After two years of construction, the new extension of the ARKEN Museum of Modern Art in Copenhagen is ready to open on January 26. With this new extension, an exhibition space that consists of 5,000 meters squares, the Danish museum will be twice as large as it is now.

The original building, which opened in 1996, was designed by architect Søren Lund who won the commission while still a student. Despite praise for the design and high visitor numbers (995,000 in 2006), the building’s concrete walls and irregular shapes have proved unwieldy when hanging temporary exhibitions, a problem which the extension is meant to address.

While Søren Lund remained a consultant on the E6m ($8.8m) extension, the principal design was undertaken by architects C.F. Møller. The costs were split one-third to two-thirds between the Copenhagen local government and the museum’s own fundraising.

The new exhibition halls have been given very clean lines and are laid out as four large, white rooms in dynamic contact with each other. (Image: C.F. Møller)

Read more (The Art Newspaper, January 24, 2008)