Museum in the Dock

How does one breathe new life into an abandoned dry dock? BIG architects has designed an extraordinary museum to revive Denmark s proud maritime history. The Danish Maritime Museum will fit into a unique historical and spatial context between one of Denmark s most important buildings the world-famous Kronborg Castle and a new, ambitious cultural center. In order to preserve the dock as an open, outdoor space, BIG has placed the museum underground, just outside the wall of a dry dock in a formerly abandoned shipyard. In this subterranean position, the museum appears as part of the cultural environment, while at the same time standing as an independent institution. Through this extraordinary document of the museum, BIG once again confirms its position asone of the world s leading architectural offices. As Rowan Moore writes in his Guardian review, the museum offers underneath a work of infinite jest and most excellent fancy.