Nature and science museum
New museum in Aarhus
TIME: Fall 2021, 3th semester
LOCATION: The Bus Station, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
TYPE: Public Museum
THEME: Shared space and climate change
Groupwork with Emilie Elvehøy
We were asked to design a new nature and science museum on the location where Aarhus bus terminal have been for many years. The museum should be around 7000-12000 square meter and have a special focus on climate change and how we can use architecture as a tool to address the mutual concern for our planet.
With this theme we thought that our museum should deal with the theme sea level rise and meltwater, which are caused by climate change. In an early phase in the project we investigated the consequences of the maximum sea level rise if all the ice caps melt. It turned out that our site at the old bus station would be completely flooded if the worst scenario took place. Therefore, we found it extremely relevant to design a museum on this location with focus on the global problem with sea level rise, that we can also feel on a local level all over the globe.
The site is located in the middle of Aarhus and therefore with many access ways. The site is creating a node between attractions such as the main shopping street, the main railway station and DOKK1. With the new museum the idea is that it will create a new passage and a new shared space in the city.
The triangular shape of the site has played a major role in the design of the building along with out theme meltwater. We have gained inspiration from water and the different shapes it comes in, from iceberg to liquid form. The museum therefore fits into the urban landscape with at completely different design language that reminds us of the forms you see in the artic regions. It should get people to react and realize that something special is happening here.
In the beginning we worked alot with different models trying to figure out the right shape of the museum that stands out but also fits into the scale of the city. We worked with three volumes, that each should house a specific function; an exhibition module, a teaching module and a node in the middle to create a vertical circulation in the building.
In the project we also worked with the space outside of the museum. The outside area should also remind people of the arctic regions so both the outside and the inside fits together. Here the nature merge into the pavement, and that is a way of breaking the normal rules in the city where nature often has a clear demarcation, but here we give nature the opportunity to spread out. The new shared place around the museum and the new tundra garden is of course public and can be used even if you don’t visit the museum. Thereby the new museum brings a lot of life with it and gives a lot of quality back to the city.
The functions inside the building is divided into two. An exhibition section to the left and a teaching section to the right. On the ground floor the two sections are separated by the passage in the middle where you also enter the building as a guest. As an employed you can both enter the building from the main entrance or from the basement. The basement is the original basement that was once a parking lot, that we have transformed into service area. In the middle of the building we have the public core that connects the whole building from the basement to the 3rd floor.
”We think it´s quite interesting to take something that monumental, and put it into an urban context to remind people that nature is out there. Because we often forget that in the context of the city, how big nature actually is and how tiny we are as humans”.
We think this quote describes the way we are trying to fit into the urban context, with an idiom that is completely different from the existing one. But as you can see the building still inscribes itself in the scale of the city, and how it to the north and west follows the city’s premises, which are based on a clear division of building, pavement, and road. In contrast to the south where the nature takes over and the building opens up into the urban space.
Inside the building we have worked with creating different exhibition spaces, with different heights and widths that make the exhibitions spatially differ from each other. In between the exhibitions, we have chosen to create so-called “refresh” rooms, so that the head can be reset and ready for new information in the next exhibitions.
We have chosen to use perforated aluminum sheets as cladding to the building because it also stands out and is very different from what else you see in the city. We have designed 4 different types of plates I 2x2 meter, so we get a lot of different patterns in the façade, and thereby we can decide the different degree of transparency the building should have. The plates are mounted on the concrete construction and that creates hidden windows on the outside, but on the inside, it creates a very nice light incidence. The plates are lifted 10 cm over the concrete and allow the rainwater to run down into the pools that surrounds the museum.
From the beginning we new that we would have some challenge to make use of the sloping roof. Therefore we build this model to get an understanding of the spatiality inside the building and under the roof.
As a conclusion our proposal for a new nature and science museum in Aarhus will deal with the theme meltwater and sea level rise caused by climate change. Inside the museum we have tried to create some exciting and different spaces that also allows to exhibit in a specific and different way. But also outside we have chosen to write ourselves into the city with a completely different idiom that what you are used to see in the city. And by that we hope that people will stop and wonder what´s going on and thereby hopefully visit the museum and get informed about the consequences of climate change, also at a local level.
