In the protected dune landscape along the Danish west coast, the architects Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) have created a spectacular yet almost completely hidden museum. Louis Poulsen was in charge of the lighting plan, and designed a customised fixture for the project
At first glance, the Tirpitz Museum does not take your breath away. But the building’s ingenious concept becomes apparent as soon as you move down the four entrances which cut through the harsh dune landscape like corridors. From here, you step into the museum’s central space, which is surrounded by four gigantic, underground exhibition rooms.
From the outset, light played a key role in designing the 2,800-square-metre exhibition space, which with its large open glass sections stands in strong contrast to the gloomy bunker behind.
Louis Poulsen developed a lighting plan for the project as well as a new pendant. The pure, conical shape effectively directs the light downwards, and ensures that the pendant illuminates the space and the exhibits without disturbing the dramatic effect of the exhibitions.
Ole Elkjær-Larsen, architect at BIG and project manager on the
Tirpitz project, explains:
“We knew beforehand that the building would require very flexible lighting, and therefore planned numerous and complex sockets in all the rooms, so that we could be sure of being able to install light fixtures exactly where we wanted. During this process, the idea arose of developing a fixture which would house these complex functions rather than incorporating them in the building. And as we’ve worked very successfully with Louis Poulsen in the past, it made sense to contact them again.”
“In addition to the functional and technical requirements, we wanted to create a fixture which harmonises with the museum’s simple design idiom and execution in pure materials such as concrete, glass and steel. Everything is stripped down to the basics with absolutely no decoration – and that was also the sort of lamp we wanted. Therefore, we developed an LED fixture in a tight conical shape in galvanised zinc, which is perfectly suited to a building where nothing is painted, and everything is raw and naked and honest,” says Ole Elkjær-Larsen, who is particularly pleased with the result, and the overall experience provided by the fixture in the finished museum.
The museum is situated near Varde in west Jutland, next to the old cannon bunker Tirpitz, which the Germans constructed in 1944 during their occupation of Denmark. The museum is built into a man-made sandbank leading up to the bunker. By bringing together three museums in a single building, a spectacular cultural institution has been created in the otherwise totally protected area.
