Concept and direction for redesigning the Museum

While I quite like Utzon’s design and its intricacy, I felt I would like to experiment with the use of transparency and reflection in my representation of the Silkeborg design. To successfully experiment with these two ideas, I decided to place the building so that the bottom half was underwater instead of underground. By doing this, I’ll be able to use different types of glass to create different impressions of various views of the ocean.
I felt that keeping the design as a museum would create conflict between Asger’s artwork and the surrounding scenery thereby lowering the value of his work. I’m considering changing the purpose of the building to possibly a high class restaurant and night club. One of the words I’m using is discovery and I, in keeping with Utzon’s design, aim to use this as a central theme behind the design and re design it so that customers will b able to use the ramps to seat at different areas and levels of the building. Each of these areas will have different views of the ocean and sea beds, and customers will have to walk through it all to get to their seats for dinner. Then they’ll have to continue downstairs and can enter the 1st of the three chambers which will each have a different type of dance area. I haven’t decided on what the wether I’ll add glass to the chambers or leave them all solid, though it might just depend on the style of each chamber.

Quote

"The design buried the museum in the earth, to make it less intrusive to the landscape. This also provided Utzon with an excuse to introduce curved subterranean shapes, sculpted and hollowed out like giant pots buried in the ground. At Silkeborg, Utzon's temptation to dig into and explore the subterranean gravel deposits left by retreating ice sheets was understandable. The Asger Jorn museum design has a secretive, voluptuous quality, its main spaces excavated below ground level and only accessible from the top. The internal circulation, using criss-crossing walkways bridging the vertical gallery spaces, enhanced the dynamic interplay and added greatly to the endless quality of those spaces. In this way, the museum acquired an unfinished restless turbulence similar to an Asger Jorn canvas."

Drew, Phillip; The Masterpiece Jorn Utzon; A Secret Life, Hardie Grant Books, 1999

Chosen 3 words

1. Entwining
2. Natural
3. Discovery

10 emotive words

1. Entwining
2. Natural
3. Non-standardized
4. Discovery
5. Contrasting
6. Cavern-like
7. Atmosphere
8. Complicated
9. Boundaries
10. Modern

inital reflection of Utzon's design

While the Silkeborg museum remains unbuilt, the design itself has pushed the boundaries of modern architecture and introduced a new standard to architectural style internationally. Utzon’s design shows his interest and exploration into the use of non standardized geometric shapes and structures in his design, which can also be seen through his design of the Sydney Opera House and the Kuwait Embassy.
Utzon’s use of contrasting linear structures above ground and curved structures below ground give the museum a much more encompassing and natural feel to building which is unusual but still conforms to the concept of blending the building into its surroundings. As the main focus of Utzon’s design was to allow the viewers to feel more involved and connected to Asger’s painting and sculptures, the hollowed out caverns and entwining ramps create a feeling off discovery as the viewers are required to ‘travel’ through the museum and view the artwork in their own time and order.
The use of light was evidently a principal idea in the building’s design. The amount of skylights, especially in the cavern-like rooms, show how Utzon considered the importance of lighting to the feel and atmosphere of the building. The ability to change the lighting from natural sunlight to a spotlight creates the possibility of changing the viewer’s experience of Asger’s artworks.
While the design for the Silkeborg museum is somewhat complicated, I believe that this was required to emphasise the experience and feel of Ager’s artwork.

Website link

http://www.ahrabiek.com/

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