Odense, Denmark
“The idea behind the architectural design resembled Andersen’s method, where a small world suddenly expands to a bigger universe,” states Kengo Kuma.
Kengo Kuma working alongside Cornelius Vöge, Christoffersen & Weiling, and MASU Planning have completed the Hans Christian Andersen Museum, converting the writer’s house into a fantasy world space where visitors can learn about the life and work of Denmark’s most famous writer Hans Christian Andersen.
The scope of the architect is to reinterpret the story of the author’s life and work by providing a unique artistic experience, which will combine landscape, architecture, and contemporary curating methods.
Kengo Kuma got the main inspiration from Andersen’s tale “The Tinderbox,” a story where a tree reveals an underground world, which magically unearths new perspectives right in front of the beholder.
Located in the birthplace of the poet, the new museum will provide a space for the pursuit of puzzlement, imagination, and magic adventures for both adults and children.
The architects have created a structure where visitors are wondering between reality and fantasy through the use of glazed, translucent walls in order to create a soft and ambiguous boundary between the “real” and “fantasy” worlds.
Additionally, an exhibition space is disguised as a pool of water, which visitors can occupy below and peer into from above. Meanwhile, a Giant’s Garden is filled with oversized plant-life as though visitors have been shrunken.
“Hans Christian Andersen’s artistic universe is fantastic because it reverses how you imagine this world you thought you knew, but without putting anything else in its place. His fairytales do not point toward a universal truth, but rather into the open – towards the peculiarity and multiplicity of the world. In the new museum, we maintain this ambiguity by using Andersen’s own artistic strategies as the starting point for how the garden, the house, and the exhibition have all been shaped, as well as for the many artistic contributions that will also be part of the museum.” says Creative Director Henrik Lübker.
Project: Hans Christian Andersen Museum
Architects: Kengo Kuma & Associates
Consultant Architect: Cornelius Vöge ApS
Architects of Record: Christoffersen & Weiling Architects
Landscape Architects: MASU planning ApS
Design Engineers: Søren Jensen Consulting Engineers
Photographers: Rasmus Hjortshøj