BIG Architects: National Gallery of Greenland
National Gallery of Greenland’ by Bjarke Ingels Group in Nuuk, Greenland
All images courtesy Bjarke Ingels Group

Danish architects Bjarke Ingels Group has won the invited competition to design the Greenland’s new National Gallery of art in the Capital City of Nuuk. A collaborative effort with TNT nuuk, Ramboll nuuk, andarkitekti, the proposal was unanimously selected over six other nordic architects including Norwegian Snøhetta and finnish Heikkinen-komonen.

Conceived as a projection of a geometrically perfect circle on the sloped site, the new 3000 m2 museum is a courtyard building that combines a comprehensive layout with a sensitive adaption to the landscape. The resulting form resembles a melted ring that follows the natural topography to imply the metaphor of a glacier or drifting snow.

The danish functionalist architecture in Nuuk is typically square boxes which ignore the unique nature of Greenland. We therefore propose a National Gallery which is both physically and visually in harmony with the dramatic nature, just like life in Greenland is a symbiosis of the nature. We have created a simple, functional and symbolic shape, where the perfect circle is supplied by the local topography which creates a unique hybrid between the abstract shape and the specific location’, says Bjarke Ingels, founder and partner of BIG.

The centre of the melted ring hosts an internal courtyard and an outdoor sculpture garden. Serving as the museum’s focal point, the slope of the courtyard allows the space to open up towards the city and the view.

The cyclical shape of the gallery enables a flexible division of the exhibition space according to individual needs. Much like the Guggenheim Museum’s rotunda layout in New York, a ramp and staircase form a coherent cycle from arrival through mezzanine and auditorium to exhibition loop and back again.

Project info
Client: Nunatta Eqqumiitsulianik Saqqumersitsivia
Collaboration: TNT nuuk, rambøll buuk, arkitekti, MIR, glessner group
Partner in charge: Bjarke Ingels, Andreas Pedersen
Project leader: Jakob Henke
Team: Daniel Selensky, Ji-young Yoon, Gul Ertekin, Aleksander Tokarz, Alessio Zenaro,
Johan Cool, Nickla Antoni Rasch

more: www.big.dk