The buildings
Moderna Museet in Stockholm:
Total space: 15 000 sq m
Exhibition space: 5 000 sq m
Public areas: 1 000 sq m
Map/Moderna Museet in Stockholm (pdf)
The history of Moderna Museet dates back to 1958 and the navy drill hall that originally housed the museum. In the early 1990s, the government decided that new, larger premises should be purpose-built for the museum on Skeppsholmen. So the Moderna Museet relocated its collection and exhibitions to the tram sheds on Birger Jarlsgatan in 1996, while the new museum was being constructed.
Following an international competition, the assignment to design the new Moderna Museet went to the Spanish architect Rafael Moneo, who implemented his plans together with White architects. The idea was to inaugurate the new building in 1998, the year Stockholm was Cultural Capital of Europe. Everyone was happy and enthusiastic when it opened according to plan on 12 February that year. Moderna Museet with its prestigious collection and history had finally got the world-class building it deserved, and the visitor numbers proved it was a success.
It takes time to learn how to use a new building, and after a few years it was fairly clear that some things worked well and others not so well. Then came the bad news: damp and damages and other smaller faults were discovered, with serious consequences. The building had to be closed for repairs on 15 January, 2002.
It was sad having to close down a new building. But at the same time, it gave the museum a chance to improve the building in several ways. The task of analysing and improving the museum interior - using small means - was undertaken by the architect group Marge, with a team consisting of Pye Aurell Ehrström, Katarina Grundsell, Louise Masreliez and Susanne Ramel (all members of SAR). The basic idea was to have more open spaces, to make it easier to navigate between the different floors and to give some spaces a more inviting atmosphere.
In time for the reopening on 14 February 2004, Moderna Museet also had a new graphic profile, designed by Stockholm Design Lab. SDL has also designed the museum's signage.
Moderna Museet Malmö
The building of Moderna Museet Malmö unites past and present – the beginning of 1900 - and 2000-century.
Exhibition space: 809.5 square metres
Pedagogical workshop: 107 square metres
In 1901 architect John Smedberg established a beautiful electricity plant building on Gasverksgatan 22, whose glowing gasholder long insured Malmö residents that electricity was guaranteed. A little over a hundred years later, the building – and neighbourhood – had changed. Following the closure of successful art museum Rooseum, Moderna Museet was approached as new tenants. In 2008 it became clear that the Moderna Museet Malmö would open as a subsidiary to Stockholm, in one of Sweden's most beautiful exhibition halls. It would be time to re-fill the old electricity plant building with art.
The mission to transform the building into a more appropriate museum went to the award-winning architect firm Tham & Videgård Hansson Arkitekter. They chose to establish a new annex - a contemporary addition to the historic building. And give the interior an entirely new spatial order. The construction process, which began in spring 2009, was taking place in full speed in order to be ready for the inauguration of the Moderna Museet Malmö, on December 26, 2009.
The new annex get its characteristics by a perforated orange-red facade, which connects to the brick architecture of the old building. On street level the façade is fully glazed, so that daylight filters through the perforated surfaces. Interiorly two new staircases will allow visitors to move in a loop between the high rooms of the turbine hall and the upper exhibition halls. The turbine hall is separated in three and contains except the exhibition halls a pedagogical workshop. Moderna Museet Malmö will meet the highest requirements for climate and security, allowing international borrowing and exhibitions with the foremost modern and contemporary art.