We have gotten used to the fact that museums not necessarily come with presentable natural stone façades. The art hall in Rotterdam by Rem Koolhaas, for instance, rather reminds of an industrial building than of a house for art thanks to its plain ramp and its profane façade design. And the glass expansion box of the Küppersmühle museum in Duisburg by Herzog & de Meuron does not comply with our classic ideas of a temple of the muses either. Why should it? Art itself has not come to a halt either in its development since the 19th century, but presents itself today in various forms – from painting and photography via ready-made and performance down to environment.
 

Museum with a Punk Appearance

Even more in-your-face and radical than the examples of modern museum buildings mentioned is the expansion building of Moderna Museet in Stockholm, a museum opened in 2009, in Malmö inSouthern Sweden.  In order to make the house built inside a former power plant from 1900 stand out from the cityscape – and to be able to meet the high international safety standards for museum buildings - Tham & Videgård Arkitekter decided to contrast the already existing brick structure with a newly added entrance volume of ferro-concrete. The punched façade put in front of it held in flashy orange provides a catchy logo for the museum and at the same time creates a meaningful realization of the topic of “energy” dominating the place once. Apart from that, the punched outer shell creates a charming optical depths which is additionally enriched by the play of shadows created by the openings. The carved in museum logo looks as if a “graffiti artist” had just sprayed his tag on it.

Apart from the entrance and reception area of the museum, the new building also integrates a café and a gallery on the upper floor. The light coming in through the punched façade in the generously glazed first floor as well as the end-to-end orange coloring inside creates an individual atmosphere with a high recognition value.
 

Careful Renovation

The neighboring old building of the former power plant, however, has been carefully renovated and adapted only in some areas to live up to its today’s usage. The most important change was the division of the all in all 600 square meters into large, nearly 11 meters high turbine hall through two staircases in order to allow a bow-shaped exhibition course between the hall and the exhibition rooms further towards the top along the street. Apart from that, studio rooms for kids and storage rooms are available. After the optical provocation inside the new building, Tham & Videgård Arkitekter have limited themselves here to creating nothing but white rooms. A well-made balancing act between provocation and thoughtful renovation, bringing both old and new to the fore.