Architectural Analysis of the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark

Architectural Analysis of the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark

(March 19, 2022)

The Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, designed by architects Vilhelm Wohlert and Jørgen Bo, exemplified the mixture of post-war modernism with nature. The museum is located in Humlebæk, some forty kilometers north of Copenhagen, Denmark. With its extensive collection of modern and contemporary art since World War II, the museum is perfect for a day trip from the vibrant Nordic capital. It offers a Walden-ish refuge for art lovers and urbanites alike. It is a balancing act between architecture, art, and nature, juxtaposing all three in just one concrete building. Here, architecture is nature, nature is art, and art is architecture.

Having followed Scandinavian modernists in the 1940s and ‘50s, Danish architects Vilhelm Wohlert and his partner Jørgen Bo were commissioned by Knud W. Jensen to build a museum to home for modern Danish art in his property (Skjøth, 1989). In 1958, the two architects embarked on their journey in search of the perfect association with nature. They first erected three buildings connected with glass corridors (Kim, 2011). But as the museum gets enlarged, Jensen changed course to house more international modern art (Author n.a., “The History”, Louisiana), including Alberto Giacometti, Pablo Picasso, Robert Rauschenberg, and Jean Arp. The extension was constructed over thirty years, finally closing in to form a circular shape in 1991. 

The Louisiana Museum underwent five major expansions in 1966, 1971, 1976, 1982, and 1991 since its opening in 1958. Upon the initial completion, there were  only some glass corridors connecting the old villa to the Giacometti gallery. As noted earlier, the material used in this portion is predominantly brick and wood, along with large glass panels. Then, an exhibition hall and an auditorium were constructed at the southwest corner in 1966 and 1971, respectively. At this time, all the three sections of the project enjoy a nice view of the Humlebæk pond. Afterwards, Wohlert and Bo turned their focus to the sea on the northeast side of the museum. They added a protracted glass house at the north corner of the museum that serves as a Café, in 1976. With a shoreline view of the Øresund (or in English, the Sound), this is the beginning of the museum reaching out to the sea. Wohlert and Bo also added another wing in the southeast to face the open sea in 1982. The final expansion in 1991 connected the north end with the new wing, again using glass panels. The latest addition features temporary exhibitions and formed a sculpture garden inside these pavilions.

Based on the exhibition map (see Illustration 1,2), visitors should follow a clockwise route, starting from the old villa in the west wing, to the permanent collection, then onto the Café, then entering the temporary exhibitions, last to the permanent collection in the east wing. This is also the chronological order of the project. Visitors may veer off to the lake garden when they are tired of looking at Giacometti’s sculptures, or leap off to the terrace facing the sea, but their situation in the exhibition will not be disrupted. Ultimately, visitors will end their exhibition in the place where they first began (Ye, 2016).

Knud W. Jensen wanted visitors to truly engage with the artwork in the museum, and he came up with many different ways to foster such a connection. Visitors never need to worry about missing any objects behind them, and similarly, they will also have profuse bushes to accompany them. Sometimes, there is no artwork on both sides at all, instead, one sculpture is placed far ahead of the visitors (see Illustration 3), forcing them to negotiate with the artwork. As visitors approach the work, they are able to distinguish the shape, size, and other characteristics of the art. Their inner self underwent such shapeshifting experience of understanding the object.

While visitors are encouraged to establish themselves with the exhibition objects directly, nature is there to facilitate such connection. The galleries are designed fluidly; the corridors never have artworks on both sides. Usually, the exhibition objects appear with nature altogether. Artworks are intermingled with the landscape organically, yet they both preserve their distinctness. We digest these visual shocks the best when they come in organic packaging. This is done when curators place, one again, Giacometti’s humanoid sculptures in the visual context of nature (see Illustration 4). Visitors inadvertently conjure up the space with the enigmatic exhibition objects they are encountering, all under the auspices of nature. There is plenty of space where one could reflect on oneself, or dwell on the spiritual connection between nature and art.

Tethered with the Swedish term folkhemmet (lit. “the people’s home”), Scandinavian modernism always puts humanistic values above all else. It firmly rejects the industrial persuasion to build concrete skyscrapers. Its minimalistic approach is even in direct conflict with the Art Deco movement. Instead, the late Nordic modernism, pioneered by Finland’s Alvar Aalto, prefers nature over artificial material. Indeed, Aalto’s favourite material is wood from the Finnish forest (Pearson, 1978). However, the technological advancement which allowed the mass production of glasses gave rise to post-war modernist buildings like the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art.

 

The usage of glass panels is comparable to Frank Lloyd Wright’s Falling Water, or Philip Johnson’s Glass House. Wohlert and Bo played smart when they chose glass over wood when they initiated the project, and this is not only because Denmark, unlike Finland, is a flat country without a lot of forests. I believe they are intentionally breaking away from the traditional brick and wood construct make-up, as the museum continues to expand itself. The opacity of brick and wood hinders the aura of nature, whereas the use of semi-transparent glass panels can let that aura flow throughout the museum. In fact, if visitors take a closer look at the old villa, the house built by the original owner Alexander Brun in the late nineteenth century, they will see that the house itself is covered with grapevines (see Illustration 5). Everything is being done to maximize the presence of nature and minimize human interference. No wonder the French architect Jean Nouvel marvelled that “each thing is directly felt, and everything is at home” (Author n.a., “The Architecture”, Louisiana). Many museums tried to combine their exhibition with the surrounding, only the Louisiana Museum is able to organically incorporate nature with the building.

According to Wohlert, who studied at the University of California at Berkeley, they took inspiration from residential houses in the Bay Area when devising the project. However, it is challenging to adapt the mountainous Californian design to the flat land of Denmark. Therefore, Wohlert and Bo chose simplicity over nuance, frugality over extravagance, and most importantly, humanism over industrialization. During the 1982 south wing expansion, Wohlert and Bo absorbed the Californian obsession with the sea and added the portion that faced the open sea toward the east. Visitors can then be immersed in the sea when studying the artworks. On the other hand, such exposed structures can help optimize natural light and reduce artificial light which, again, disrupts the aura of nature. 

Besides the spatial encouragement of human bonding with nature, the meticulous arrangement of furniture can elucidate the humanistic value too. In the Giacometti gallery, one of the most important rooms of the museum, a second-floor yields its space to three Giacometti sculptures (see Illustration 6). They are arranged in a way that forms a triangle (see Illustration 7). The wooden ceiling and the brick tiles are part of an original 1958 design. Such minimalistic layout accentuates the artworks and nature for visitors, whose eyes are dancing between the three art objects, as well as the luscious greenery outside. The nearly perfect isosceles triangle is part of the symmetry Wohlert and Bo aimed. 

Moreover, when visitors are standing on the second floor, the triangle is facing them directly, matching their eyesight toward the outside. The wooden impediment on the right-hand side of the stairs, perpendicular to the ground, also serves asymmetrical purposes. Though the stairs elevate many times to reach the second floor, the impediments only have formed two blocks at different levels. The impediments at the lower level are not too tall to block the view of the second floor. Taken together, these impediments both ensured visitors do not fall off the stairs and matched the necessary viewing angles. The placement of these vital pieces of furniture proved to be rational and humanistic.

The Louisiana Museum is not without its deficiencies. As Louis Kahn once opined “long again they built with solid stones, today we must build with hollow stones” (Kahn, 1957) - he dreamt of a hierarchy that gives life to the many elements of a building. The hierarchical design that gives storage and service rooms their own structure is completely avoided in this project. In an egalitarian society like Denmark, its modernist architecture tends to occupy the entire space, and overtly enmesh every aspect of the architecture in one structure. Kahn would be disappointed to see this project, which does not distinguish, structurally speaking, from a Medieval construct. Besides the audacious use of glass panels, it is really hard to find any other synthesis material in the Lousiana Museum. 

Not only did the Louisiana Museum directly contradict Tony Garnier’s ideal in Cité Industrielle, Wohlert and Bo also openly disregarded Le Corbusier’s urban visualization. The very concept of this project has no place in an urban context - it is meant to coexist with nature. To their credit, the humanistic layout and furniture design can be attributed to a vague influence of the Arts and Craft movement. This also corresponds with the architects’ disdain for industrialization and mass production.

To sum up, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art successfully incorporates architecture with nature and renders the exhibition experience a part of nature. Few art museums were able to do this, but the Louisiana Museum achieved this end by employing glass panels throughout its space daringly. Such an avant-garde approach to designing museum space signifies post-war modernism, with a touch of schism from the traditional Scandinavian modernism, best exemplified by the Stockholm Public Library built in 1928. Architect Vilhelm Wohlert and Jørgen Bo especially deepened the museum’s connection with nature using glass panels, something unthinkable prior to the Glass House, which was built in 1949. The embedment in nature is also first introduced to Denmark, previously seen only in Falling Water by Frank Lloyd Wright. Overall, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art epitomized architecture’s attempt to return to nature.

Diagram

Bibliography

Author n.a. “The Architecture”. Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. (Date n.a.). Accessed from https://louisiana.dk/en/museum/architecture/

Author n.a. “The History”. Louisiana Musem of Modern Art. (Date n.a.). Accessed from https://louisiana.dk/en/museum/louisiana-history/

Kahn, Louis I. “Architecture is the thoughtful making of spaces. The continual renewal of architecture comes from changing concepts of space.” Perspecta, The Yale architectural (1957).

Kim, Jong-Jin. “A Study on the Spatial Experience and Design Characteristics in Louisiana Museum of Modern Art.” Korean Institute of Interior Design Journal, 20 no.6 (2011): 44-52.

Pearson, Paul David. “Alvar Aalto and the International Style”. (New York: Whitney Library of Design, 1978). 

Sestoft, J., & Christiansen J. H. “Guide to Danish Architecture I 1000-1960” (Copenhagen: Arkitektens Forlag, 1991).

Skjøth, Lise. “Denmark’s Louisiana Museum—age: thirty; status: work-in-progress (interview with Knud W. Jensen).” Museum International, 41, no.3, (1989): 160-164.

Ye, Jianing. “When Architecture serves Collection in daily Operation for People-Visitor Experience in Louisiana Museum of Modern Art.” (2016). Accessed from https://www.theseus.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/106613/Final%20thesis%20Jianing%20Ye.pdf