The ARoS Art Museum in Aarhus, Denmark has revealed the design of their €40 million expansion plan, the largest museum project by James Turrell.
The extension of the museum into a building named the Next Level will include a 1,200-square-meter underground gallery space, and two semi-subterranean art installations called The Sphere and The Dome.
Access from the main museum building to the Next Level will be via corridors such as this. Courtesy Schmidt Hammer Lassen
“The ambition is through this extension and the triennial ‘The Garden’ to create an art museum for the future and become one of the leading museums in Europe,” said ARoS Art Museum director Erlend G. Høyersten, of the Next Level project to artnet News.
The design is a collaboration between Turrell and the original architects of the museum, Schmidt Hammer Lassen. The project is slated to open in 2020, and one of the highlights of the new space that will appear like a grass-covered mound from outside, is the forty-foot dome with a Turrell Skyspace installed at its pinnacle.
A render of the internal entrance to the Next Level. Courtesy Schmidt Hammer Lassen
The design, seen as a merging of architecture and art, takes the public from the main museum space to the new exhibition halls via a corridor containing a light installation. The space, with a length of 120 meters of gallery space, culminates with The Dome.
A render of the ARoS Museum of Art with the Next Level installed in front. Courtesy Schmidt Hammer Lassen
The museum already boasts Rainbow Panorama by Olafur Eliasson on the roof of the main building and the addition of this architecture and art collaboration with Turrell will make for a truly striking vista.
This appears to be the start of an exciting time of expansion for the museum on many fronts as they launch the first ARoS triennial that will take place next year in Aarhus. “THE GARDEN – End of Times; Beginning of Times” will be divided into three sections–the past, present, and future–featuring work by Edvard Munch, Elmgreen & Dragset, and Katharina Grosse, and many others.