Moesgaard Museum

The new museum is uniquely located in the hilly landscape of Skåde.

With its sloping roofscape of grass, moss and flowers in bright colours the building appears a powerful visual landmark perceptible even from the sea.

The rectangular shaped roof plane seems to grow out of the landscape and during summer it will form an area for picnics, barbecues, lectures and traditional Midsummer Day’s bonfires. Come winter snowfall, the sloping roof will become transformed into the city’s best toboggan run.

The interior of the building is designed like a varied terraced landscape inspired by archaeological excavations gradually unearthing the layers of history and exposing lost cities. The visitor can move through a vivid sequence of exhibitions and scientific experiments – like a traveler in time and space.

With its bright courtyard gardens, terraces and small cave-like “houses-in-the-house”, the museum will invite various new and alternative kinds of exhibitions. The heart of the building is the foyer with a café and outdoor service. From the foyer, the terraced underworld opens up to the light from the roof garden and the impressive view of the Århus Bay.

Moesgaard Museum, Århus, Denmark
Architects: Henning Larsen Architects
Area: 16,000 sqm
Completion: 2014