Architecture and Nature

ARKEN Museum of Contemporary Art is a state-recognized museum and the cultural beacon of the West Region. ARKEN's building was designed by Danish architect Søren Robert Lund, who surprisingly won the competition to build a new museum in Denmark while he was still a student. The museum was inaugurated in 1996 by H.M. The Queen.

With its deconstructivist inspired architecture, ARKEN is positioned as a giant beached ship in the landscape. Unique to public buildings in Denmark is the 150-meter-long axis of the museum, which is shaped like the hull of a ship, but there are also other fingerprints from the maritime world, such as the ship-shaped café overlooking Køge Bay, the raw concrete floors, porthole windows on the doors, which in many places are tall and heavy — made of steel and with visible bolts.

ARKEN has been expanded twice since: in 2008 at C.F.Møller's design studio, which was in charge of a new extension, and in 2009 Søren Robert Lund (SRL architects) designed a new entrance hall.