Ordrupgaard Museum Extension
The new extension seeks to establish a new landscape within the territory of its architecture, at the same time allowing new relations with the existing conditions.
The logic of the existing landscape is abstracted in the geometry; new contours extend into the collection developing an alternate ground where occupancy and use are extended.
The buildings separate two distinct conditions of the garden and responds to them with a gradation of use that is represented by a change in transparency and access possibilities.
The contour lines, which form the basis of the extension’s morphology, are explored in a two-fold manner: they conform the overall enclosure at the same time they lay down the basis for the arrangement of the interior space. Variation on the existing topography can be read as a progression through the interior spaces, and thus a signal for transition between uses. An interior landscape presents the visitor with a layered experience where the museum’s space relates to the garden.
The edge of the building is altered by the topography and presents the opportunity of blurring traditional conditions of use and occupancy in museum projects. The art galleries are nested within an outer public route that links the different compartments through openings on the structural shell. The visitor’s experience is not limited to the building, but the contents it houses should be read already from the different approaches it offers. The critique of the edge is thus replaced by a notion of fluid interaction between the garden and the interior programme, and it acts a constant instrument of gradation that allows for different conditions to appear without necessary breaking the volume up.
Camouflage and transparency are resources that complement the topographical shift that the new envelope describes without neglecting the condition that exemplifies the tranquil garden. The relationship with the landscape is not only present as a formal device but determines also the material possibilities. Opacity is achieved by an in-situ concrete skin that acts as a counterpoint for the various glazed elements that reflect the landscape and allow a glimpse of the interior. Material continuity is represented by a series of folds on the membrane, that meet the ground at the same time that allow for openings on the façade, dictating public areas. The perimeter of the building contains circulation ramps following the formal logic of the assembly of the new building and the old. This condition allows for compensation in height that achieves a smooth transition between the existing and the new galleries.
