House of Fairytales
Hans Christian Andersen Museum
The urban features of a building comes not only from its shape, its planimetric figure or environmental quality, but from a well thought out complexity of elements and from the spatial and meaningful relationships between them. Therefore this relationships have to be dynamic, they should form a system of uses that comply with the urban fabric.
The cities and their urban and social configuration can born, or can born again, even from a single building, form an idea or a strategy, that has at its base a strong and radical choice.
Within the year 2020 the shape and the urban fabric of Odense will be redesigned; therefore also the urban structure and how the inhabitant or visitors will approach the city are going to change: the construction of a new Hans Christian Andersen’s museum is a part of this far-seeing idea.
The new “House of Fairytales”, and the redesign of its surrounding area, is going to be a new point of attraction and a landmark of the city that will stay in close relationship with the Andersen’s Birthplace, the Town House and the Memorial Hall, already present in the area. Inspiration for the realization of the museum will be taken from the writing style of the author and from its fairytales.
The feature of the project is to bring the visitor deep inside a fairy and “out of time” location, hanging between rationality and fantasy, the typical atmospheres of Andersen’s tales.
You can reach the museum’s area from the Light Rail station or from the underground parking by crossing a pedestrian ramp; the building that the visitor will find in front of him is complete different from any other reference in the surrounding area; this will create on the people visiting the place, both a feeling of disorientation and curiosity. A huge crown of trees creates an indispensable filter and lets the building emerge from the nature and from the light.
The park is "cut" by the light coming from the basement and continue gradually in the form of a "diamond" of the building, bringing out only part of its structure and its content, increasing the mysterious and mystical aspect that the architectural language transmits.
On the ground floor, after passing the reception desk, you can access the Hans Christian Andersen Museum and the Tinderbox Cultural Centre for Children: two spaces that complement and compensate each other, illustrating the person of Hans Christian Andersen through languages legible both by adults and children.
The paths develop on passages modeled from the light, making the visit a constant discovery of fragmented spaces and stimulating the curiosity of visitors.
The stories of Hans Christian Andersen are always readable through illustrations, image processing of fairy tales, sculptures and multimedia projections that emerge gradually from illuminated spaces and from the shade.
A sort of installation makes the visit a kind of "inner journey", giving visitors the opportunity to first-person interpretation of spaces and to read in them the references to Andersen's fairy tales.
After passing a series of courses that develop in two floors, the visit (exhibition) ends by reaching the Tower, that finally allows you to be enveloped by natural light coming from a large eye that looks at the sky, revealing to the viewer the real issue of the visit and of Andersen's fairy tales: the inner journey, the metamorphosis.
At the third level you enter the Café, directly accessible from the park, which allows you to enjoy a vantage point of view, creating a striking overlooking the Sculpture Park. The project also offers many Shops and facilities that can be accessed from inside the building or directly from the park.
The building is connected with the existing structure, the most private part of the area: the Birthplace and the Memorial Hall which remain unchanged in order to respect the integrity of the already existing and stimulate curiosity to rediscover a bygone era.
