New natural history museum design chosen

Architects Lundgaard & Tranberg have won a competition to design the future Natural History Museum. Located in the botanical gardens, right next to CSS and the social sciences library, it is a construction based on the principle behind a truffle. The biggest attractions are hidden.

You can see the universities press release and further information here. as well as our gallery of released imagery here.

By burying most of the museum and its 14 million natural history objects underground, the new design avoids spoiling the Botanical Gardens. Which is a valuable green space for many of Copenhagen’s residents and nearby students.

»The new museum uses the area in, around, above and below the Botanical Garden in a way that creates a perfect balance between garden and museum« says Morten Meldgaard, director of the Natural History Museum in the University press release.

Complete by 2017

In recent years Architect Lene Tranberg and her colleagues have made their mark in Copenhagen. The round Tietgen Kollegium (dorm), which should be familiar to students of the KUA campus in Amager, and the Playhouse near the harbor, with its characteristic long, luxury tiles by Petersen are two examples.

According to the artistic drawings accompanying the project, which UCPH has exhibited in the Botanical Garden’s engine room, the new museum is characterized by the same kind of organic aesthetics and warmth.

The museum building will cost an estimated DKK 1.1 billion and the interior design of the exhibition will require another DKK 275 million on top. Now the task is for the museum director to squeeze the money out of politicians and donors. The university hopes to complete the project by 2017.

Theo.Naidoo@adm.ku.dk

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