By RICCARDO BIANCHINI - 2018-03-14

The Ordrupgaard is a renowned museum located in Chartottenlund, a municipality few kilometres north of Copenhagen, mostly dedicated to modern art.

The museum, founded in 1918, is housed in a early 20th century villa and in a famous modern-style building, opened in 2005, designed by acclaimed Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid.

The old villa, photo by Beth

Zaha Hadid’s extension

With a floor area of 1,150 square meters / 12,300 square feet, the extension is a fluid two-story building adjacent to the old villa, designed to accommodate permanent and temporary exhibitions, and a cafeteria.

The building was conceived to blur the boundaries between galleries, corridors, museum’s garden, and surrounding landscape; to further enhance this concept, Zaha Hadid adopted a black lava concrete as main material, thus creating a structure which color turns from gray to black, depending on weather and time of day.

Ordupgaard extension by Zaha Hadid, ground floor and basement plans, scale model of the building, courtesy ZHA

Elevation and cross-section drawings, 3D model, images courtesy ZHA

Photo by jelm6

Views of the extension, photos courtesy of Ordupgaard

In 2012, the museum announced Norwegian firm Snøhetta as the winner of an architectural competition for a further 1,600 square meter / 17,000 square foot extension of the museum, scheduled for completion in 2019.

A rendering of the expansion proposal by Snøhetta

Exhibition and activities

The collection of the Odrupgaard comprises mostly Danish and French works of art.

The French art collection is truly noteworthy and includes masterpieces by Ingres, Delacroix, Corot, Courbet, Manet, Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, Degas, Sisley, Gauguin and Cézanne, among others.

View of some of the works by Edgard Degas on display at the Ordrupgaard; photo Anders Sune Berg

The Ordrupgaard also includes an Art Park dedicated to the relationship between art and nature, where site-specific artworks are on show.

The museum’s premises include an interesting building designed in 1942 by Danish architect Finn Juhl, also author of the interiors of the United Nations Trusteeship Council in New York, which still retains its original furniture.

View of the Finn Juhl house, photo Anders Sune Berg

Ordrupgaard organizes temporary exhibitions and guided tours and also accommodates a research center for art.

The museum’s complex includes a shop and a cafeteria; the modern extension is fully accessible to people with disabilities, while the old villa is only partially accessible.

The lobby of the museum, photo Roland Halbe

Interior view and cafeteria, photos by malouette and Jonathan Rieke

Cover image courtesy of Ordupgaard