Herning Museum of Contemporary Art by Steven Holl Architects

Herning and the textile industry share a long and interwoven relationship, and the nearby Angli shirt factory – a paragon of 1960s architecture famous for its iconic shirt-collar form – was a leading inspiration for the shirt-sleeves shape of the new museum, known rather charmingly as HEART (HErning/ART). The softly folded curving roofs are even made from a stress skin of carbon fibre strands within a resin matrix: a fabric – of sorts – in itself. The museum ties together a three-piece suit of cultural institutions – the Herning Center of the Arts, the MidWest Ensemble, and the Socle du Monde – in a united, innovative forum.

Underneath that casual shirt-sleeves rooftop lies a combination of permanent and temporary exhibition spaces, a 150-seat auditorium, music rehearsal rooms, a restaurant, a media library, and administrative offices, all spread across one level. The galleries are orthogonal in plan, and carefully proportioned for the artworks they contain, while the softly curving roof and subtle white plaster ceiling delivers natural light and a sense of openness to the space. So that the gallery’s internal walls could remain lightweight and movable, loadbearing walls are located around the perimeter. And yet even this solid façade remains true to the textural inspiration at the museum’s heart: a result of fabric tarps inserted into the formwork, which yields a crumpled fabric-like finished exterior, not unlike an unironed business shirt.

Open to the public since September 2009, HEART showcases a permanent Arte Povera collection (a 1960s art movement most commonly characterised as ‘revolutionary’), including a large collection of Piero Manzoni original works. It is from Manzoni’s sometimes outrageous ‘concept art’ that the museum derives inspiration for its peripheral form: the loose edges of the plan that contain a café, auditorium, lobby, and offices, and can be closed off from the central exhibition spaces long after gallery visiting hours are over. The curved roofs are a two-way truss system able to span in multiple directions, to allow for freedom between the roof structure and the plan. HEART in its entirety is serviced by an eco-friendly geothermal cooling system as well as a greywater recycling system, just two of many ‘green’ aspects interwoven into this exemplar of modern, living architecture.

And speaking of green, here we move into the realm of the truly living. For beyond the building periphery is where architecture and landscape fuse: a landscape of grass mounds and reflecting pools somewhat reminiscent of CS Lewis’s Wood Between the Worlds, merging the boundary between rooftop and the surrounding pasture. Partially shaped as a reverse-curve of the museum’s roof geometry, the new 40,000 square feet of undulating bermed landscape positively transforms an otherwise flat field, concealing underground parking and service areas.

The outdoor museum “square” also features its own large pool, onto which face the restaurant, library, and visitor’s centre. Furnished with outdoor stage facilities, this area is designed to serve as the pivotal point of relaxed social interaction during the summer seasons, and as a point for outward reflection during the cold-climate winter.

New York-based Steven Holl Architects has been realising cultural, civic, academic and residential projects for over 35 years. The firm’s two offices – one in New York, the other Beijing – have an impressive global diaspora of cultural landmarks currently in the pipeline, from China – the Nanjing Museum of Art and Architecture, the Vanke Centre, and the mixed-use “Sliced Porosity Block” in Nanjing, Shenzhen and Chengdu respectively – to Lebanon (Beirut Marina), France (Cité du Surf et de l’Océan in Biarritz, with Solange Fabião) and at home in the United States, with the highly-lauded Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas City. SHA’s Beijing office was also responsible for the city’s Linked Hybrid mixed-use complex, which was listed in 2007 as 3rd on TIME Magazine’s list of Architectural Marvels.

 “Marvel” might also be an apt description for such a thematically resolved project as this. Inspired by the conceptual and experimental art of the 1960s onwards; it is no accident that one of HEART’s three permanent collections is entitled “Materiality and immateriality”. SHA’s Herning Museum of Contemporary Art is a rich tapestry of art and architecture in the material sense as much as any other. +

 IMAGES Courtesy of Steven Holl, Iwan Baan, Thomas Moelvig

1. The restaurant, library and visitor’s centre face onto a reflection pool: the conceptual and visual “heart” of the HEART project. 2. Watercolour sketch wash showing the grasstopped north and south elevations, which meld the building into its surroundings. 3. A landscape of undulating grassed mounds conceals the underground carpark, while adding variation to the otherwise flat field. 4. Curved roof and ceiling structures create a sense of lightness and movement. 5. The layout of the gallery is open and designed to encourage visitors, but can also be closed off so that patrons can use the peripheral facilities after normal gallery opening hours are over.