Steven Holl Architects - HEART - Herning Museum of Contemporary Art, Herning, Denmark

Features

Steven Holl Architects
HEART
Herning Museum of Contemporary Art
Herning, Denmark

Photo © Christian Richters

The landscape of grass mounds and reflecting pools aligns with a geometry of curved roof sections of the new building that houses permanent and temporary exhibition galleries, a 150-seat auditorium, music rehearsal rooms, a restaurant, a media library, and administrative offices all on one level. The new surrounding landscape conceals all the parking and service areas.

Photo © Christian Richters

Photo © Christian Richters
Photo © Christian Richters

HEART is designed to relate to its neighbors, Utzon’s prototype house and the Angli shirt factory, thereby also relating to history. An aerial view of the new building almost resembles a collection of shirtsleeves.

Photo courtesy HEART

The theme is about tactility and materiality. Taking as inspiration the history of textiles in Herning, the external white concrete walls, moulded on-site, has a crumbled, textile-like surface. These tactile (and textile) references are continued in the roof, which govern the floor plan.

Photo © Christian Richters

The “square,” featuring a large pool, is surrounded by the restaurant, library, and visitor’s centre. Furnished with outdoor stage facilities, it will serve as the pivotal point of relaxed social interaction during the summer season.

Photo © Christian Richters

The curved roofs, made up of five shells, are a two-way truss system able to span in multiple directions allowing for a freedom between the roof structure and plan. The undersides of the interior are a simple white plaster complementing the geometry of the roof. The overall stability of the roof is anchored by introducing thin rods within the clerestory glazing as tension elements intended to counterbalance any uneven forces over the gallery wall support, like a see-saw tied down on each side.

Photo © Christian Richters

The gallery spaces are clean and simple with natural light brought in through the curved roof sections. The perimeter walls are load bearing elements, the internal gallery walls are a lightweight construction that can be moved if required. Their perpendicular linearity plays up against the organically anthropomorphic nature of the building.

Photo © Christian Richters

The inauguration of HEART is celebrated with the official opening of Freedom or Death, a retrospective exhibition of the work of one of the great sons of Italy, Jannis Kounellis.

HEART has two institutions in residence: Ensemble MidtVest and Socle du Monde. The Ensemble is the preeminent chamber music company in Denmark, while Socle du
Monde is a biennial founded on collaboration between artists and the business community.

Photo © Christian Richters
The Auditorium

Sketch courtesy Steven Holl Architects
Auditorium Sketch

A geothermal cooling system is among several green aspects which set this new museum as exemplary of 21st century architecture.

Sketch courtesy Steven Holl Architects
Concept Sketch

Sketch courtesy Steven Holl Architects
Sketch Exterior View

Drawing courtesy Steven Holl Architects
Site Plan

Drawing courtesy Steven Holl Architects
Ground Floor Plan

Drawing courtesy Steven Holl Architects
Section

Model photo courtesy Steven Holl Architects
View from Northwest

Model photo courtesy Steven Holl Architects
View from Southwest

Photo courtesy Steven Holl Architects
Construction mock-up

Site area: 12,000 square meters
Building area: 5,600 square meters

Completed: 2009

HEART opens to the public on September 9, 2009

Client: Herning Center of the Arts
Architect: Steven Holl Architects
Design architect: Steven Holl
Project architect: Noah Yaffe
Project advisor: Chris McVoy
Project team:
Lesley Chang
JongSeo Lee
Julia Radcliffe
Filipe Taboada
Christina Yessios
Competition team:
Cosimo Caggiula
Martin Cox
Alessandro Orsini
Local architect: Kjaer and Richter A/S
Mechanical engineer: Niras, Transsolar
Structural engineer: Niras
Landscape architect: Schønherr Landskab

The design agency Kontrapunkt created the identity and logo for HEART Herning Museum of Contemporary Art.

Photographed by Christian Richters

Steven Holl Architects arcspace features

September 7, 2009