On Wednesday, the stage was set for a press screening of the Munch Museum in Bjørvika in Oslo. The museum was solemnly opened by museum director Stein Olav Henrichsen, city councilor Raymond Johansen and city councilor Omar Gamal. The museum opens to the public on Friday.
The architecture of the new building has been hotly debated for a long time. The exterior of the aluminum museum has been compared to car guards. Dagbladet’s commentator, Inger Merete Hobbelstad, wrote the following in a comment:
– Pick down the guardrail.
One of those who also previously has reacted to the exterior is the architect and writer of Morgenbladet, Gaute Brochmann.
– When I come from Kvadraturen, the Munch Museum looks like a threatening black shadow, a coke-gray block, which leans over the Opera, Brochmann told Dagbladet in 2019.
– I we say that the Munch Museum sucks, both in the sense that it does not look good – but also in the sense that it sucks all the light out of Bjørvika, he continued.
How cheap is “car protection”
Butcher inside
Now the inside is also slaughtered. Professor of architecture at NTNU, Charles Alexander Booker, visited the museum on Sunday, and was not impressed by what he saw. He thinks the doors, details, floor and ceiling look cheap.
– I have been to better parking spaces. It’s probably the worst “public face” for a new museum I’ve ever been to, Booker wrote in a comment on Facebook.
OPENS FRIDAY: October 22, the museum opens to the public. Photo: Bjørn Langsem / Dagbladet
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– Feels cheap
Dagbladet contacts Booker, and he elaborates on the criticism. He says he has not seen the whole museum, only the cafe. He thinks it looks like “a generic business premises”.
– I have a lot of experience with museums, having visited museums in Scandinavia and Europe throughout my career, and I have never experienced anything that feels as cheap as the new museum, says the art professor to Dagbladet.
Booker elaborates:
– It seems like standard material without any kind of quality or thoughtful expression. It’s similar to an office landscape. Canteen in an office.
He believes the Munch Museum has no robustness for posterity.
– To put it that way, new school buildings often have better materials and qualities than the new Munch Museum. They are more thoughtful.
The Spanish architectural firm Estudio Herreros has designed the signal building. Dagbladet meets the two architects Juan Herreros and Jens Richter during the opening of the museum.
The two are presented with the criticism that has come. Herreros believes the Munch Museum is not a building that tries to be luxurious.
– It is a democratically open space. It is more a place to come to be, says Herreros to Dagbladet.
The rest of the answer from the architects comes further down in the case.
ARCHITECT: Juan Herreros is one of the architects behind the new Munch Museum. Photo: Bjørn Langsem / Dagbladet
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– Vulgar
– Cold and impersonal
Gaute Brochmann agrees with Booker, and also thinks the inside of the museum is disappointing.
– The outside has all been known to be broken for a few years now. When I was inside Deichmanske, for example, or the new National Museum, there were wow experiences. Here it was the opposite, says Brochmann to Dagbladet and continues:
– It was cold. Impersonal. Quite unambitious. These are empty, large rooms that are most reminiscent of what one would expect from a medium-sized airport somewhere in Europe. Gardermoen is much nicer, Brochmann thinks.
Strikes back against criticism
The architects answer
From the criticism that has previously come about the exterior, Juan Herreros in Estudio Herreros says that they understand the situation.
– We believe we have been a part of it, and tried to do our best. We have been in dialogue and changed the project several times due to the reactions. One must look for the best balance between opinions, budget and stability. The result for me is that it is very well balanced, says Herreros.
Furthermore, he says that the intention is not to create something spectacular.
– We will create a museum with a homely content where people will want to be, says Herreros.
Richter says that the architects have listened to and participated in many of the discussions about the design of the museum.
– Of course, this is exposed to different opinions, and that is good. But we look forward to all the people being able to come to the building, and make up their own minds, Richter tells Dagbladet.
