The new Munch Museum in Oslo

From the end of October, the world’s largest collection of works by the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch will be on display in the new Munch Museum in Oslo, designed by estudio Herreros.

The new Munch Museum, which opens in Oslo on October 22 after five years of construction, houses more than 26,000 works (paintings, sculptures, photographs, sketches and notebooks) bequeathed to the city of Oslo by the famous Norwegian painter and graphic artist Edvard Munch (1863-1944). This makes it the largest museum in the world dedicated to a single artist. The Spanish architecture firm estudio Herreros designed the building, which preserves – and presents – the cultural heritage of Edvard Munch.

The Munch Museum in the new Bjørvika district to the east of Oslo city center – the Bjørvika Barcode port development project in Oslo was designed by MVRDV – is considered a flagship project and was created through interdisciplinary collaboration. Over 100 technical consultants, museum experts and designers were involved in the project. Landmarks such as the Oslo Opera House (Snøhetta) and the Deichman Library (Lund Hagem Architect and Atelier Oslo) are also located in the immediate vicinity of the museum.

The design by estudio Herreros emerged as the winner of the architectural competition for the new Munch Museum in 2009. The Madrid-based architecture firm ultimately prevailed against Christ & Gantenbein (Basel) and REX Architects (New York), among others. Of all the projects, their museum was the only one with a vertical orientation. Twelve storeys with a height of sixty meters rise above a massive base storey. The top of the geometric building is inclined like a lambda, the eleventh letter of the Greek alphabet. The horizontally structured façade of the building is completely clad with perforated aluminum panes. They are intended to serve as translucent sun protection and prevent temperature fluctuations in the interior.

The eleven column-free exhibition galleries for permanent and temporary exhibitions are organized on 13 floors in a course that rises upwards. “We have so many possibilities in this building,” says museum director Stein Olav Henrichsen happily. For over 50 years, the collection bequeathed to the city by Edvard Munch was housed in a cramped space in the old Munch Museum to the east of Oslo’s city center. Now there is ten times more wall space and rooms of different sizes. The architects designed a gallery with a double-height ceiling for special works. The monumental paintings by Edvard Munch are now adequately presented there.

Thanks to a slot in the outer wall, the large formats that do not fit into the elevator can be transported into the museum by crane. Some exhibition rooms are even conveniently connected directly to the depot via elevators. The new building is also intended as a tourist attraction: the terrace offers a panoramic view from the 13th floor and can be enjoyed without an admission ticket. A glass elevator leads up to the viewing platform.

The Munch Museum is also set to become a new cultural center in Oslo: Concerts, literary readings and other cultural events or painting workshops and activities for children will take place there. Architect Jens Richter, who has managed the office together with Juan Herreros since 2014, is convinced: “Contemporary museums should not only see their task as presenting and storing their collections. They should also be meeting places and points of attraction in a city. The Munch Museum should not just be there for visitors who come to Oslo on a cruise ship to see The Scream. It should be a place for everyone in the city. Architecture can generate openness and transparency through structural means. This starts with the building connecting well with the outside space. And continues with a first floor that really invites people to come in.”

However, the Munch Museum is not without controversy. Due to its rather striking architecture and prominent location right next to the Opera House on Oslo’s harbor, there have been many political debates. The construction project was halted for three years in order to examine alternatives such as an extension to the old Munch Museum. With its characteristic bend towards the city center, the L-shaped museum is clearly recognizable in the cityscape from afar. “We knew it was a risk to propose a vertical museum,” explains Juan Herreros. “It is conceived as an institution that is open to the city and visible from afar, which must be visited many times because of its dynamic offering, but also because of its power as a place of concentration.”

The museum should have opened a long time ago. However, due to the coronavirus pandemic, there were delays in the delivery of fire and security doors. In addition, the indoor climate system had not yet been sufficiently tested. “The Scream” (1893), “Self-Portrait” (1895) and the large-format mural “The Sun” (1911) are just some of the iconic works by Edvard Munch that can be seen in the new museum in Oslo. The representative of symbolism is considered a pioneer of expressionist modernism.

You can watch a virtual tour with this animation.

The city of Frankfurt am Main is also enriched by a new museum. Find out here why Christoph Mäckler’s Romanticism Museum is a pioneer.