After Hiroshi Sambuichi’s magnificent 2017 transformation of the existing Cisternerne – an underground exhibition space in Frederiksberg, Denmark – the Japanese architecture master and the venue’s director Astrid la Cour have been working on a new, ambitious plan for the historical site and modern art hub: a permanent extension to the museum’s architecture.
Historical documents have shown a fourth chamber at the Cisternerne site (an underground reservoir system of ancient cisterns, now used to display art), in addition to the three known ones that currently make up the museum. Sambuichi plans to excavate and reveal this newly found space and re-establish a mirrored basin from the mid-1800s on ground level. The basin will be made of glass and work as a transparent roof to this new chamber.
New light-filled chamber for Cisternerne
The sun will fill the underground space with natural light and the lake-turned-ceiling will serve as a pool for children in the summer and a skating rink in the winter. Underneath this water feature, a pond will fill most of the fourth chamber. A large wooden stage and covered gangways will criss-cross the space, creating connections and pathways over the water.
‘For me, this is more than just a beautiful piece of architecture. I want this to serve as inspiration for future sustainable architecture and investigate the effects that a roof made of water will have on the light and the climate of the space,' Sambuichi explains.
Water acts as a natural filter for most of the sun's UV rays and infrared heat, but lets in daylight to the space. How this will affect the plant and animal life in the lower pond is one of the things that Sambuichi hopes to investigate during this building's design and development.
Ventilation and climate control will also be designed as a largely passive, and hence self-sufficient, system. As in Sambuichi’s Inujima Seirensho museum, a tall wind tower will help to circulate cool air around the chamber, minimising the use of more conventional air conditioning and promoting sustainable architecture.
If realised, the fourth chamber will only enhance the appeal of what is currently one of Europe's most spectacular art venues. Meanwhile, the architecture will pay homage to the relationship between man and nature, explored through this meeting between Sambuichi's sensitive design and the natural elements of sun, wind and water.
INFORMATION
-
Designer Marta de la Rica’s elegant Madrid studio is full of perfectly-pitched contradictionsThe studio, or ‘the laboratory’ as de la Rica and her team call it, plays with colour, texture and scale in eminently rewarding ways
-
‘Nothing just because it’s beautiful’: Performance artist Marina Abramović on turning her hand to furniture designMarina Abramović has no qualms about describing her segue into design as a ‘domestication’. But, argues the ‘grandmother of performance art’ as she unveils a collection of chairs, something doesn’t have to be provocative to be meaningful
-
A local’s guide to Los Angeles by defiant artist Fawn RogersOregon-born, LA-based artist Fawn Rogers gives us a personal tour of her adopted city as it hosts its sixth edition of Frieze
-
And the RIBA Royal Gold Medal 2025 goes to... SANAA!The RIBA Royal Gold Medal 2025 winner is announced – Japanese studio SANAA scoops the prestigious architecture industry accolade
-
This restored Danish country home is a celebration of woodworking – and you can book a stayDinesen Country Home has been restored to celebrate its dominant material - timber - and the craft of woodworking; now, you can stay there too
-
Architect Sou Fujimoto explains how the ‘idea of the forest’ is central to everythingSou Fujimoto has been masterminding the upcoming Expo 2025 Osaka for the past five years, as the site’s design producer. To mark the 2025 Wallpaper* Design Awards, the Japanese architect talks to us about 2024, the year ahead, and materiality, nature, diversity and technological advances
-
Greenland through the eyes of Arctic architects Biosis: 'a breathtaking and challenging environment'Danish architecture studio Biosis has long worked in Greenland, challenged by its extreme climate and attracted by its Arctic land, people and opportunity; here, founders Morten Vedelsbøl and Mikkel Thams Olsen discuss their experience in the northern territory
-
The Living Places experiment: how can architecture foster future wellbeing?Research initiative Living Places Copenhagen tests ideas around internal comfort and sustainable architecture standards to push the envelope on how contemporary homes and cities can be designed with wellness at their heart
-
Denmark’s BIG has shaped itself the ultimate studio on the quayside in CopenhagenBjarke Ingels’ studio BIG has practised what it preaches with a visually sophisticated, low-energy office with playful architectural touches
-
Tadao Ando: the self-taught contemporary architecture master who 'converts feelings into physical form’Tadao Ando is a self-taught architect who rose to become one of contemporary architecture's biggest stars. Here, we explore the Japanese master's origins, journey and finest works
-
The Kumagaya House in Saitama is a modest family home subdivided by a soaring interiorThis Kumagaya House is a domestic puzzle box taking the art of the Japanese house to another level as it intersects a minimal interior with exterior spaces, balconies and walkways
