Situated on a tongue of land between the North Sea and the Baltic stands Kronborg Castle in Denmark. Here, the Danish Maritime Museum was housed from the time of its foundation in 1915. When plans were made in 2000 to place the castle on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites, the museum had to be moved to a new location.
A 60-year old disused dry dock nearby was chosen for this purpose – the biggest exhibit of all. The architects did not plan the main structure in the dock itself, which is 150 metres long and 25 metres wide, but organized the spaces underground around the empty basin.
Access to the exhibition begins immediately next to an existing road bridge over the dock.
A ramp that runs down diagonally across the open space and turns back in V-form from the opposite wall leads to the main entrance. The storey-height bridges suspended from these ramps also serve as cross-links. The path through the museum is a long, sloping itinerary, too. The only level area is the cafe at the “stern”, with a gallery above. At the end of the route through the museum, a tapering staircase with a broad foot rears itself up.
The substructure of the road to the castle is more complex: two floor slabs sloping in counter-directions create space for a large auditorium with a view of the temporary exhibitions and a small platform below. The sloping floors of the bridges as well as the stairs suggest a ship’s deck heaving in a storm.
A 60-year old disused dry dock nearby was chosen for this purpose – the biggest exhibit of all. The architects did not plan the main structure in the dock itself, which is 150 metres long and 25 metres wide, but organized the spaces underground around the empty basin.
Access to the exhibition begins immediately next to an existing road bridge over the dock.
A ramp that runs down diagonally across the open space and turns back in V-form from the opposite wall leads to the main entrance. The storey-height bridges suspended from these ramps also serve as cross-links. The path through the museum is a long, sloping itinerary, too. The only level area is the cafe at the “stern”, with a gallery above. At the end of the route through the museum, a tapering staircase with a broad foot rears itself up.
The substructure of the road to the castle is more complex: two floor slabs sloping in counter-directions create space for a large auditorium with a view of the temporary exhibitions and a small platform below. The sloping floors of the bridges as well as the stairs suggest a ship’s deck heaving in a storm.