must be supervised 24 hours a-day as soon as the exhibit opens. High standards for logistics, safety and climate control is the be-all and end-all in order for the museum to attract large, international exhibitions like “The first Emperor – China’s Terracotta Army”, which will be on display at   Moesgaard next summer.  

'There is no doubt that the settings we have now, will make us attract  exhibitions that I have previously travelled to Stockholm to see. It would not have been possible in the existing buildings under any circumstance. It   would have been way too costly'.

The new museum will be the first of its kind in Denmark to accommodate exhibitions of that caliber. It is not just a giant scoop for the museum but for all of Denmark as a nation, director Jan Skamby Madsen, states."

"A multi functional building:  The exhibition hall can furthermore be utilized for many other purposes. Jan Skamby Madsen has already talked to several companies and organizations that are interested in renting the halls for conferences, fairs, and fashion shows. He does not see any issues in utilizing the new museum for those kinds of commercial purposes.

'We have the most attractive rooms in Aarhus and why shouldn’t other people be able to enjoy them at times where we will not be using them anyway? If a couple of conferences a year can ensure an international exhibition such as the one about Emperor Qin then it is not just positive for  the museum but also for our visitors. And that is something I can only be happy about'.

The new Moesgaard Museum will be much more than just a space for facilitating culture historical souvenirs and relics of the past. It will be a multifunctional house of culture and knowledge, which will benefit guests at the museum, visitors, students, and scientists. Jan Skamby Madsen is thankful to the architects behind the museum for this. 'The architecture of the exhibition halls is relatively anonymous. It creates the perfect settings for our changing exhibitions. Yet the museum in itself  supports the vision that this is more than a museum. It is a place of being'."

Images courtesy of Henning Larsen Architects.

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