Herning, Denmark

HEART Herning Museum of Contemporary Art in Herning

Press Release

New York City, June 7, 2010 – Steven Holl Architects has received a 2010 RIBA International Award for the Herning Museum of Contemporary Art, which was selected as one of nine awards winners for projects outside the United Kingdom. The RIBA International Awards are given for projects that have “high architectural standards and make a substantial contribution to the local environment.”

The Herning Museum of Contemporary Art opened its doors to the public on September 9, 2009 with the mission to provide renewed cultural strength to the region of central Jutland in Denmark. The Museum unites three distinct cultural institutions – the Herning Center of the Arts, the MidtVest Ensemble and the Socle du Monde – in an innovative forum, which combines visual art and music. It includes permanent and temporary exhibition galleries, a 150-seat auditorium, music rehearsal rooms, a restaurant, a media library, and administrative offices.

The museum is sited near Herning’s original Angli shirt factory. It was the interaction between the factory owner and Arte Povera artists, such as Piero Manzoni, that enabled such a collection of art to be created. The shirt collar-shaped plan of the 1960s factory building inspired the shape of the new museum building. Viewed from above, the roof geometry resembles a collection of shirt sleeves laid over the gallery spaces. Truck tarps were inserted into the white concrete formwork to yield a fabric texture to the building’s exterior walls.

Photo: © Thomas Mayer

The curved roofs bring balanced natural lights to the galleries, and the loose edges of the plan offer spaces for the café, auditorium, lobby, and offices. Gallery spaces are orthogonal and finely proportioned for art, while overhead curved roof sections transportnatural light into the spaces. The exhibition spaces can be easily closed, while all peripheral spaces remain open for after-hours use. The design fuses landscape and architecture in a one-level building and aims at “building the site.” The surrounding landscape is partially shaped in the reverse-curve of the geometry of the roof.

Photo: © Thomas Mayer

The Herning Museum of Contemporary Art, designed by Steven Holl Architects, will open to the public on September 9, 2009 uniting three distinct cultural institutions: the Herning Center of the Arts, the MidWest Ensemble and the Socle du Monde. The new center is intended to be an innovative forum combining visual art and music, providing a driving cultural force for the region of central Jutland, Denmark.

Photo: © Thomas Mayer

A fusion of landscape and architecture, the landscape of grass mounds and reflecting pools aligns with a geometry of curved roof sections in a 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.

Herning’s longstanding relationship with textiles and the textile industry, as well as the museum’s large collection of original works by Piero Manzoni (in total 46 works) forms the inspiration for the building’s design concept. The museum is sited near Herning’s original Angli shirt factory, and the shirt collar-shaped plan of its 1960s building has inspired the shape of the new museum building. Viewed from above, HEART’s roof geometry resembles a collection of shirt sleeves laid over the gallery spaces. The loose edges of the plan offer spaces for the café, auditorium, lobby, and offices. The exhibition spaces can be easily closed, while all peripheral spaces remain open for after-hours use.

The galleries are orthogonal in plan and finely proportioned for art, while overhead curved roof sections transport natural light into the spaces.

The galleries’ perimeter walls are load bearing elements, emphasizing these as “treasure boxes” in the museum, while internal gallery walls of lightweight construction are movable. Floors of integral color charcoal concrete unify the ground plane into a continuous patina with a wax finish.

Fabric tarps were inserted into the formwork to yield a fabric texture to the building’s exterior walls of white concrete.

The surrounding landscape is partially shaped in the reverse-curve of the geometry of the museum’s roof. In transforming the flat field around the site, a new 40,000sf bermed landscape of grass mounds and pools conceals parking and service areas, while drawing the focus onto reflecting pools positioned in the south sun.

The Museum will open with a new installation of the works of Italian artist Jannis Kounellis and will display its large permanent collection of Arte Povera works.