Jørn Utzon - Silkeborg Art Museum extension

Unbuilt project
Jørn Utzon
Silkeborg Art Museum extension
Silkeborg, Denmark

“It will be with a sense of surprise and a desire to penetrate down into the building that the visitor for the first time sees the three-storey building open beneath him. Unconcerned - by stairs and corridors, which normally disturb - the viewer will glide almost effortlessly down into the museum via the ramp, taking him through the space.
Strict geometry will form the basis for a simple constructional shape. The vible curved external surfaces are to be clad with ceramics in strong colors so that the parts of the building emerge like shining ceramic sculptures, and inside the museum will be kept white.”
Jørn Utzon

At the time of the project Silkeborg town museum was housed in a low Neoclassical building organized in long wings around a courtyard. To one side the site is bordered by a busy road several meters above the lawn, to the other by a disused railway line.

Danish artist Asger Jorn, instrumental in the formation of the radical COBRA group, had established a world-wide reputation by the 1960’s as Denmark’s leading modern artist. Having lived in Silkeborg with his family since 1929 he donated a substantial amount of his own work, as well as his collection by other COBRA artists, to the Silkeborg Museum in the late 1950’s with the understanding that a wing would be added to house it.
After meeting Utzon Jorn wrote the Museum director indicating that he had “come to the conclusion that it would be contrary to the entire spirit of the collection to announce an architectural competition for the building.”

To ease the process he offered to pay the architect’s fees, provided the commision was given to “The only Danish architect of my day who is of decidedly International outlook... I cannot see any other Dane at the moment who would be able to create a building that has an intimate relationship to the artictic form of expression represented by the collection.”

Jorn received Utzon’s proposal in 1964 and declared them “Brilliant, Fantastic”.

Utzon rejected Jorn’s idea of rising the building to capture a view, instead he proposed burying most of the extension three stories underground.
As in his own house in Hellebæk, the approach would face a long, single-storey blank wall, which links the building to the main museum and breaks to form a staff entrance.
The foyer, reception, cafe and terrace look out over the existing lawn through a stepped and staggered glass screen, made of V-shaped pre-cast concrete columns which support a grid of shallow, barrel-vaulted rooflights; these run over all the ground floor circulation areas and extend to form a generous entrance canopy.

The plaster model was made by students of the Royal Danish Academy

The end of the wall by the public entrance is half-round, hinting at the curveliniar world which awaits within, erupting through the lawn as huge truncated cones and gouged out of the earth to form a subterranean world. Utzon later described the tips of the cones as like “crocuses big and beautiful in porcelain” and they were to be decorated by Asker Jorn’s dazzling ceramic tiles.

The main galleries open as a three-storey deep cavern beneath a glazed, ribbed roof whose gently stepped, curving form resembles a horizontal version of the glass walls being designed at the same time for the Sydney Opera House.

The visitor is drawn down by an inviting and intricate ramp system. The glazing bars here, and over the crocus cone galleries, were to be provided with frequent suspension points to enable paintings to be hung from the ceiling; artwork might also hang from the underside of the ramp and suspended floor. The giant crocuses were designed to receive different qualities of natural light and major individual sculptures or paintings could be isolated and displayed there.

Utzon cites the experience of visiting the caves in Tatung, west of Peking, as a key inspiration. “All the caves are of different sizes and shapes and have different sources of light... the most fantastic result is one cave which is completely filled up by a Buddha figure with a face more than 20 feet high.”

Ground Floor Plan

Gallery Floor Plan

Roof Plan

“The world of the curved form can give something that cannot ever be achieved by means of rectangular architecture. The hulls of ships, caves and sculpture demonstrate this.”
Jørn Utzon

Source:
UTZON
Inspiration - Vision - Architecture
By: Richard Weston
Published by Edition Bløndal

May 27, 2002

Utzon arcspace features





				Features
		Unbuilt project Jørn Utzon Silkeborg Art Museum extension Silkeborg, Denmark “It will be with a sense of surprise and a desire to penetrate down into the building that the visitor for the first time sees the three-storey building open beneath him. Unconcerned - by stairs and corridors, which normally disturb - the viewer will glide almost effortlessly down into the museum via the ramp, taking him through the space. Strict geometry will form the basis for a simple constructional shape. The vible curved external surfaces are to be clad with ceramics in strong colors so that the parts of the building emerge like shining ceramic sculptures, and inside the museum will be kept white.” Jørn Utzon At the time of the project Silkeborg town museum was housed in a low Neoclassical building organized in long wings around a courtyard. To one side the site is bordered by a busy road several meters above the lawn, to the other by a disused railway line. Danish artist Asger Jorn, instrumental in the formation of the radical COBRA group, had established a world-wide reputation by the 1960’s as Denmark’s leading modern artist. Having lived in Silkeborg with his family since 1929 he donated a substantial amount of his own work, as well as his collection by other COBRA artists, to the Silkeborg Museum in the late 1950’s with the understanding that a wing would be added to house it. After meeting Utzon Jorn wrote the Museum director indicating that he had “come to the conclusion that it would be contrary to the entire spirit of the collection to announce an architectural competition for the building.” To ease the process he offered to pay the architect’s fees, provided the commision was given to “The only Danish architect of my day who is of decidedly International outlook... I cannot see any other Dane at the moment who would be able to create a building that has an intimate relationship to the artictic form of expression represented by the collection.” Jorn received Utzon’s proposal in 1964 and declared them “Brilliant, Fantastic”. Utzon rejected Jorn’s idea of rising the building to capture a view, instead he proposed burying most of the extension three stories underground. As in his own house in Hellebæk, the approach would face a long, single-storey blank wall, which links the building to the main museum and breaks to form a staff entrance. The foyer, reception, cafe and terrace look out over the existing lawn through a stepped and staggered glass screen, made of V-shaped pre-cast concrete columns which support a grid of shallow, barrel-vaulted rooflights; these run over all the ground floor circulation areas and extend to form a generous entrance canopy. The plaster model was made by students of the Royal Danish Academy The end of the wall by the public entrance is half-round, hinting at the curveliniar world which awaits within, erupting through the lawn as huge truncated cones and gouged out of the earth to form a subterranean world. Utzon later described the tips of the cones as like “crocuses big and beautiful in porcelain” and they were to be decorated by Asker Jorn’s dazzling ceramic tiles. The main galleries open as a three-storey deep cavern beneath a glazed, ribbed roof whose gently stepped, curving form resembles a horizontal version of the glass walls being designed at the same time for the Sydney Opera House. The visitor is drawn down by an inviting and intricate ramp system. The glazing bars here, and over the crocus cone galleries, were to be provided with frequent suspension points to enable paintings to be hung from the ceiling; artwork might also hang from the underside of the ramp and suspended floor. The giant crocuses were designed to receive different qualities of natural light and major individual sculptures or paintings could be isolated and displayed there. Utzon cites the experience of visiting the caves in Tatung, west of Peking, as a key inspiration. “All the caves are of different sizes and shapes and have different sources of light... the most fantastic result is one cave which is completely filled up by a Buddha figure with a face more than 20 feet high.” Ground Floor Plan Gallery Floor Plan Roof Plan “The world of the curved form can give something that cannot ever be achieved by means of rectangular architecture. The hulls of ships, caves and sculpture demonstrate this.” Jørn Utzon Source: UTZON Inspiration - Vision - Architecture By: Richard Weston Published by Edition Bløndal May 27, 2002 Utzon arcspace features