Kalmar Museum of Modern Art by Tham + Videgard Hansson Arkitekter

Kalmar Museum of Modern Art in Sweden was designed by Stockholm-based architects Tham + Videgard Hansson Arkitekter.

The four-storey building is clad in black wooden panels.

Tham + Videgard Hansson Arkitekter designed some of the furniture for the interior, which comprises exposed concrete, black-stained plywood doors and panels and white walls.

The museum will house the Kalmar collection of modern art as well as providing spaces for temporary exhibitions, videos, performances and concerts.

The museum was opened to the public in May last year.

Here’s some more information from the architects:

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The new Kalmar Museum of Art is the result of a winning proposal in the open international competition in 2004 and will be inaugurated in 2007. Situated in the City Park of the renaissance town of Kalmar, it will be added to a restaurant pavilion dating from the 1930s by Swedish modernist architect Sven-Ivar Lind.

The new museum is a black four-level cube clad with large scale wooden panels punctuated by large glazed openings. It will house both the Kalmar collection of Modern Art as well as provide spaces for temporary exhibitions of contemporary art, videos, performances and concerts.

Almost domestic in its scale this museum still provides a variety of exhibition conditions. The two main spaces are the White Box where one side can open up completely to bring in the exterior of the park, and the top floor gallery that is lit by shed head light shafts doubling its ceiling height. In addition there is a public Art Library and open Workshops.

One of the architectural main features is the open stair spiralling the full height of the building, starting from the new entrance lobby that interconnects between lake-side and park. It is a top lit space with all surfaces in exposed in situ cast concrete.

The four floors, each different from the others, are stacked on top of each other and create a vertical walk up into the greenery of the trees with a series of different spacial experiences while offering views of the environs; the Kalmar Castle, the lake and the city centre.

Construction is in situ cast concrete, the big spans are made with ‘after tension’ slabs. Interior finishes are exposed concrete, black stained plywood doors and panels, white painted walls and ceilings, natural ash.

TVH has also designed some furniture; the green bock-tables, the hexagon tables in white ash and stell/carrara, the museum bench, library shelves.

Assignment name: KALMAR MUSEUM OF ART
Client: MUNICIPALITY OF KALMAR
Year completed: (2007-8)
Location: KALMAR, SWEDEN.
Square meters: 1594 sqm + existing.
Time to build: 18 months

Additional facts:
Open International Competition 2004
294 proposals from 16 countries around the world
TVH’s proposal PLATFORM, 1st prize February 2005.
Construction works started August 2006.
Open to the public May 10th 2008.

Architects:
THAM & VIDEGÅRD HANSSON ARKITEKTER
Bolle Tham and Martin Videgård Hansson
Collaborators: Lukas Thiel (project architect) Tove Belfrage, Erik Wåhlström, Johan Bergholm

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