Museum in the Dock

Bruce Peter Architects: Bjarke Ingels Group Exhibition Design: Kossmann.dejong

ARVINIUS + ORFEUS

2



3

Bruce Peter Architects: Bjarke Ingels Group Exhibition Design: Kossmann.dejong

ARVINIUS + ORFEUS

FOREWORD INTRODUCTION

6 8

MARITIME DENMARK AND HELSINGØR

11

Historic Timelines

22

ON THE HIGH SEAS: PROJECT FOR A NEW MUSEUM How it All Began BIG

DIGGING DEEP: CIVIL ENGINEERING AND CONSTRUCTION

THE NEW MUSEUM EXPERIENCE: CURATING THE EXHIBITIONS

ADVENTURE AND EXPLORATION: A TOUR OF THE MUSEUM Danish Ships Today The Opening Ceremony

MAKING IT POSSIBLE: THE SUPPORTING FOUNDATIONS

39

50 68

79

119

159

182 188

193

6

  C H A P T E R 0

Denmark has a new maritime museum next to Kronborg Castle, an edifice which for centuries has been a landmark for seafarers and which in Danish literature is synonymous with the maritime scene. The museum’s site is one where, between 1882 and 1985, one of Denmark’s most significant and progressive modern shipyards was located.

Over the period of a number of years, new proposals were made to replace the previous Handels- og Søfartsmuseet (Danish Maritime Museum) in Kronborg, but only around 2004 did this work become more concrete when the project’s rationale was formulated. This was to create a new museum, fusing past with present, in which the exhibitions and the architectural envelope would be of equal interest and merit to ensure visitors of a memorable experience. They may now judge the extent to which this vision has been fulfilled.

The chosen site for the new museum in Helsingør showed itself to have extremely challenging underground conditions, making the construction project among the most complicated ever undertaken in Denmark and involving preparation works 42 metres deep below ground level.

The museum project was achieved thanks to help coming from many directions.

First and foremost, loud thanks must be directed towards the eleven foundations which made the museum’s development possible. These include ones directly related to the shipping industry and others from out with the maritime sector.

Their ‘joint venture’ enabled each to have an equal influence over the project’s development. Furthermore, the collaboration between professional experts from

7

F O R E W O R D

a variety of diverse disciplines helped to make its realisation unique. Architects, engineers, exhibition designers and the Clerk of Works have all devoted a remarkable amount of time and energy.

A large number of suppliers both at home and abroad have also been involved.

The museum’s construction process was decidedly non-standard and, for many participants, it involved not only surprises and professional challenges but also delight when things went well. Over and above those firms directly involved in the building work, the project was greatly assisted by many individuals, businesses, public and private institutions, each of which in its own way contributed generously to its achievement.

It has been an exciting journey to follow the museum’s coming to fruition from the initial idea stage to the finished result, presented to the public on 5 October 2013. It is therefore with pleasure that we have assisted the author of this book, Bruce Peter, to place on record the story of the museum’s creation and its historical and geographical contexts.

The old Handels- og Søfartsmuseet in Kronborg has changed its name to ‘Museet for Søfart’ to reflect its rebirth and to show that maritime trade is its primary focus.

We hope that the museum will thrive and continue to develop in its new building.

Dan Pode Poulsen Maritim Museums Byg

Mette Christensen Maritim Museums Fond

The building of a new maritime museum in Helsingør represents a remarkable adventure in architecture, civil and structural engineering. Denmark is presently one of the world’s leading maritime nations; its merchant fleet carries over 10% of global sea trade, and Danish-owned vessels ship nearly a quarter of all goods in and out of Chinese ports – a quite remarkable achievement for a nation with a population of only about five-and-ahalf million people.

chapter 1

Yet despite its prominent role in Denmark’s economy – not to mention the great size of modern ships themselves – the shipping industry can seem almost invisible to those not directly involved in its development and day-to-day operations. Not surprisingly, the Danish shipping community is keen to communicate much better with the public the importance of shipping and the contributions made by Danish merchant ships in making possible a contemporary world of mass production, mass distribution, mass consumption and mass leisure.

Nowadays, the largest proportion of the activities in the contemporary Danish maritime industry take place far away from Denmark, and so it was felt that a place was needed to inform the general public about this hidden but important part of commercial life. The New Maritime Museum was conceived as a significant public venue, displaying and telling a fascinating story of the development of Danish maritime history from the Middle Ages until the present era.

How fitting, then, that this under-recognized economy should be represented by a building that also hides in plain sight. On first approaching the museum from Helsingør’s new Kulturhavn (Cultural Harbour), visitors will find it almost invisible, as beneath ground and water level, seven thousand square metres of circulation and exhibition space are ingeniously concealed. Suddenly, one comes upon the enormous deep concrete void of an old shipyard dry dock, forming the heart of the museum and across which broad steel ramps gently descend to the entrance. The design by the youthful but internationally acclaimed architectural practice Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) is quite unlike any other museum in the world and proved immensely challenging to execute. In text, photographs and architectural drawings, this book documents the story of how the new museum came to be commissioned, constructed and curated.

MARITIME DENMARK AND HELSINGØR Historic Timelines

12

chapter 1

M ar i t i me D e n mar k a n d H e l s i n g ø r

13

Helsingør’s maritime traditions date back to medieval times. The town’s name reflects its position at the neck (in Danish, ‘hals’) at the north end of the Øresund strait. In the 1420s, the Danish King Erik of Pomerania built a castle to extract a toll, known as the ‘Sound Dues,’ from every ship passing en route between the Baltic Sea and the wider world.

A century-and-a-half later, King Frederik II had the castle grandly rebuilt to a design by the Flemish architects Hans Hendrik van Paesschen and Anthonis van Obbergen. With an elegant new silhouette and sumptuously ornate interiors, it was re-named Kronborg.

14

chapter 1

M ar i t i me D e n mar k a n d H e l s i n g ø r

After Kronborg suffered a serious fire in 1629, a further reconstruction took place, but in 1658 it was captured by Sweden and its interiors were stripped of their decorative enrichments. From 1739 until the 1900s, Kronborg served as a military barracks and prison.

On 5 June 1883, there was a festive atmosphere in Helsingør when Helsingørs Jernskibsværft´s first vessel, the steamship Helsingør, was launched. She was ordered by Mads Holm to give his shipyard an initial boost but, during construction, was purchased by a recently-established local company, Det Helsingørske Dampskibsselskab, for use in the Baltic and North Sea tramp trades. In January 1893, however, she sank in a violent storm off the Essex coast, but fortunately her crew was rescued and landed safely in Harwich. Their journey back home to Helsingør was

In the mid-nineteenth century, Denmark faced international pressure to abolish the Sound Dues. Not only was this toll seen as an anachronism in the age of steam propulsion but also contrary to the liberal political and economic principals which defined the modern industrial era. When this happened in 1857, Kronborg and Helsingør lost their primary raison d’être. Once the Danish Army vacated half of the castle, the empty halls were converted into a maritime museum, known as ‘Handels- og Søfartsmuseet’, which opened in 1915. The idea was to tell the story of Danish shipping, both merchant and military, from ancient times until the 1900s. In 1957, however, the military exhibits were moved to the Orlogsmuseet in Copenhagen and subsequently in 1969, a new Viking Museum opened in Roskilde.

Shortly thereafter, a museum was built in Esbjerg to tell the story of North Sea fishing. Consequently, Handels- og Søfartsmuseet’s brief altered in stages to concentrate on the Danish merchant marine from the Middle Ages onwards.

an adventure in itself as Denmark’s inshore waters were solidly iced over, making travel very difficult. This image was originally printed in the newspaper .

In the interim, the scene in the castle’s foreground had altered dramatically due to the effects of the industrial revolution and the construction of a large,

15

modern shipyard. Although there had been a tradition of wooden shipbuilding in Helsingør dating back to medieval times, modern shipbuilding began there in 1882. Founded by one of Denmark’s leading shipping entrepreneurs, Mads Christian Holm, Helsingørs Jernskibsværft og Maskinbyggeri (The Helsingør Iron Shipyard and Engine Works) was one of the largest and best equipped in Denmark. Over the next hundred years, many fine ships were built and repaired there.

In the mid-1950s, the Helsingør Shipyard was at its peak of success and it was the town’s main industry, employing around 3,600 people. A healthy order book enabled some much needed modernisation to occur – including the construction of a large new dry dock in place of the 1882-vintage original. As it is in and around this dock that the new Maritime Museum has been constructed, it is worth recounting the circumstances and challenges of its formation.

The new dry dock was urgently needed for two reasons. Firstly, the old 1882 dock was beginning to disintegrate due to the unstable sandy ground conditions surrounding it, made more acute by high water pressure pushing up from below and inwards from each side. Secondly, the size of ships being

16

chapter 1

M ar i t i me D e n mar k a n d H e l s i n g ø r

17

contracted for building and repair in Helsingør had grown during the past half century and was expected to rise still further during ensuing decades.

Therefore, a new dry dock would be a necessary investment to ensure the yard’s future success – albeit an expensive one. The shipyard’s management decided that a dock measuring 146.10 metres in length by 21.34 metres in breadth and with a depth of 7.3 metres would be optimal – meaning that the new dock would be larger than its predecessor by more than a half.

Due to the site’s unstable geology, comprising mainly waterlogged sand interspersed with decayed vegetation, the civil engineering and construction challenges were quite daunting. Details of the dry dock’s design and construction are recorded in a detailed article by the civil engineer Jørgen Paulsen in the April 1957 edition of the technical journal Ingeniøren (The Engineer). In this article, Paulsen explains that in 1953, the shipyard appointed A Jeppesen & Son as builders and E. Smedegård as project engineer. Jeppesen in fact submitted two bids – one of Dkr 5,270,000 to build the dock with extra-thick reinforced concrete walls so as to withstand the upward and inward water pressure that had over time begun to dislodge the existing dock, and another bid that was Dkr 900,000 cheaper. The cost savings in the latter would be achieved by using a somewhat lighter, yet more ingenious engineering solution. By building the dock’s bottom considerably wider than the dock itself as a reinforced concrete plate with a broad lip protruding beyond the dock’s walls, it would be possible to make positive use of the weight of soil pushing downwards and inwards

In 1896 Helsingørs Jernskibsværft og Maskinbyggeri commissioned a second dry dock, adjacent to the original one. In this 1922 photograph, the coastal steamship Aaro is receiving attention in it; to the left is DFDS’ Baltic-Mediterranean cargo vessel Saga while to the right, DSB’s new Gedser-Warnemünde train ferry Danmark is almost ready for delivery.

18

chapter 1

to counteract the upward and outward pressure of the ground water. That way, an equilibrium of forces could be achieved by natural means, rather than solely through the construction of a weighty mass of concrete. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the shipyard preferred this less expensive solution and so it formed the basis of what was actually constructed.

Nonetheless, the project’s statistics were impressive.

Removing the old dock involved blowing up and demolishing 10,000 cubic metres of brick, stone and concrete. An additional 35,000 cubic metres of soil and sand were excavated to enlarge the site while 1,000 tons of corrugated iron retaining wall was installed around the perimeter, held in place by timber spars. To build the new dock, 16,000 cubic metres of concrete were poured. The work took just over a year to complete between November 1953 and February 1955 and, throughout this period, shipbuilding and repairs continued as best as possible on the remainder of the yard’s site.

When it was finished, the new dock was considered state-of-the-art. Not only was its design and construction up-to-date, but it was also equipped with electrically-operated dock gates and pumps which could fill or empty it in two-and-a-half hours. On one side, a tower swing-crane was installed, capable of lifting up to 12 tons at a time. Yet, the dock was conceived solely as a functional industrial structure and there was no notion that it might eventually have an afterlife as a museum. Thus, the standard of its construction and detailing was strictly utilitarian and, over half a century thereafter, this rather minimal approach would have consequences for those charged with overseeing its radical conversion.

By the 1960s, car ownership was growing rapidly throughout Europe and, in Denmark, DSB became a major operator of car ferries, as well as ones carrying trains. Its Halsskov-Knudshoved route across the Great Belt was so popular that a succession of progressively bigger vessels was introduced. The Arveprins Knud of 1963 could carry over 340 cars, loaded simultaneously on three different decks and, upon entering service, was claimed as the most capacious of her type in the world. She is pictured here

From the latter 1950s onwards, orders for new tonnage proved harder to find, not least because of competition from new shipyards in Japan where

leaving the Helsingør Shipyard for sea trials, with a busy scene of other vessels under construction and repair in the background.

M ar i t i me D e n mar k a n d H e l s i n g ø r

19

20

chapter 1

M ar i t i me D e n mar k a n d H e l s i n g ø r

21

labour costs were lower and the employees’ work ethic was arguably stronger. Fewer ships were built, but ship repairs became an increasingly important part of the business.

Shipbuilding in Helsingør ended in 1983 when three ro-ro freight ferries were completed for Iraq, but due to the imposition of international sanctions during the Iraq-Iran War, these were never delivered. It was almost precisely a century since the first ship had been launched there. Thereafter, the yard continued only as a ship repair facility until 1985 when the last workers left and the gates were shut.

The new dry dock is seen during the final stages of construction in the mid-1950s; from a civil engineering perspective, the project was challenging but it enabled the shipyard to build and repair the larger vessels of the era. Nowadays, the same rough concrete dock walls form the centrepiece of the ew Maritime Museum and so these photographs make for a striking comparison with ones later in this book.

Since the 1980s, however, there have been many advances in the design of merchant ships and port infrastructure, in systems design for tracking cargo and in the training of seafarers and shipping managers. Today, Denmark has one of the world’s biggest and most up-to-date merchant fleets. Several of the largest container ships ever built are owned

by Maersk Line, the world’s leading liner shipping company in terms of total tonnage and routes served, while Torm, Lauritzen and Norden operate large bulk carriers and oil tankers. These famous Danish shipping lines are all headquartered in and around Copenhagen. Their impressive vessels are built mainly in China and South Korea and each one is many times the size of the largest constructed in Helsingør. Few of them ever visit Danish territorial waters, but instead are employed on international routes, ‘cross-trading’ between the world’s regions of surging economic development – for example, between China and South America, or between India and Vietnam. Yet, much of the money they earn is banked in Denmark and shipping contributes greatly to the national economy; in 2012, the Danish maritime industry as a whole earned two hundred billion kroner.

22

chapter 1

Historic Timelines

1420s In the 1420s, the Danish King Erik of Pomerania builds a castle to extract a toll from every ship passing en route between the Baltic Sea and the wider world.

Danish maritime history and the shipyard

1629 A fire started accidentally by workmen destroys the castle.

1658-1660 The castle is besieged, then captured by Sweden and its interiors are stripped of their decorative enrichments.

Kronborg castle 1574-1585s King Frederik II has the castle grandly rebuilt according to a design by the Flemish architects Hans Hendrik van Paesschen and Anthonis van Obbergen. With an elegant new silhouette and sumptuously ornate interiors, it is renamed Kronborg.

1631-1639 The castle is comprehensively rebuilt by King Christian IV to a design by Hans van Steenwinckel the Younger.

H IS T O R I C T I M E LIN E S

23

1827 Mads Christian Holm, who would later found Helsingør’s famous shipyard, is born on the island of Mors on the Limfjord in Northern Jutland. Holm would go on to become an important figure in Danish industrialisation and in the creation of Denmark’s modern merchant navy.

1850s Holm serves his apprenticeship as a ship’s carpenter in large sailing vessels trading between Europe and America’s Pacific Seaboard, via Cape Horn. After a few years at sea, when the full-rigger on which he is serving anchors in San Francisco Bay, he goes ashore.

1739-1900 From 1739 until the 1900s, Kronborg serves as a military barracks and prison.

1688-1690 The castle’s defensive walls are greatly strengthened and a new series of ramparts are built, making one of the most secure strongholds in Northern Europe.

1785-1922 The castle is under military administration.

1772 Queen Caroline Mathilde, sister of King George III of Britain, is imprisoned in the castle.

1857 Following international pressure on Denmark, the toll on ships passing Helsingør is abolished. The toll is considered an anachronism in the age of steam propulsion and also contrary to the liberal political and economic principals defining the modern industrial era. Kronborg and Helsingør lose their primary raison d’être.

24

chapter 1

1856 Holm returns to Denmark, settling in Aabenraa, a busy port in Southern Jutland, where he leases a shipyard and continues his shipbuilding and repair career. Soon, he begins operating sailing ships too.

1852 While California is gripped by gold rush fever, Holm establishes a shipyard in San Francisco Bay where the city of Oakland is today. There, he repairs sailing ships. This proves to be a very lucrative business.

Kronborg castle

1871 Steam power rapidly begins to play a more dominant role in the Danish merchant fleet, and so Holm founds a new steamship company called Dampskibsselskabet Norden. Its first vessel, the Norden, is built in Glasgow.

1862 Sea trade in the Baltic region grows exponentially, and in 1862 Holm decides to move his shipping offices to Copenhagen.

1882 Helsingør Jernskibsværft og Maskinbyggeri opens with three launchways and a large dry dock, each one of these facilities being approximately 100 metres in length. Unfortunately for Holm, shipbuilding is experiencing a brief downturn but within a few years, the economy recovers and satisfactory numbers of orders are received both for new steamships and iron-hulled sailing ships.

1870s Holm’s Dampskibs-Selskabet NORDEN makes good profits trading to the Mediterranean – and even to the Far East – and so more steamers are acquired. Next, Holm decides to develop a shipyard and, among a variety of potential sites, he becomes interested in the possibilities offered by Helsingør. Although the town is steeped in nautical tradition, it badly needs a bold and imaginative investor to bring it into the steam age. Unfortunately for him, the military authorities who occupy Kronborg Castle are dubious about his plans, as the shipyard will be right next to their property. But Helsingør’s town councillors warmly support the initiative, believing it will bring a new phase of employment and prosperity.

H IS T O R I C T I M E LIN E S

25

1896 Helsingør Jernskibsværft og Maskinbyggeri issues new shares to fund expansion and these are bought by the shipbuilder Burmeister & Wain and the shipping company Det Forenede Dampskibs-Selskab (DFDS).

1892 Mads Christian Holm ends his energetic life on a high note; he dies in 1892.

Shipbuilding in Helsingør continues for another 90 years.

1913 Burmeister & Wain sells its shares in Helsingør Jernskibsværft og Maskinbyggeri to DFDS, which buys additional shares and becomes the majority owner.

Thereafter, the yard builds many new ships for DFDS and regularly overhauls the company’s existing vessels.

1912 Burmeister & Wain becomes world famous following the successful maiden voyage in 1912 of the Selandia, the world’s first motor ship for international deep sea service. The Selandia’s entry into service helps make Denmark a leading nation in maritime technology with an expanding merchant fleet.

1914-1918 The First World War proves highly lucrative for the Danish shipping industry, as freight rates are generous due to the dangers involved. Furthermore, the Danish Government mandates the charter of tonnage for fixed rates to ensure that Denmark is supplied with basic commodities for the war’s duration.

1915 The Danish Army vacates half of Kronborg and the empty halls are converted into Handels- og Søfartsmuseet. Its purpose is to tell the story of Danish shipping from ancient times until the early twentieth century. Appropriately, the new museum is right next to the Helsingør Shipyard, which is one of Denmark’s busiest and where, during the ensuing decades, numerous significant ships were to be built for owners in Denmark and overseas.

26

chapter 1

1929 The Wall Street Crash badly affects shipping and shipbuilding – industries both requiring substantial capital investment and long-sighted commitment.

Helsingør Jernskibsværft og Maskinbyggeri’s managing director from 1925 onwards, H.P. Chistensen, elects to diversify into civil engineering by building girder bridges and kits for oil tanks for refineries and storage depots.

1920s-30s The rate at which ship owners switch from steam to diesel propulsion increases and many of the finest and most innovative motor ships of the era are built in Helsingør. Examples include DFDS’ Parkeston, Jylland, Esbjerg and England, delivered in the mid-1920s, and Det Bergenske Dampskips-Selskap’s Venus of 1931. The design for the latter is coordinated by a young and progressive naval architect Knud E. Hansen, an employee in the yard’s drawing office whose subsequent work becomes internationally famous.

1937 The Kronprins Olav, a new passenger ship for DFDS’ Copenhagen-Oslo route, is completed. Again, Knud E. Hansen takes a leading role, working with Professor Kay Fisker, who designs the vessel’s strikingly modern interiors.

The design soon attracts international acclaim and a very large model is built for display at the 1937 Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques de la Vie Moderne in Paris.

1932 New shipyard buildings are developed; today, following extensive renovation, these concrete-framed red brick halls form the greater part of Helsingør’s new Kulturværftet (Cultural Centre).

1940 In April, Denmark is invaded by Germany. It is impossible to import from Britain the steel and other raw materials required for shipbuilding. Det danske Stålvalseværk (The Danish Steelworks) is completed in Frederiksværk with the intention of supplying the shipbuilding industry but, for the war’s duration, it only recycles scrap metal. The Helsingør Shipyard is required to construct for Germany standard ‘Hansa’-type cargo ships but due to a lack of steel and sabotage by the Danish resistance, few are actually completed.

H IS T O R I C T I M E LIN E S

27

1960s Several notably elegant cargo and passenger liners are built, among the finest being the Portuguese Funchal of 1961, which today operates as a cruise ship and is now one of the world’s oldest. As the decade progresses, a revolution in shipping occurs, involving the replacement of traditional general cargo ships with specialised roll-on, roll-off, container and bulk cargo tonnage. Helsingør is too small to build the larger ships of these new types and so ship repairs become an increasingly important part of its business.

1945-1955 Post-war, the ten-year period from 1945 onwards is unprecedentedly busy as Danish and foreign merchant fleets seek to repair damaged ships and replace war losses. The yard’s success enables some much needed modernisation to take place – including the construction of a large new dry dock in place of the 1882-vintage original.

1973 The Oil Crisis, brought about by Arab OPEC countries quadrupling the price of Gulf crude in protest at American support for Israel in the Yom Kippur War, causes a deep recession in the Western World and the shipping industry is particularly badly affected. Nonetheless, several innovative new vessels are built in Helsingør, including advanced ro-ro freighters for DFDS North Sea routes and double-deck ferries for Mols Linien.

1964 The J. Lauritzen shipping and industrial group controversially announces that it now possesses a majority shareholding in DFDS and so the Helsingør Shipyard is absorbed into its ownership. From 1968 onwards it forms part of a shipbuilding group consisting of four Danish yards, the others being in Aalborg, Århus and Frederikshavn.

1974 The luxury cruise ship Golden Odyssey is delivered to the Greek-owned Royal Cruise Line. Her design is by Knud E. Hansen A/S.

28

chapter 1

Late 1970s Saudi Arabia comes to the yard’s rescue when orders are placed for two state yachts – one for the Saudi Royal family named Abdul Aziz and another as a gift for the Iraqi Government, named Quyssat Al Saddam. Both vessels are technically complicated and so money is lost.

1985 The yard continues only as a ship repair facility until 1985 when it closes. The last workers leave and the gates are shuttered.

1983 Shipbuilding in Helsingør ends in 1983 when three ro-ro freight ferries are completed for Iraq, but due to the imposition of international sanctions during the IraqIran War, these are never delivered. It has been almost exactly a century since the first modern ship was launched there.

1986 The Danish merchant fleet has shrunk by a third since the mid-1970s and there is a similar drop in the numbers employed in the shipping industry (from around 17,000 to around 10,000, half of whom were ships’ officers). To cut costs, many ships are re-registered under so-called ‘flags of convenience’, mainly in Panama, Liberia and the Bahamas.

H IS T O R I C T I M E LIN E S

29

1991 The Ministry for Industry publishes a discussion document entitled ‘Det blå Danmark’ on how best to revive the Danish merchant fleet.

For the first time, this analyses the potential economic contribution of the Danish maritime sector as a whole, valuing it at DKK 45 billion kroner per annum. Associated supply industries are estimated to be worth a further DKK 65 billion. The political awakening regarding the importance of shipping and associated maritime industries to the Danish economy is significant and subsequent government policies actively encourage the sector’s growth.

1988-1990 The Danish Government creates a new Danish International Shipping Register (DIS). This combines low taxation with high safety standards and thus DIS-registered tonnage is distinguished from other flags of convenience. It is also possible to hire crews from wherever is cheapest – so long as they are properly trained. The law enabling the creation of the DIS Register is passed in the Danish Parliament (Folketinget) in June 1988 and the Register becomes operative from 1 January 1990.

2014 Although shipbuilding in Helsingør ended more than thirty years ago – more than the average lifespan of most merchant ships – thanks to their solid construction, a surprising number of vessels built there remain in active service. Denmark now has one of the world’s biggest and most up-to-date merchant fleets.

2012 The old galleries of Handels- og Søfartsmuseet close, enabling the renovation of Kronborg and its environs to commence.

2000 Kronborg is declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

30

chapter 1

From the mid-1920s onwards, Helsingørs Jernskibsværft og Maskinbyggeri gained a reputation for designing and building innovative ships. DFDS’ North Sea passengerand agricultural export carrier Parkeston, completed in 1925, was the first motor ship for North Sea service. Upon entering service between Esbjerg and Harwich, her owner was delighted by her economy and capacity and so three more examples of the same type were ordered. Here, she is seen on the River Tyne in the 1950s towards the end of her DFDS career.

The Venus of 1931 operated between Newcastle, Stavanger and Bergen for Det Bergenske Dampskips-Selskap. Designed by the famous naval architect Knud E. Hansen, who at that time was employed by Helsingørs Jernskibsværft og Maskinbyggeri, the Venus was relatively fast, well-appointed and long-lived in North Sea service. Built in an era before stabilisers were invented, her rolling motion in North Sea swells led British passengers to nickname her the ‘Vomiting Venus.’

M ar i t i me D e n mar k a n d H e l s i n g ø r

31

The Kronprins Olav of 1937 was an epoch-making passenger ship for DFDS’ Copenhagen-Oslo route. Designed by Knud E. Hansen, working in collaboration with the architect Kay Fisker, her exterior was partially streamlined and her public rooms showcased the most up-to-date Danish interior design. Fisker’s furniture was bespoke and the lighting was by Poul Henningsen.

Here, we see the elegant First Class dining saloon and a group of chairs in the First Class smoking saloon, upholstered in bright red leather to match the DFDS funnel livery. Both saloons featured indirect fluorescent lighting, suffusing the spaces with an even glow.

32

chapter 1

Among the most striking ships built in Helsingør were a lengthy series of cargo ships for Ove Skou, a Copenhagen coal merchant who developed a fleet of such vessels for charter to liner companies. As Skou supplied coal and coke for the shipyard’s furnaces, he was able to negotiate lucrative deals when there were gaps in its order book. With their curvaceous lines and smart blue and white livery, they were known as ‘Skou’s White Swans’ and were a familiar sight in ports around the world until the latter-1970s. In 1957, the Mette Skou is seen during construction and undergoing trials.

The Funchal was built in 1961 for the Portuguese Empresa Insulana de Navegaçao for liner service between Lisbon, Madeira and The Azores.

From the outset, she was acclaimed for her comfort and style and, once airliners took over trade on the route, she became a popular cruise ship. She led a charmed life and, when new fire safety regulations threatened to force her withdrawal in 2010, her owner could not bring himself to sell her for scrapping. Instead, she was extensively modernised and continues in service today.

She is, in fact, a unique survivor of her era and an active tribute to the skills of her builder.

M ar i t i me D e n mar k a n d H e l s i n g ø r

33

34

chapter 1

M ar i t i me D e n mar k a n d H e l s i n g ø r

35

The Funchal’s builder’s plate was of a design fitted to all ships built in Helsingør and mounted proudly below the navigation bridge.

The First Class hallway on the Funchal featured an impressive spiral staircase, linking all of the main passenger decks. With spindly balustrades, Danacoustic ceilings and Arne Jacobsen lights, the space was the height of 1960s elegance.

The oval-shaped First Class smoking saloon filled the width of the forward superstructure and it too was spacious and beautifully detailed.

The large windows and cool air-conditioned ambience were perfect for a mid-Atlantic crossing.

36

chapter 1

The England was delivered in 1964 for DFDS’ Esbjerg-Harwich route, offering luxurious accommodation for 467 passengers and space for 100 cars. In appearance, she was a miniature ocean liner and, during the latter-1960s, she made several lengthy winter cruises to the Caribbean.

Unfortunately, her inability to carry trucks and buses curtailed her career and so she was sold prematurely in the early-1980s.

In the end, a Greek shipping tycoon, John S. Latsis, began an ambitious conversion to transform her into a private yacht, but the project was abandoned when only partially finished and the vessel was sold for scrapping in India. En route, however, she sank in the Red Sea.

DSB’s car- and train ferry Danmark was completed in 1968 for the Rødby-Puttgarten route across the Femern Belt from Denmark to West Germany. Although one might have thought that such a vessel would be at best ‘functional’ in appearance, through the clever application of black hull paint to create a false sheer line, she was actually strikingly clean-lined. After shuttling back and forth for almost thirty years, the Danmark was scrapped at Grenaa.

M ar i t i me D e n mar k a n d H e l s i n g ø r

37

In the early-1970s, ships’ silhouettes became more rectilinear as construction technology advanced and productivity required to be increased to keep up with wage inflation. The ferry Kattegat was delivered in 1972 to Jydsk Færgefart for operation between Grenå and Hundested. After passing through many owners and serving both on the Dover Strait and in the Baltic, remarkably, in 2009, she was converted into an adventure cruise ship called the Explorer and nowadays even occasionally visits Antarctica – something her designers and builder could never have imagined.

The Oil Crisis in 1973 came as a severe blow for the shipping industry and, indeed, for the entire Western economy. Shortly before Gulf Crude suddenly quadrupled in cost, the Greek ship owner Pericles Panagopoulos ordered the luxury cruise vessel Golden Odyssey from Helsingør for delivery in 1974. Her design was by Knud E. Hansen A/S, whose naval architect Tage Wandborg was one of the world’s foremost experts in drawing up cruise ships and also a great aesthete. The Golden Odyssey was highly acclaimed but could not compete with the mega cruise ships of the 1990s onwards. Today, she survives as a casino ship, the Maccau Success, based in Hong Kong. Knud E. Hansen A/S is headquartered in Helsingør and continues to play a very prominent role in the development of the maritime industry.

CHAPTER 2

ON THE HIGH SEAS: PROJECT FOR A NEW MUSEUM How it All Began BIG

40

CHAPTER 2

O N T H E H IG H S E A S : P R O J E C T F O R A N E W M U S E U M

41

Many overseas visitors associate Kronborg Castle with Shakespeare’s Hamlet, but for Danish people, particularly those from older generations, the castle is an icon for Danish shipping. It was the last dominant sight sailors and passengers had when leaving Denmark for foreign countries, and the first when, perhaps several years later, they arrived home. But until recently, visitors arriving in Helsingør by public transport to visit the castle had first to negotiate a decayed post-industrial landscape as, just beyond its truncated defensive walls, the former Helsingør Shipyard and dry dock lay in a state of neglect.

42

CHAPTER 2

O N T H E H IG H S E A S : P R O J E C T F O R A N E W M U S E U M

At the millennium, Kronborg Castle was placed on the United Nations’ list of World Heritage sites. As part of the process to achieve this recognition, the Danish Government decided to renovate the castle and restore its star-shaped ramparts. Meanwhile, the local authority, Helsingør Kommune, planned to transform the castle’s neglected wider environs to reflect better the location’s newly-recognised global cultural significance. Another consequence of Kronborg Castle becoming a World Heritage location was the desire of the authorities to restore the parts of its interior used since 1915 as Handelsog Søfartsmuseet (The Danish Maritime Museum) and so this would need to be moved permanently somewhere else.

An aerial view of Kronborg Castle, the former shipyard and dry dock

43

Financial Officer of Danmarks Rederiforening (The Danish Shipowners’ Association), its CEO Peter Bjerregaard and Carsten Jarlov of Slots- og Ejendomsstyrelsen (the agency responsible for Denmark´s historic castles). Jarlov presented the idea of using the old Helsingør Shipyard dry dock but the other participants were very sceptical as, at first sight, the dock appeared to be a desolate, decaying and rather ugly concrete relic of a lost industry.

It was also felt that the museum should have a strong public presence which would be difficult to achieve by locating it in a hole in the ground.

On one hand, placing a new maritime museum close to the Kronborg Castle was considered natural and obvious. But in practical terms, to do so would be no easy task. Due to Kronborg’s World Heritage status, any large structures blocking the view would not be permitted and so the only way forward would be to hide the museum beneath ground level. At one point, the possibility of building an underwater museum was investigated, but quickly dismissed as impractical.

If cleverly designed, though, an ‘invisible’ museum might entice curiosity from visitors who would be fascinated to discover a hidden, exciting underground world within. After some persuasion, Poulsen set out to find existing successful precedents for museums and other tourist attractions that were underground and without any public ‘face.’ Equally, although a museum in the dry dock would not be allowed to protrude above ground level due to the sensitivity of the view to Kronborg Castle, it was felt that it certainly should not be completely hidden and so it was expected that some sort of spectacular roof structure over the dock might be needed.

In 2005, a meeting was held between Dan Pode Poulsen, a Member of the Board at the existing Handels- og Søfartsmuseet and also the Chief

To the south, the former shipyard buildings were scheduled for conversion into a ‘Kulturværftet’ (Cultural Shipyard), featuring a library, art gallery,

during the initial stages of construction work for the new museum; beyond, ferries shuttle back and forth across The Sound to Helsingborg in Sweden.

44

theatre, cafe and dining facilities. In front, the old shipyard basin and its surrounding quaysides were to become a ‘Kulturhavn’ (Cultural Harbour). This would involve major earthworks, the adjustment of the line of quay walls and the replacement of hard surfaces and landscaping. To the north, meanwhile, demolished parts of Kronborg Castle’s ramparts were to be recreated. Under this master plan, the dry dock was to be filled in with earth and silt dug up while these other projects were carried out, then planted with grass. If a museum was to be developed in the dock, there was no time to lose as sufficient funding would be required and a suitable design produced before the adjacent developments became too far advanced and the opportunity lost forever.

Of several exciting entries to an international architectural competition, the standout was a design by Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), headquartered in Copenhagen and now with offices in New York and Beijing.1 BIG’s solution re-worked the competition brief radically, locating the museum underground around the exterior of the dry dock, rather than inside.

The architects discovered that any conversion work would involve digging soil out around the dock’s perimeter to strengthen and waterproof its walls. If one was going to remove earth from all around the dock, it would surely be possible to use the space created there for the museum’s galleries and administrative spaces. That way, the dock itself could remain as an empty outdoor void space into which large exhibits could be lowered, or in which events could

CHAPTER 2

take place. Furthermore, as Denmark is quite a flat country, the sheer drop to the dock’s floor would be considered by Danish viewers as dramatic and with cliff-like qualities.

In terms of giving form to the museum galleries surrounding the dock, it was decided to consider the whole edifice as a vast rectangular exhibition space sunken beneath the ground with the volume of the dry dock floating as an autonomous object within it. Originally, the dock was designed perpendicular to the waterfront but, with the redevelopment of the shipyard area, a new waterfront would be created with a slightly different geometry. So the architects decided to arrange their imaginary ‘white cuboid’ at a right angle to this – the consequent tension between the two geometries giving the galleries distinctive expanding and contracting shapes.

BIG’s team lead by David Zahle observed that recent museum buildings tend either to be sculpturally formed, like the Guggenheims in New York and Bilbao, or to be rigorously rectilinear modernist ‘white cuboids’ of the type first advocated by Walter Gropius and perpetuated in more recent time by the American Richard Meier. By mixing geometries, BIG’s design for Helsingør’s new Maritime Museum would use both approaches. While the outer walls formed a hidden rectangular box, the open void of dry dock at the heart of their proposal could also be exploited to insert dynamically-shaped elements to lend the project visual spectacle and to give a hint of the ‘Bilbao effect.’ 2

Soft winter light illuminates the derelict dry dock before the Museet for Søfart project moved on site.

O N T H E H IG H S E A S : P R O J E C T F O R A N E W M U S E U M

45

46

CHAPTER 2

O N T H E H IG H S E A S : P R O J E C T F O R A N E W M U S E U M

47

A scene of post-industrial dereliction surrounds the dry dock; this very atmospheric environment had obvious unrealised potential.

48

On approaching the dock, visitors see a series of bridges crossing the space and gently descending into it at a variety of angles. One very substantially engineered 13-metre broad road bridge spanning straight across the dock was a requirement of the brief to form the main approach road to Kronborg Castle. Another necessity was for a bridge across the dock’s mouth to provide an unbroken harbourfront promenade and access to Kronborg for emergency vehicles. BIG decided however to add two further bridges, one across the mouth of the dry dock and the other located between the Kronborg access bridge and the dock’s western extremity. In spanning the dock at approximately 45-degree angles in a V-formation, the zig-zag bridge would form the museum’s main public access route. The rationale was that mobility impaired and able-bodied visitors should enjoy the same experience and, as an access-compliant ramp with a 1:25 slope would need to be 70 metres long, the best solution was to angle it gently downwards in a dog-leg formation. That way, it would be able to reach the museum’s entrance and cut into the dry dock’s upper wall with only a few centimetres to spare. As well as the dock being at a different angle from the museum’s outer walls and the access bridges also being at complex angles,

CHAPTER 2

the slope was continued in the galleries’ floors and ceilings, which slant almost imperceptibly at a 1:70 gradient (rather like the camber of a road).

BIG’s idea of leaving the dry dock as a void space traversed by bridges and of locating the museum galleries out with its perimeter was a clear solution. As the museum project’s construction had to slot into a timetable for the wider redevelopment of Kronborg Castle’s surroundings, there was an omnipresent threat that, if work failed to start within its predetermined timeframe, the dry dock would be in-filled and the opportunity to locate it there lost forever.

Therefore, the project committee elected to follow their intuition and to award the first prize to BIG. 1 Ingels worked with one of his partners, David Zahle, and assistants Karsten Hammer Hansen, Andy Yu, Pablo Labra, Marc Jay, Maria Mavriku, Qianli Lim, Peter Rieff and Tina Lund Højgaard. Zahle had been in Ingels’ practice since 2001.

Previous projects in which he was involved included the Stavanger Concert Hall and the pyrolysis/ski slope project.

2 A reference to Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum, which is credited with helping to revive the fortunes of Bilbao as a post-industrial city now dedicated to tourism.

The initial earthworks begin to define the outline of the museum’s galleries while holes are dug to examine the underground conditions. At this early stage, the dry dock is yet to be pumped empty of water.

O N T H E H IG H S E A S : P R O J E C T F O R A N E W M U S E U M

49

50

CHAPTER 2

How it All Began A key figure in the development of a plan to create a new maritime museum was Dan Pode Poulsen. In the spring of 2004, the board of the Handels- og Søfartsmuseet agreed that Poulsen should form a working committee to research and write a detailed report about how a new museum might be established.

Poulsen had recently overseen a detailed restoration of Danmarks Rederiforening’s elegant 1920s headquarters in Copenhagen’s Amaliegade and so he had a keen interest in architecture and design. To inform his manifesto, he used his 2004 summer holiday to visit as many European maritime museums as possible and he spoke and corresponded with their directors and curators to find out about their visions and preferred approaches for interpreting maritime history.

Another important aspect of Poulsen’s report was his emphasis that any new museum should not only deal with the historic past, but also should address the important role played by the contemporary Danish merchant fleet in contributing to globalisation. As a new museum would most likely be largely financed by the charitable funds of leading shipping companies, it would be vital to reflect their day-to-day operations to make them feel connected to the project

and the shipping industry. To progress matters, Poulsen, with the support of Danmarks Rederiforening’s Managing Director, Peter Bjerregaard, contacted four leading shipping company funds – A.P. Møller og Hustru Chastine McKinney Møllers Fond til almene Formaal (funded by A.P. Møller-Mærsk, the world’s biggest liner shipping company), D/S Orients Fond (the major shareholder in Dampskibsselskabet NORDEN), Lauritzen Fonden (the parent organisation of the J. Lauritzen shipping company) and Dampskibsselskabet TORMs Understøttelses Fond (run by Dampskibsselskabet TORM).

The four shipping company funds each pledged Dkr 1.5 million to finance an architectural competition for a museum in the dry dock. During the autumn of 2006, Dan Pode Poulsen led a fivestrong management group to devise a competition brief. This otherwise consisted of Handelsog Søfartsmuseet’s Director Hans Jeppesen and his colleagues Kåre Lauring and Ulla Britta Hansen, plus the architect Arnt Ottendahl, who had previously worked with Poulsen on the restoration of Danmarks Rederiforening’s headquarters in Copenhagen. To provide professional advice and to help run and assess the competition, the engineering consultant Cowi was hired.

Its Clerk of Works Bitten Munk Warmdahl helped to define the requirements for the new building

H O W I T A LL B E G A N

51

and to write the competition brief. This called for the covering of the dry dock with a roof and the use of its 3,000 square metre internal area for the museum’s displays. By inserting a mezzanine floor covering half the dock’s area, 4,500 square metres would be available. Due to the lack of daylight, it was expected that administration would remain in Kronborg Castle, or might move into part of the former shipyard.

BIG’s idea of leaving the dry dock as a void space traversed by bridges and of locating the museum galleries out with its perimeter was a clear solution and also the most radical of the five competition submissions. Having broken the rules of the brief, they were uncertain as to whether they would actually win. On the other hand, one fundamental purpose of holding an architectural competition is to find unexpected, inspired and ingenious proposals (otherwise, why would a client bother soliciting more than one design suggestion?).

The independent consultants, Cowi, had already reported that all five of the entries would cost more to realise than the specified budget of DKK 130 million. In addition, Helsingør Kommune had only agreed to lease the dry dock itself, not the space surrounding it, and so further delicate

negotiations by the museum’s developers would be needed urgently to gain permission to expand the site.

There was also a risk, however, that any of the four architects who had failed to win might challenge the outcome because, under European Union procurement regulations, if every submission was deemed to cost more than the allotted budget, a new competition would need to be held. Therefore, a decision was taken to write to all five architects’ firms, explaining the situation and asking them to accept the continuation of the competition and the awarding of prizes.

Only one refused to cooperate and so Danske Arkitektvirksomheder (The Danish Architects’ Union) raised a case on their behalf. This was heard by Klagnævnet for Udbud (a special court dealing only with public construction projects subject to European Union law). The court could only make a judgement in relation to procurement law and so the minimum possible fine was imposed – perhaps indicating that there was also some sympathy for the defendant’s predicament.

To avoid the museum project being strangled by further similar court actions, its management set about finding legal ways of circumventing

52

European Union procurement rules. Moreover, as the construction process would be technically complex, there were only a few contractors in Denmark who could be relied upon to carry it out successfully.

In the spring of 2008, development work commenced to transform BIG’s competition entry into a realisable building.3 Meanwhile, funding was raised to pay for the construction. In the negotiations with the various foundations who would be its major sponsors, it became clear that none wanted to take any legal or managerial responsibility for the delivery of the project. While each one was keen to provide generous financial support, all felt that the museum should represent the entire Danish maritime industry, not just one prominent sponsor. Therefore, the project was made into a joint venture with all sponsors having equal prominence, regardless of the size of their contribution. As Danish shipping was in a buoyant mood at the time, smaller companies were surprisingly easily persuaded to come on board. In fact, funding even came from the United States of America, where one charitable fund, the TK Foundation, established by the descendents of a Dane, Torben Karlshøj, who had built up a shipping company there, was keen to contribute.

In total, eleven different foundations generously supported the project and all made clear that the awards promised were final and that no more money would be made available in the event of cost over-runs. With hindsight, it was very fortunate that the fundraising happened before the autumn of 2008 when the economic boom collapsed into a deep recession that negatively affected Denmark’s shipping companies.

CHAPTER 2

Without any foundation willing to take overall responsibility for managing the museum’s construction, however, and given the problems already encountered with the architectural competition, the project’s management sought further legal advice to find the best way forward.

It was recommended that a new foundation should be established to take responsibility for the delivery phase.

The formation of this new foundation was instigated by Danmarks Rederiforening. Named ‘Maritim Museums Fond’, its board consisted of six directors. They were Chairman Mette Christensen, Vice-President of Sø- og Handelsretten (the Maritime and Commercial Court), Carsten U. Larsen, the Secretary General of the Danish Parliament and formerly Director of the Nationalmuseet, Jens Bjergmose, the Administrative Director of Dampskibsselskabet TORMs Understøttelsesfond, Jens Fehrn Christensen, the former Finance Director of Dampskibsselskabet NORDEN, Lars Ole Hansen, the former Director of Universitets- og Byggestyrelsen (responsible for the construction of state-owned educational buildings in Denmark, including the National Library) and Dan Pode Poulsen.

Maritim Museums Fond, in turn, created a subsidiary company named ‘Maritim Museums Byg’ to manage the construction of the new museum. It had four directors – Chairman Dan Pode Poulsen, Lars Ole Hansen, the architect Arnt Ottendahl and Jacob Salvig, Director of the Naturama natural history museum in Svendborg.

3 The entire design team consisted of Bjarke Ingels, David Zahle, John Pries Jensen, Henrik Kania, Ariel Joy Norback Wallner, Rasmus Pedersen, Annette Jensen, Dennis Rasmussen, Jan Magasanik, Jeppe Ecklon, Karsten Hammer Hansen, Rasmus Rodam, Rune Hansen, Alina Tamosiunaite, Alysen Hiller, Ana Merino, Andy Yu, Christian Alvarez, Claudio Moretti, Felicia Guldberg, Gül Ertekin, Johan Cool, Jonas Mønster, Kirstine Ragnhild, Malte Kloe, Marc Jay, Maria Mavriku, Masatoshi Oka, Oana Simionescu, Pablo Labra, Peter Rieff, Qianyi Lim, Sara Sosio, Sebastian Latz, Tina Lund Højgaard, Tina Troster, Todd Bennet, Xi Chen, Xing Xiong, Xu Li

H O W I T A LL B E G A N

53

Jens Fehrn Christensen, formerly of Dampskins-Selskabet NORDEN, Jens Bjergmose of Dampskibsselskabet TORMs Understøttelsesfond, Dan Pode Poulsen of Maritim Museums Byg, Ole Bang, a board member of Handels- og Søfartsmuseet, Per Stig Møller, the Minister for Culture, David Zahle, the project architect from BIG and Erik Østergaard, Chairman of the Board of the museum discuss a large architectural model of the project.

Bjarke Ingels, founder and owner of the architects BIG, and Dan Pode Poulsen, both evidently satisfied by the project’s progress.

54

CHAPTER 2

O N T H E H IG H S E A S : P R O J E C T F O R A N E W M U S E U M

55

Helsingør harbour is dominated by Kronborg Castle, the old shipyard and wharf, consisting of buildings and docks. Part of the shipyard estate was to be used for a new cultural facility, containing a public library, performance and social spaces. The plan to build a museum in and around the dock, however, overlapped with the boundary of Kronborg’s 500m Unesco preservation line.

56

CHAPTER 2

COMPETITION BRIEF

The brief contained an inherent dilemma: Slots- og Ejendomsstyrelsen, the owner of Kronborg Castle, required that a museum in the dry dock be completely invisible so as not to disrupt views to the castle.

The Museum Director and the sponsoring foundations, however, wanted an architectural icon to attract visitors to the site.

According to Danish law, it is necessary for office environments to be naturally lit from the side but, since the museum would be entirely underground with no windows other than skylights, it appeared that staff offices would need to be located in adjacent buildings, leaving the museum as an exhibition space only.

O N T H E H IG H S E A S : P R O J E C T F O R A N E W M U S E U M

57

WINNING SOLUTION

By leaving the dock as a central circulation space and instead making use of the areas out with its walls, the need for invisibility at ground level could be accommodated.

With the dock retained as a void, the desire for maximum exposure could also be satisfied. Indeed, the entire space would appear as a giant abyss, inviting people to descend and explore.

With apertures cut through the dock walls, parts of the museum would be bathed in daylight, enabling staff to be accommodated legally and in close proximity to the exhibitions.

58

CHAPTER 2

Inside out: rather than filling the dry dock with exhibition galleries, BIG proposed retaining its existing character and wrapping the museum spaces around it.

Duis tempus mi nec libero aliquet, non porta turpis accumsan. Fusce facilisis in eros in scelerisque.

O N T H E H IG H S E A S : P R O J E C T F O R A N E W M U S E U M

The dry dock was aligned with the existing waterfront. By contrast, the new promenade aligns with the recreated fortifications beside Kronborg Castle. Thus, geometries from different eras would give the museum galleries their expanding and contracting shapes.

.

g Fi

02

59

60

CHAPTER 2

O N T H E H IG H S E A S : P R O J E C T F O R A N E W M U S E U M

Three-dimensional renderings enabled all of the project’s stakeholders to understand how BIG’s design would look and feel upon completion.

BIG proposed that three bridges should span the dock, one at its seaward end to prevent water flooding in and forming a waterfront promenade, another providing public access to the castle and a third V-shaped bridge ricocheting between the dock walls, allowing visitors to access the museum entrance.

Beneath the bridges, additional spaces would house a café, two auditoria (one for grown ups and one for children) plus a gallery for temporary exhibitions.

61

62

CHAPTER 2

The submerged museum, organised as a descending loop of galleries, interspersed by shortcuts through the spaces beneath the bridges.

O N T H E H IG H S E A S : P R O J E C T F O R A N E W M U S E U M

63

64

CHAPTER 2

A plan of the museum, showing the entrance at bottom left, the main gallery spaces surrounding the dry dock and the auditorium.

O N T H E H IG H S E A S : P R O J E C T F O R A N E W M U S E U M

65

66

CHAPTER 2

O N T H E H IG H S E A S : P R O J E C T F O R A N E W M U S E U M

67

A section through the museum, cutting across the galleries and the V-shaped access bridge with temporary exhibition galleries underneath.

The drawing gives a sense of the thickness of the waterproof concrete walls and roof structures.

68

CHAPTER 2

BIG Born in Copenhagen in 1974, Bjarke Ingels studied architecture at the Royal Academy there and in Barcelona. From 1998 to 2001, he worked in the Netherlands for the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) in Rotterdam, headed by Rem Koolhaas.

As its name implies, OMA is associated with the ‘new urbanism,’ usually designing very large multi-level, multi-use mega-structures. Complex in terms of programme and planning, these are often characterised by their deconstructivist forms, bright colours and unconventional surface finishes. Since the early-1990s, OMA’s confidently big-scale approach to architectural commissions and Koolhaas’ writing and lecturing on the dynamics of contemporary urban space have made him a hero for architecture students – and his approach evidently has influenced Ingels during his own subsequent meteoric rise.

Ingels observes that usually the architectural profession splits into two often irreconcilable groupings – on one hand, the intellectual progressives involved in architectural education, who champion fantasy visions and crazy ideas, and, on the other, corporate practices churning out drearily predictable shiny glass boxes

for large institutions and property developers.

By rigorously exploring the requirements of a brief and by being open-minded and imaginative about its possibilities, he asserts that ‘third way’ solutions can be found which work practically, providing social, economic and environmental benefits – and equally causing viewers and users to experience the pleasure of the unexpected. Rather than reducing an edifice only to its minimal bare necessities, as disciples of the German-American Modernist architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe have tended to do, Ingels argues in favour of enriching programmes to build in additional possibilities for the enjoyment of his buildings’ users.

Having set up the practice PLOT in Copenhagen in 2001 with a former OMA colleague, Julien de Smedt, Ingels designed an open-air lido with four pools on the site of an abandoned wharf at Islands Brygge and this has since been affectionately dubbed ‘Copencabana.’ This project marked the beginning of his interest in finding ways to breathe new life into post-industrial waterfronts. Ingels also co-designed a new concert house for Stavanger (which won a Golden Lion at the Venice Architectural Biennale) plus two award-winning large apartment blocks in

B IG

69

Copenhagen’s rapidly-expanding Ørestad area.

Shaped in plan like the letters ‘V’ and ‘M,’ these offer residents attractive oblique views of the surrounding landscape. His design for a psychiatric hospital in Helsingør (completed in 2005) is claimed to be inspired by the form of a snowflake and is subtly coloured within to soothe its troubled patients. In contrast, a third large apartment block in Ørestad resembles a hillside, each resident enjoying a private garden on the terraced slope with multi-storey parking beneath.

Ingels launched the practice Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) in 2006. Since then, BIG has grown into an international partnership and it has continued to pay close attention to social, cultural and environmental needs. Among several notable recent projects, the design for the Danish Pavilion at Expo 2010 in Shanghai was themed around the health-giving benefits and sustainability of cycling (and to which The Little Mermaid was temporarily re-located from Copenhagen Harbour).

In 2011, BIG received international media attention when plans were published for a new plant to generate electricity through the pyrolysis of organic refuse, encased in an artificial mountain with a ski slope. Located at Amager Bakke in Copenhagen, it links an industrial function to

social activity and exercise. In the case of the Museet for Søfart, social programming is incorporated into the industrial relic of the dry dock in the form of a large piazza in the dock’s bottom to which the public has ready access.

In addition to a main office in Copenhagen, BIG established the first overseas branch in New York; presently this is working on a large apartment building for the west side of Manhattan Island. There, BIG is also planning resiliency measures to help prepare Lower Manhattan for the forecast impacts of rising sea level.

In only six years, BIG has designed landmark public buildings craved by national and civic authorities that are important symbols in our present highly-mediated era. Just as the Eiffel Tower put Paris on the world map in the latter nineteenth century, so a new library, concert hall or museum may have a similar effect for other towns and cities in the twenty-first century. In Helsingør, the Museet for Søfart clearly exemplifies the aesthetic, cultural and economic benefits of investing in high quality civic architecture and public space.

CHAPTER 3

DIGGING DEEP: CIVIL ENGINEERING AND CONSTRUCTION

72

CHAPTER 3

D i g g i n g D eep : C i v i l E n g i n eer i n g a n d C o n s truct i o n

73

The civil engineering and construction work for the museum would be among the most complicated ever undertaken in Denmark.

To find out exactly what lay far beneath the surface, test boreholes were drilled deep into the ground. These revealed a typically Danish mix of somewhat unstable fluvial-glacial deposits from the last ice age – loose sand, small lumps of chalk and flint, interspersed with spongy layers of decayed organic sediment.

Between 42 and 45 metres beneath this unstable mix, there was a base layer of chalk.

74

CHAPTER 3

Maritim Museums Byg therefore contacted Mærsk Construction, the civil engineering division of the A.P. Møller-Mærsk Group, to request that it take on the role of Clerk of Works.4 Mærsk Construction specialised in planning and executing designs for Mærsk’s container ports around the world – and therefore was used to dealing with complicated projects at and below sea level. Furthermore, it had overseen the construction of the Opera House beside Copenhagen Harbour, a major cultural facility on a difficult site.5 After employing a Clerk of Works, the next crucial appointment was that of a project engineer and also a building contractor. In September 2008, the well-known Danish engineering firm Rambøll was appointed for the first task.

A crucial problem was the fact that the dry dock’s floor experienced upward pressure from the ground water beneath. To counteract this force, it had been designed as a 2.5 metre thick concrete plate, the rationale being that the downward pressure of soil on the plate’s edges would offset the water pressure coming from beneath and from the sides. To build the museum, it would be necessary to remove the soil from around the dock and so there would no longer be any natural downward weight to keep its floor and walls in place. Consequently, there was a danger that the water’s upward force would cause the dock to rise slowly out of the ground by as much as five metres. Rambøll suggested drilling much deeper and anchoring the bottom of the dry dock into the chalk bedrock.

The dry dock’s walls were laid bare following the excavation of soil from its surroundings. Today, this rough void is filled by the museum’s galleries.

D i g g i n g D eep : C i v i l E n g i n eer i n g a n d C o n s truct i o n

Hilit od quis molent fuga. Sam, optasit min poreris debis re, nihil illent.

Sequiati ut pos adit officiendiam vit, sintessitas as mi, sequid quam consed quibus quias enditat isciam.

75

76

CHAPTER 3

D i g g i n g D eep : C i v i l E n g i n eer i n g a n d C o n s truct i o n

Another major challenge was to overcome the difficulty of carrying out construction works below ground level on a waterlogged site. One potential solution was to allow both the dry dock and the excavated area surrounding it to fill with water to equalise the pressure outside and within and then to employ divers to carry out a large part of the construction project under water – but this was fraught with difficulties. Firstly, the water would be muddy and so it would be difficult for them to see and, secondly, where could one find divers with the requisite construction skills?

In bidding to win the contract to construct the museum, the building contractor Pihl & Søn suggested an ingenious alternative – to build a slurry wall all the way around the perimeter of the museum’s site, reaching five metres into the layer of chalk, approximately 42 metres below ground level. Slurry is a soft waterproof material combining bentonite clay, cement and water. By digging a 400 metre-long, 50 cm wide trench – as deep as the famous Christian IV’s Round Tower in Copenhagen is tall – all the

The concrete gallery roof is cast while, simultaneously, Kronborg Castle undergoes restoration in the background.

77

way around the site’s perimeter and pumping it full of slurry, reinforced at the top with 10-metre-deep corrugated steel sheeting, it would be possible temporarily to ‘waterproof ’ the construction zone.

Inside this wall, the ground water could be lowered temporarily using pumps without the risk of more seepage. Meanwhile, the soil on either side of the dock could be removed and permanent reinforced concrete strengthening of the dock’s bottom and sides installed.

While the slurry wall was being dug and filled, boreholes for 461 anchors were drilled all the way down into the chalk bedrock and the anchors inserted.

The tops of the anchors are visible in the dry dock, forming six rows of steel caps standing proud on the dock’s floor and no doubt fulfilling a useful secondary role as seats where visitors may choose to rest to admire the dramatic architecture above – but few will realise that these ‘seats’ are actually at least 42 metres deep.

78

CHAPTER 3

D i g g i n g D eep : C i v i l E n g i n eer i n g a n d C o n s truct i o n

79

80

CHAPTER 3

MAJOR CHALLENGES

The weight of earth held down the dry dock’s concrete bottom plate, keeping it in place.

If the earth was removed, the dock’s surroundings would quickly flood and upward water pressure would begin to act on the bottom plate.

Water pressure would force the dock out of the ground, its estimated rise being as much as five metres.

D i g g i n g D eep : C i v i l E n g i n eer i n g a n d C o n s truct i o n

81

SOLUTIONS

Lowering the groundwater level would affect the entire area, potentially causing damage to neighbouring buildings, including Kronborg Castle.

The first plan was to drill anchors 18 metres into the soil below.

Test bores revealed spongy sediments which would require the anchors to be tightened once a year and so the option was ruled out as impractical.

82

CHAPTER 3

GROUND ANCHORS

461 evenly distributed ground anchors were fixed into the limestone stratum, 42 metres underground, preventing water pressure from causing the museum to float upwards.

D i g g i n g D eep : C i v i l E n g i n eer i n g a n d C o n s truct i o n

83

FURTHER CHALLENGES

To implement the solution would be costly and challenging from a civil engineering perspective.

It was difficult to establish how many anchors would be needed and so the engineers carried out various calculations to predict the likely result.

Initially, it was thought necessary to flood the dock to equalise water pressure and for divers to install the anchors.

This idea was quickly deemed impractical; no contractor would risk working with divers and, moreover, none with the requisite civil engineering and construction skills could be found.

84

CHAPTER 3

D i g g i n g D eep : C i v i l E n g i n eer i n g a n d C o n s truct i o n

85

The construction company Pihl & Søn pro-

A: Existing earth.

posed to dig a 42-metre-deep trench all

B: The earth was excavated.

the way around the dry dock, making con-

C: Slurry was poured in while digging to prevent the walls from collapsing.

tact with the limestone stratum. By filling

D: 12-metre-deep corrugated steel sheeting was positioned at the top while the slurry was setting.

the trench with waterproof slurry, the

E: Waterproof slurry wall.

earth around the dock could be removed,

F: The dry dock is 9 metres deep.

enabling building work to commence.

G: The slurry wall is as deep as the Round Tower in Copenhagen is tall.

86

CHAPTER 3

SLURRY WALL SOLUTION

The waterproof slurry wall was installed.

The dry dock was drained and the ground water level was lowered.

While earth was removed, anchors were driven at an angle through the corrugated steel sheet, holding the slurry wall in place.

D i g g i n g D eep : C i v i l E n g i n eer i n g a n d C o n s truct i o n

87

SLURRY WALL SOLUTION

Ground anchors were installed and the museum galleries’ bottom plate and outer walls were cast in waterproof concrete.

The ground water continued to exert an upward force, but the museum and dock stayed firmly in position.

Once the museum’s roof was installed, the entire construction became immensely strong.

88

CHAPTER 3

Anchors drilled downward through the dry dock’s bottom plate are shown as grey dots on a dark blue background. Those drilled at an angle through the corrugated steel sheet supporting the slurry wall are shown in yellow.

D i g g i n g D eep : C i v i l E n g i n eer i n g a n d C o n s truct i o n

89

Sheet anchors

Dock floor

Ground anchors

Dock wall

90

CHAPTER 3

D i g g i n g D eep : C i v i l E n g i n eer i n g a n d C o n s truct i o n

The remarkable construction equipment used to excavate the narrow trench for the slurry wall while slurry was pumped to fill it on a continuous basis.

Cutting through the dry dock walls required a lot of force but had to be done with precision.

91

92

CHAPTER 3

One of the cone-shaped spaces between the sheet metal cladding of the slurry wall on the left and the exterior of the dry dock’s wall to the right.

Temporary columns were installed to support the old dry dock wall before a permanent beam was fitted. The wall is up to 1.5 metres thick and the dock floor is up to 2.5 metres deep.

New roads were built around the construction site in order to keep Kronborg Castle accessible at all times. In the foreground, the dry dock and the excavated voids for the museum’s galleries were supported by corrugated steel sheeting.

D i g g i n g D eep : C i v i l E n g i n eer i n g a n d C o n s truct i o n

93

94

For archaeologists, the impending excavations around the dry dock provided a brief window of opportunity between mid-September and lateNovember 2010 to examine hitherto unexplored terrain and to find new empirical evidence from Medieval and Renaissance Helsingør. As mechanical diggers worked their way down through the layers of soil and sand, the locations of historic town walls, a moat and a dungeon were found. In the harsh winter of 1658 when The Sound was frozen over, Helsingør had been threatened by the Swedish Army and so, to remove obstructions preventing return of fire from Kronborg, the Danish garrison there quickly burned down that part of the town. The speed with which this happened meant that many interesting artefacts were left behind. Among these were Chinese ceramics; as the first Danish ship sailed to Asia in 1618, these items were probably among the earliest to be imported.

There were also remnants of the foundations of long-demolished houses and a large quantity of household waste (part of the area had been used for a rubbish dump in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries). In the piles of sand and soil dug out, the remains of 296 different items, mainly dating from the 1500s-1600s period, were unearthed. These ranged from coins of various nationalities to smokers’ clay pipes and, inevitably at a location with a lengthy military history, parts of pistols, bullets and other armaments. These discoveries were presented to the Nationalmuseet and to Gilleleje Museum.

Once the area around the dock had been dug out, it was possible to assess the condition of the outer edges of the concrete bottom plate. In the end, it was evident that the best solution would be to dynamite away the old concrete lip and to build a new concrete floor outwards from the dock wall. At this point, the Clerk of Works began to realise that it

CHAPTER 3

would probably have been cheaper to demolish the old dry dock entirely and to start from scratch with an entirely new construction. It was now too late and, moreover, the old walls had a patina of weathering that could not be recreated. This was a desirable contrast with BIG’s dramatic and sophisticated new insertions of glazed bridges.

Having blown the old concrete away in a succession of controlled explosions, a new structure was built, using a very high grade of waterproof concrete. This massive construction would ensure that the museum would remain solid, stable and dry in perpetuity. Its design also took into account the ‘worst case’ scenario for a future rise in sea level in order to remain above high water mark.

BIG and Rambøll’s teams had meanwhile been working on the detailed design of the three bridges to span the open dry dock.

Two of these bridges would form a V-shaped access ramp with exhibition space below, while the other would carry the main road to Kronborg Castle and would have conference and educational facilities beneath. BIG determined that each of the bridges should be an independent architectural object, simple and minimal, but related to the dry dock. Not only should they maximize the view of the dock but also delight visitors.

The three bridges spanning the dock enable public flow to Kronborg, along the harbourfront promenade and into the museum.

D i g g i n g D eep : C i v i l E n g i n eer i n g a n d C o n s truct i o n

95

96

CHAPTER 3

Two independent steel bridges span the dry dock. One is a ramp connecting the exhibition floor on both sides of the dock and thereby providing a shortcut. The other bridge is stepped and has auditorium seating.

The bridges interlock and support each other, thereby reducing the structural thickness to a minimum.

Each bridge is only 200-400mm deep.

D i g g i n g D eep : C i v i l E n g i n eer i n g a n d C o n s truct i o n

The cast concrete Kronborg access bridge was added as a roof. It forms the main connection between Helsingør town centre and Kronborg Castle for cars and pedestrians.

Through the sides, an unbroken view of the dry dock can be enjoyed. All the main structural elements move independently and the glass facades only rest on the steel bridges at the bottom.

97

98

CHAPTER 3

A 1:50 scale sectional drawing, showing the three connections across the dock. The concrete bridge is at the top while the ramp connects the two sides of the exhibition. The stepped bridge features a 130-seat auditorium on its upward face and has a 40-seat classroom for children underneath.

D i g g i n g D eep : C i v i l E n g i n eer i n g a n d C o n s truct i o n

99

100

A long section through the museum galleries on the south-east side of the dry dock, showing the museum’s relationship with Kronborg Castle and the harbour.

A further long section, in this instance cutting through the dry dock’s centreline and the bridges.

CHAPTER 3

D i g g i n g D eep : C i v i l E n g i n eer i n g a n d C o n s truct i o n

The V-shaped bridge was constructed as two independent structures, each spanning the dock as a 35-metre-long diagonal.

On the top, it serves as the main entrance to the museum while, inside, it contains exhibition spaces.

Each of the steel bridges was fabricated from welded box structures.

An open box is flexible but not very strong. When the lid is added, however, the structure gains stiffness and becomes robust.

101

102

CHAPTER 3

A cross-section of the V-shaped bridge, showing how anchor chains support the gallery floor underneath and how the glazing is mounted on either side to give an impression of thinness and lightness.

D i g g i n g D eep : C i v i l E n g i n eer i n g a n d C o n s truct i o n

A detail drawing showing the structure doubling as a balustrade on each side of the V-shaped bridge, the space enabling the glazing to move and the external cladding.

The detailed design of the V-shaped bridge at gallery floor level with the mounting for the glazing and a triangular void for the heating system.

103

104

CHAPTER 3

D i g g i n g D eep : C i v i l E n g i n eer i n g a n d C o n s truct i o n

105

106

CHAPTER 3

The Kronborg bridge under construction.

The V-shaped bridge during the installation of the external finishes.

The Kronborg bridge would be built as a conventional reinforced concrete motorway overpass, able to endure weighty vehicles driving over. It would also help to buttress the museum’s outer walls, enabling them to withstand inward water pressure.

Beneath, resting on new foundations below the floor of the dock would be two interlocking ramps, leaning on each other for support rather like an inversion of the apex of the roof of a house. One of the ramps would act as a shortcut across the dock from one side of the exhibition to the other. Its partner would have a conference auditorium and an educational space for children. The sides would be uninterrupted expanses of floor-to-ceiling glazing, giving panoramic views over the dock but, at the

touch of a button, the entire auditorium space could be darkened with blackout.

The V-shaped museum access bridge – which BIG refer to as the ‘zig-zag bridge’ – would likewise be a double-level structure with galleries for temporary exhibitions in the spaces beneath the ramp to the museum’s entrance. The access bridge and temporary exhibition galleries structure was made in six sections and the Kronborg bridge in three sections; the biggest of these sections weighed 115 tons and so very large cranes were needed to handle them.

(Back in the mid-1950s when the dry dock was built, the new crane installed to serve it had a maximum lifting capacity of just 12 tons.)

D i g g i n g D eep : C i v i l E n g i n eer i n g a n d C o n s truct i o n

107

108

CHAPTER 3

D i g g i n g D eep : C i v i l E n g i n eer i n g a n d C o n s truct i o n

The bridges were built in a Shanghai shipyard and brought to Helsingør on the BBC Colorado, a chartered German-owned feeder container ship.

(Although Danish shipping lines were invited to carry out the task, none had suitable available tonnage.) Early on the morning of 30 August 2012, the vessel arrived off Helsingør with her precious but unwieldy cargo securely lashed on deck. She made history as the biggest ship ever to enter the little port. A large crane had been hired and was already in situ to lift the bridges from the ship’s deck and onto the quay where they would await installation.

During the ensuing 19 days, eleven bridge sections were lowered and mounted in position in the dry dock. The very large task of installing pipe work for heating, ventilation and fire fighting, many miles of electric cabling for lighting, security and other services could then begin. With this progress, it became possible to gain an appreciation of how the completed museum would feel as an architectural experience. The uniformly smooth and shiny expanses of ceiling, the interplay between light and dark, the tapering walls, the sloping floors and the slanted bridges, contrasting narrow and broad spaces – ones where the ceiling was low and others where it was high – all began to read as a single, flowing entity.

In morning light, the BBC Colorado, carrying nine steel box sections to form the bridges across the dry dock, arrives in Helsingør, framed by the statue on Nordre Mole of Herakles and Hydra.

109

4 This important consultancy role involved supporting Maritim Museums Byg with independent professional advice and directing and checking up on the activities of the project engineers and the building contractor to ensure that the site works progressed according to the agreed budget and schedule.

5 Unfortunately, by the end of 2011 Mærsk Construction’s key adviser to Maritim Museums Byg, Peter Poulsen decided to leave Alectia A/S to take up a position at A.P. Møller og Hustru Chastine Mc-Kinney Møllers Fond til almene Formaal.

Poulsen, who had an architectural training and had previously taken part in the building of the Opera House in Copenhagen and more recently had supervised the construction of the Danish Pavilion designed by BIG for the Expo 2010 world fair in Shanghai, was very knowledgeable about executing projects of this kind. Dan Pode Poulsen and his colleagues therefore decided to fill the unfortunate managerial gap by hiring his assistant, the civil engineer Charlotte Trillingsgaard, as a full-time employee of Maritim Museums Byg. Shortly thereafter, an agreement between Maritim Museums Byg and Mærsks Almenfonden was reached whereby Peter Poulsen was able to assist in supervising the project on a part-time basis. In that way, it was possible to maintain a continuity of management throughout the project’s gestation and execution phases, even although Trillingsgaard and Poulsen worked at various times for three different employers. The continuous involvement of Trillingsgaard and Poulsen in the project’s construction phase was vital, given the complexity of the engineering and design challenges to be overcome.

Both proved effective in keeping control of costs and ensuring that the project developed according to schedule.

110

CHAPTER 3

The nine steel box sections for the bridge were delivered from the fabricator by barge in Shanghai.

There, they were loaded by crane on to the chartered cargo ship BBC Colorado. Each of the box sections weighed up to 115 tons.

D i g g i n g D eep : C i v i l E n g i n eer i n g a n d C o n s truct i o n

111

BBC Colorado arriving in Helsingør with Kronborg Castle in the background.

The BBC Colorado was the biggest ship ever to dock in Helsingør.

112

CHAPTER 3

D i g g i n g D eep : C i v i l E n g i n eer i n g a n d C o n s truct i o n

Each steel box section had dramatic sculptural qualities and every one of them was different in shape and appearance.

One at a time, the steel box sections were lifted onto a ground transportation unit with 18 wheels to be moved from the quayside to the perimeter of the dry dock.

113

114

CHAPTER 3

The first box section to be installed was the lower part of the V-shaped bridge. It was lifted into place by two of the biggest mobile cranes in northern Europe.

D i g g i n g D eep : C i v i l E n g i n eer i n g a n d C o n s truct i o n

115

Within ten days, all of the steel bridge sections were installed and the holes in the dock walls thus enclosed.

116

CHAPTER 3

D i g g i n g D eep : C i v i l E n g i n eer i n g a n d C o n s truct i o n

117

chapter 4

THE NEW MUSEUM EXPERIENCE: CURATING THE EXHIBITIONS

120

chapter 4

T he New M u s eum E x per i e n ce : C urat i n g the E x h i b i t i o n s

121

The new Museet for Søfart provided an opportunity for the Director and curators from the existing Handels- og Søfart Museet in Kronborg Castle to re-think how the history of Denmark’s merchant navy might be presented.

Discussions began in 2008 and there followed five years of development work. The old museum in Kronborg followed a traditionally chronological approach with a sequence of rooms containing mainly large ship models and textual interpretative panels. In recent years, such so-called ‘canonical’ approaches, emphasising important technical developments, world events and significant vessels have become unfashionable in the museum world.

122

While canonical approaches tend to be factually accurate, present-day curators fear that they are too neutral and therefore less able to engage emotionally with the majority visitors. This is especially so nowadays when many people are used to slickly dynamic and fast-paced multi-media entertainment stimuli provided by television, the Internet and computer gaming. Another related problem with canonical narratives is that they are thought to be most meaningful to those who already have connoisseurial expertise in the subject area. For non-experts, museum artefacts, however beautiful, can be rather mute and fail to strike a chord while accompanying textual panels explaining their significance require time and effort to read. It is now thought that the average museum visitor enjoying their leisure time would prefer to be given information by more direct means in easily digestible bite-sized chunks.

Traditional approaches perhaps negate the average and the everyday in favour of the exemplary and exceptional. So, while famous ships, ship owners and navigators take prominence, the lives of ordinary seafarers and the effects of the maritime industry on wider culture and society may have possibly been under-represented – or ignored altogether. Particularly in former imperial powers such as Britain, museum curators worry that canonical approaches might even leave some visitors to maritime museums with the impression that the colonial period was some sort of glorious age of invention, conquest and success. Unsurprisingly, curators would prefer a much more equivocal and problematic impression

chapter 4

to be presented in line with contemporary academic approaches to post-colonial studies. Nonetheless, as with all areas of cultural endeavour, museum curation is prone to swings in fashion and taste and, presently, chronological and canonical narratives are considered by the experts to be decidedly passé.

Even with its large galleries, which provide twice the floor space of the museum’s previous facility, the new Museet for Søfart was unable to tell the whole story of Denmark’s mercantile history from the Middle Ages to the present era. So, instead of either attempting an incomplete chronology, or displaying life-sized artefacts of maritime engineering, such as sections of actual vessels and their machinery, the museum decided to apply up-to-date curatorial theory in the development of a series of themed exhibition spaces that give a series of scenographic ‘snapshots’ of Denmark’s maritime past and present. A vital issue was to ensure that a significant part of the exhibitions would be reflective of the current-day world-wide activities of Denmark’s maritime industry to create a better understanding of its position in Danish and global culture.

The former Director of Handels- og Søfartsmuseet, Jørgen Selmer and his curators went on a research trip to examine numerous European maritime museums to find out about ‘best practices.’ In Rotterdam, they were particularly impressed by an exhibition about Rotterdam Harbour, which tells a story by using images and sounds, rather than words. This exhibition was created by Dutch

The completed Museet for Søfart initially appears as yet another dramatic moat to cross on the way to Kronborg Castle. Its dynamic angles and shimmering aluminium surfaces contrast with the rough concrete texture of the old dry dock walls.

T he New M u s eum E x per i e n ce : C urat i n g the E x h i b i t i o n s

123

124

chapter 4

T he New M u s eum E x per i e n ce : C urat i n g the E x h i b i t i o n s

125

designers Herman Kossmann and Mark de Jong, owners of Kossmann.dejong, a multi-disciplinary exhibition design company located in Amsterdam.

The firm is known for its cutting-edge approach, focusing on the creation of ‘narrative environments,’ telling stories through inventively designed spatial experiences. In recent years, this method has been applied to temporary and permanent exhibitions for museums, visitor centres, historic sites and even churches around the world. Kossmann.dejong’s narrative spaces concentrate less on static arrangements of historical objects, and more on mixing theatrical elements, multiple layers, multimedia components and engaging ways for visitors to participate.

Maritim Museums Byg and the curators working in the existing Handels- og Søfartsmuseet decided to hire Kossmann.dejong and implement its approach at the new Museet for Søfart. Instead of displaying as many objects as possible and providing facts in a ‘dry’ and neutral way, the exhibition would be designed to engage visitors intellectually and emotionally. Where necessary for impact, displays might even attempt to disturb visitors with sudden loud noises or visual spectacles. The galleries’ irregular shapes with sloping floors and ceilings made the challenge of designing the exhibition even greater.

However, Kossmann.dejong made use of the unique qualities of the building in its design, so that the architecture and interiors intensified and complemented each other. For example, in narrow parts of the building, the stuffy feeling of being on board a ship is emphasised. In broader spaces, the exhibition reflects the wideness of the open sea and the vastness of globalisation.

The V-shaped bridge bounces off the walls of the dock as it allows visitors to descend into the subterranean museum. Behind are the former shipyard fabrication sheds, converted for other cultural uses.

126

chapter 4

T he New M u s eum E x per i e n ce : C urat i n g the E x h i b i t i o n s

127

128

chapter 4

T he New M u s eum E x per i e n ce : C urat i n g the E x h i b i t i o n s

129

130

chapter 4

T he New M u s eum E x per i e n ce : C urat i n g the E x h i b i t i o n s

131

132

chapter 4

T he New M u s eum E x per i e n ce : C urat i n g the E x h i b i t i o n s

Three strata of public space: the bridge to Kronborg, the museum’s auditorium and the bottom of the dry dock.

To prevent careless drivers from crashing into the dock, a string of benches lines its sides. These are shaped like mooring bollards to blend in with the nautical context.

Their long and short forms can be read as morse code, spelling ‘M/S Museet for Søfart’ and ‘Det er nødvendigt at sejle ’ (‘It is necessary to sail’)

133

134

chapter 4

Anchor chains hang through the ceiling soffit; they transfer the weight of the floors to steel members integrated in the box structure above.

When such maritime elements are used in the architecture, they are not there as reference or scenery, but as hard working components of the underlying structure.

T he New M u s eum E x per i e n ce : C urat i n g the E x h i b i t i o n s

135

136

chapter 4

Old meets new: the lightness and transparency of glass and steel collide with the heavy, raw surfaces of concrete and wood. Cross-sections of the old dock walls are revealed through the glazed incisions.

T he New M u s eum E x per i e n ce : C urat i n g the E x h i b i t i o n s

137

138

chapter 4

T he New M u s eum E x per i e n ce : C urat i n g the E x h i b i t i o n s

139

140

Altogether, nine themed galleries were developed on two levels of continuously sloping floor. The metaphor that underpins the multimedia exhibition is that of a journey. Denmark’s maritime history is told through a thematic approach, addressing subjects such as the harbour, navigation, war and trade. The exhibition seeks to appeal to a broad audience by intertwining a variety of different narratives about the shipping industry. Rather than focusing primarily on technical descriptions, its multi-layered approach gives precedence to social and cultural perspectives.

Through the eyes of sailors, ship owners, captains and sailors’ wives, visitors are introduced to the attraction of the harbour, life on board ships, and the skills required at sea. Special attention is paid in the exhibition to the different roles of women in the maritime world. The interconnecting layer in the exhibition is the presentation of cargo. Stacks of various goods illustrate the economic significance of the shipping industry and the tremendous changes international shipping has ushered in for the average consumer.

chapter 4

Another over-arching curatorial strategy was to minimise the amount of text and, wherever possible, instead to use quotations and ‘voxpops.’ Rather than accompanying each exhibit with a lengthy explanatory panel, the curators sought to embed layers of information into the displays. At first glance, the museum is purely visual, but upon closer examination, very short texts, each comprising no more than 200 characters, are provided to describe various exhibits. A fourth and more detailed layer is provided by the museum’s homepage, books for sale in the bookshop and the library and archive, where researchers can browse at length and in great detail.

As former Director Jørgen Selmer explained, the aim is not to show the full extent of the museum’s collections and knowledge, but rather to tell stories that visitors can relate to and to empower them to find out more through other types of media.

Three-dimensional film installations have also been used to enhance and bring alive the themes. The Dutch filmmaker André van der Hout (De Aanpak) was commissioned not only to shoot new film footage at locations around the world, but also to mix in sections of original footage from archives and private collections.

The auditorium and one of the galleries intersect each other in the Kronborg bridge, the gallery’s gently sloping floor serving as the stage.

T he New M u s eum E x per i e n ce : C urat i n g the E x h i b i t i o n s

1 41

142

chapter 4

The children’s classroom is nested under the stage of the auditorium.

The intimate space has views and access to the dock outside.

Conference spaces, meeting rooms, the museum’s archive and research centre are located beyond the fanshaped stair at the end of the loop of galleries around the dry dock.

143

144

chapter 4

The material palette of the museum is kept to simple industrial finishes - concrete floors and columns, metal ceilings and glass walls - forming a coherent backdrop for the exhibitions.

The dramatic fan-shaped stairs from the final gallery space, leading back up to the museum’s shop, have a complex geometry. They also act as a place to sit while contemplating the museum experience. The plan view shows the reception counter, ticket desk and shop in the top left triangle with the stairs descending towards the bottom of the drawing.

T he New M u s eum E x per i e n ce : C urat i n g the E x h i b i t i o n s

145

146

chapter 4

T he New M u s eum E x per i e n ce : C urat i n g the E x h i b i t i o n s

The museum’s café at the seaward end of the dry dock gives spectacular views back along the dock’s length.

Outside its windows, the stairway enables members of the public to access the bottom of the dock.

The stairway outside the museum’s café with blocks of steps following different geometries, interspersed with four landings.

1 47

148

chapter 4

T he New M u s eum E x per i e n ce : C urat i n g the E x h i b i t i o n s

149

The original architecture of the dock serves as a dramatic backdrop for the museum’s social life.

Here, visitors enjoy a restful pause in autumn sunshine.

150

chapter 4

T he New M u s eum E x per i e n ce : C urat i n g the E x h i b i t i o n s

151

152

chapter 4

T he New M u s eum E x per i e n ce : C urat i n g the E x h i b i t i o n s

The original wooden fender of the dry dock delineates the height of sea level outside. The tops of the anchors stand proud from the dock’s floor.

The dock serves as a giant courtyard, bringing daylight and air to the staff offices. At sunset, it takes on new characteristics as the floodlighting switches on and it is bathed in cool shades of blue and white.

153

154

chapter 4

T he New M u s eum E x per i e n ce : C urat i n g the E x h i b i t i o n s

155

156

chapter 4

T he New M u s eum E x per i e n ce : C urat i n g the E x h i b i t i o n s

157

CHAPTER 5

ADVENTURE AND EXPLORATION: A TOUR OF THE MUSEUM Danish Ships Today The Opening Ceremony

160

CHAPTER 5

A D V E N T U R E A N D E X P LO R AT I O N : A TO U R O F T H E M U S E U M

1 61

Having descended the V-shaped approach ramp across the dry dock and bought a ticket for admission, the first exhibition space aims to put visitors into a ‘maritime mood.’ The metaphor of a journey starts by presenting them with the universal human yearning to discover far away shores and experience adventures at sea. So, Kossmann.dejong designed the gallery with an abstract version of a lighthouse at its centre, with beams of light projecting ‘dreamy’ images of shipping as depicted in art and culture, which circulate around the walls.

162

CHAPTER 5

The first gallery aims to immerse visitors in seafaring imagery to prepare them for their ‘journey’ through Danish maritime history. A central feature, vaguely resembling a marker buoy or lighthouse, projects ‘dreamy’ images on the walls of ships and their representations in culture.

A D V E N T U R E A N D E X P LO R AT I O N : A TO U R O F T H E M U S E U M

163

164

CHAPTER 5

In the ‘Our Sailors’ gallery, display cases take the form of modern ships’ windows and contain all kinds of maritime imagery and objects from material culture and advertising.

From there, visitors progress to a second relatively small gallery, entitled ‘Our Sailors,’ containing a display relating to myths about seafarers as manifested in popular culture. In this space, a display of ‘product packaging’ relating to popular literature, fashion, music, toys, food, drink and even tobacco, has been assembled to show how deeply ships, shipping and maritime life affect peoples’ everyday experiences as consumers of material culture.

After being ‘immersed’ in these two initial galleries, visitors find themselves at the first intersection at the point where the V-shaped access bridge meets the north wall of the dry dock. There, they have the option of making a detour from the fully enclosed and artificially illuminated galleries to examine temporary exhibitions in the naturally lit exhibition spaces suspended beneath the bridge. To denote this intersection, Kossmann.dejong created a compass rose with four bow figurines from the museum’s

collection pointing in all directions, reinforcing the idea that the museum’s galleries are not necessarily intended to be viewed in a strictly chronological order.

Should visitors choose to follow the slowly descending floor around the dry dock’s perimeter, however, the next gallery, entitled ‘The Gate to the World’, is themed around the idea of a traditional harbour.

Kossmann.dejong designed this relatively narrow space with a dense display of crates filled with objects and interactive games interpreting harbour life before the era of container shipping. On the sides of these crates, films are projected, showing images of work and life in the harbour to create the feeling of being ‘down by the dockside.’ The crates contain souvenirs from far-flung ports, collected over the years

by Danish sailors while enjoying their shore leave.

Linking contemporary fashionability to the maritime past, there is a collection of tattoo designs, tattooing

‘The Gate to the World’ is a crowded gallery, stacked with crates, ship models and objects to convey something of the atmosphere of a traditional cargo port from the era before containerisation.

A D V E N T U R E A N D E X P LO R AT I O N : A TO U R O F T H E M U S E U M

165

166

A D V E N T U R E A N D E X P LO R AT I O N : A TO U R O F T H E M U S E U M

167

instruments and needles. To entertain children in particular and to give them a souvenir of their visit to the museum, they can have their own temporary tattoo applied while sitting in a tattooist’s chair.

After the harbour comes a bigger gallery called ‘Aboard,’ and this features a large abstract recreation of a ship’s hull, forming an enclosure that attempts to give an impression of what it would have been like to have lived and worked at sea. Once a vessel leaves port, it becomes a hermetic world unto itself from which escape is almost impossible. Through this conceit, the story of shipboard labour and leisure in the Danish merchant fleet is told.

Next, a relatively wide and high-ceilinged gallery, named ‘Navigation and World Views,’ fills the space beside the dry dock’s seaward end. There, projections of seascapes, realistic and imaginary, cover the walls to provide visitors with the impression that they are on the open sea with vessels of different types sailing past in various directions. In between, display cases shaped like icebergs contain artefacts relating to different navigation technologies. Making use of interactive displays, visitors can try out various methods for themselves. One ‘iceberg’ tells the stories of three major Danish maritime disasters – sinkings of the Norge in 1904, the København in 1928 and the Hans Hedtoft in 1959.

The impression of two sections for a ship’s hull is created by the ‘Aboard’ gallery, inside which visitors can browse objects and artefacts from shipboard life and use interactive displays.

168

CHAPTER 5

‘Navigation and World Views’ is a large gallery with seascapes projected on the walls and navigational equipment displayed in iceberg-shaped vitrines.

A D V E N T U R E A N D E X P LO R AT I O N : A TO U R O F T H E M U S E U M

169

170

CHAPTER 5

171

At the seaward end of the dry dock, a diversity of ship models from the museum’s collection are displayed. As well as enabling visitors to compare and contrast different types and sizes of Danish merchant ships, dating from a variety of eras, one can also admire the model maker’s craft in the shaping of hulls and superstructures and in the fine detailing of deck equipment and rigging.

Visitors next find themselves bombarded from all sides by films of torpedo and missile attacks and explosions as the next gallery, ‘In the Shadow of War,’ interprets the role of the Danish merchant navy during the First and Second World Wars. The gallery shows the many aspects of war at sea. Perhaps appropriately in the circumstances, Kossmann.dejong’s design uses a deconstructivist style – indeed, the whole display is designed to look like an explosion.

Amongst the shattered fragments, upon which films are projected, there are displays of artefacts from the World Wars and models of Danish merchant ships lost or damaged due to conflict.

‘In the Shadow of War’ features an explosion of rusted steel fragments, interspersed with display panels and models of sinking ships.

172

CHAPTER 5

The final two gallery spaces are also the largest and together they tell the story of the role of Danish merchant shipping in the economic, industrial, cultural and geo-political processes nowadays collectively referred to as ‘globalisation.’ The first display, ‘Tea Time – The First Globalisation,’ explains that globalisation is actually nothing new, but essentially a ‘speeding up’ of processes begun in the eighteenth century. The story of Denmark’s colonial interests in the West Indies, the Gold Coast in Africa, Tranquebar in India and trade with China through Canton, as well as Danish possessions in the North Atlantic, is explained. Not only are there beautiful historical objects from these places, but also references to the slave trade between Africa and the Caribbean. In this space, there is a 1:48 scale model of the Danish sailing ship Disko, built in 1780.

In ‘Tea Time – The First Globalisation,’ the origins of world trade are narrated through displays about Denmark’s colonies and trading posts, old paintings, models and vitrines encased in the commodities traded – including people.

A D V E N T U R E A N D E X P LO R AT I O N : A TO U R O F T H E M U S E U M

173

174

CHAPTER 5

The content of the second ‘globalisation’ gallery, ‘The World in your Shopping Basket,’ is of particular importance to the present-day Danish maritime industry. It aims to communicate how the industry works, how its present activities have grown from its historical roots and how trading can improve the wealth of the buyer as well as the seller in a trading situation; the British political economist David Ricardo observed this early in the nineteenth century in his ‘Law of Comparative Averages.’ Above all, the gallery explains how sea transport has enabled value chains to be spread around the globe, meaning that more countries have industrialised and enjoy growing prosperity. Fittingly, it has as its centrepiece a standard 20-foot Maersk Line shipping container, demonstrating how nowadays goods are shipped over long distances cheaply, quickly, inter-modally and with good protection from damage and pilferage. The gallery’s outer wall and floor are patterned with yellow rectangles, looking like the outlines of stacks of containers, emphasising the rigorous standardisation of modern shipping and logistics.

Within this framework, texts and projections interpret the contemporary worlds of liner and bulk shipping, both areas in which Danish shipping companies excel. There are films of raw materials being extracted, manufacturing being carried out in factories in China, vast automated container ports, distribution warehouses and shopping centres in Europe where the same goods are consumed. In between, visitors learn how Danish-owned ships perform vital roles in ‘lubricating’ the global supply chain.

The centrepiece of ‘The World in your Shopping Basket’ is a 20-foot Maersk Line shipping container, the standard inter-modal element in our contemporary world of mass production, mass consumerism and globally distributed value chains.

A D V E N T U R E A N D E X P LO R AT I O N : A TO U R O F T H E M U S E U M

175

176

CHAPTER 5

Visitors’ attention is drawn to largescale models of a modern-day bulk carrier, an oil tanker and a container ship, the latter being particularly impressive and highly detailed.

On the walls, films are projected of various aspects of the container and bulk shipping businesses, while an interactive game enables visitors to gain an insight into the various parameters to be considered when attempting to operate a profitable shipping company.

A D V E N T U R E A N D E X P LO R AT I O N : A TO U R O F T H E M U S E U M

177

Adjacent to the Maersk Line container is a specially commissioned 8.5-metre-long model of the Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller, the first of the Mærsk’s epoch-making ‘Triple-E’ class container ships. The world’s largest and most sophisticated of their type, they are significantly more energy efficient than rival operators’ vessels and thus can carry more goods between China and Europe at greatly lowered financial and environmental cost. Next to this are impressive models of an oil tanker and a bulk carrier donated respectively by TORM and Lauritzen, leading Danish shipping companies involved in these trades. The contrast between such efficient modern giants of the high seas and the 233-year-old Disko is certainly striking.

Dampskibsselskabet NORDEN via Orients Fond has sponsored a ‘trading game’ to enable visitors to get a sense of what it is like to be a manager in the contemporary shipping industry. There is also a huge animated film projection of a map of the world showing the locations and courses of the entire Danish merchant fleet in 2012 – a very graphic display of Denmark’s important modern contribution to world trade.

Notwithstanding the many aspects of the Danish merchant navy addressed in various ways by the nine galleries, there are probably an equal number that are either marginalised or excluded altogether. For example, the story of Denmark’s passenger shipping, car and train ferries goes unmentioned.

Therefore, the temporary exhibition galleries housed beneath the V-shaped bridge will prove useful to display on a rolling basis such additional material.

178

CHAPTER 5

Finally, below the staircase leading back to the entrance and museum shop, there is a small gallery called ‘The Time Wreck’ containing the remains of the Elefanten, the first Danish ship to sail ‘out East’ in 1618. Adjacent, a speeded-up film tells the story of the Elefanten’s career, from the time she was hewn from timber logs, through her thirty-year existence as an operational vessel to her strange ‘afterlife’ sunk in Christianshavn in Copenhagen, where part of her hull was used for the foundation of a quay and, finally, the rescue and restoration of her remains. Continuing on the lower level, one comes to the museum’s library, archive and education suite, known collectively as the ‘Videnscenter’ (Knowledge Centre) and also the administration offices, all benefiting from natural light filtering through large windows cut in the dry dock’s inner wall. In its library, the museum possesses the biggest collection of maritime books in the Nordic countries and both the catalogue and photographic archive can also be browsed online from remote locations via the museum’s website.

One of the temporary exhibition galleries in the V-shaped bridge with a display of hanging panels about the museum’s design and construction.

A D V E N T U R E A N D E X P LO R AT I O N : A TO U R O F T H E M U S E U M

179

180

CHAPTER 5

A D V E N T U R E A N D E X P LO R AT I O N : A TO U R O F T H E M U S E U M

181

182

Danish Ships Today

CHAPTER 5

Maersk Line’s impressive Triple-E class, built in South Korea, are the world’s biggest and most technically sophisticated container ships. In August 2013, the lead ship of the class, the Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller, made her maiden call in Aarhus, the Danish port on her regular Europe-China service. In beautiful late-summer sunshine, she is seen heading into the Kattegat, en route from there to Gothenburg.

Many thousands of people turned out specially to view the Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller at her berth in Aarhus. As is typical nowadays, large merchant ships of this kind call at a deep-water facility in the outer harbour, while areas of the old inner port have been converted for residential and leisure purposes, including an artificial beach.

183

184

CHAPTER 5

Danish-owned liners provide global connections, bringing vast and diverse quantities of goods from places of manufacture to sites of distribution and consumption.

Modern container terminals are vital linkages in the global supply chain. APM Terminals, a division of A.P. Møller-MÌrsk, is one of the world’s leading operators of these high-tech, largely automated facilities. Concrete flatscapes, they are dominated by large cranes and stacks of containers, constantly being moved around by driverless straddle-carriers.

The other significant form of modern liner shipping is provided by roll-on, roll-off freight ferries, carrying lorry trailers and containers loaded on so-called Mafi-trailers. In the mid-1960s, DFDS (Det Forenede Dampskibs-Selskab) pioneered inter-modal ro-ro freight services, owning not only ships, but also fleets of trucks and trailers. Today, DFDS is a leader in this field, its modern ferries regularly traversing the North Sea, the Baltic and Mediterranean, while its lorry fleet is a familiar sight on the motorways of Europe.

A D V E N T U R E A N D E X P LO R AT I O N : A TO U R O F T H E M U S E U M

185

186

CHAPTER 5

Lauritzen Kosan Tankers is a subsidiary of the long established J. Lauritzen group of shipping companies. It specialises in transporting liquefied gases, including petrochemical gases, energy gases and ammonia. Here, the tanker Isabella Kosan is seen passing Rio De Janeiro.

Ships and ports handling cargoes of oil or petrochemicals require specialist infrastructure and highly skilled employees to operate safely. One of Dampskibs-Selskabet TORM’s tankers is shown offloading oil at a terminal.

D A NIS H S H I P S T O D A Y

187

Whereas liner services operate according to pre-ordained schedules, the tramp trades involve shipping cargoes in bulk whenever and wherever a consignment is needed.

Dampskibs-Selsklabet NORDEN is one of the world’s oldest and most experienced operators of bulk carriers, carrying coal, grain, iron ore and other heavy cargoes of raw materials. These vessels cross-trade, meaning that they operate between nations other than Denmark. Here the ice-strengthened bulk carrier Nordkap is seen in Canadian waters.

Whereas the Nordkap is a geared bulk carrier, meaning that she is fitted with cranes, other members of NORDEN’s fleet rely on shorebased cargo handling equipment, as shown here.

188

CHAPTER 5

The Opening Ceremony The Museet for Søfart opened on 5 October 2013. 6 The preceding summer had seen the Danish maritime industry experience unprecedented positive publicity when Maersk Line gave a high-profile launch to the first two of its new twenty-strong fleet of Triple-E class container ships. Justifiably proud of these impressive vessels’ design and operational characteristics, Maersk Line carried out a global media blitz to inform the public of their benefits. Towards the end of August, tens of thousands of Danes turned out to witness the arrival of the first ship of the class, the Mærsk Mc-Kinney Møller in Århus. When in late-September, Maersk Line diverted the second vessel, the Majestic Maersk, to Copenhagen and opened her for public tours at Langelinie, over 40,000 people were shown around her, and many more came to gaze in awe from the quayside.

At Helsingør, meanwhile, work progressed apace to complete the museum in time for the Royal opening – but finishing its complicated details

proved more challenging than anticipated and so final adjustments were made only hours before the red carpet for VIP guests was laid on the zig-zag bridge. Fortunately, 5 October dawned a bright early autumn day and in the forenoon, members of the public began to gather around the glass balustrade surrounding the old dry dock to witness the Royal visit. Over 600 guests were invited and they were directed to gather in the spacious ‘Globalisation’ galleries, where the opening ceremony was to take place in the presence of H.M. Queen Margrethe and H.R.H Prince Henrik.

In a charming and personal speech, H.M. The Queen reminded the assembled guests that her late father, King Frederik IX, was not only a master mariner but also a great lover of ships and the sea. Growing up in Amalienborg, the Royal Family had enjoyed the spectacle of Copenhagen’s then-bustling inner harbour on a daily basis. In 1948, when she was aged only seven, she had accompanied her parents to

T H E O P E NING C E R E M O N Y

189

Helsingør where her mother named the DFDS North Sea passenger ship Kronprinsesse Ingrid.

Her Majesty explained how the sight of the sheer but slender vertical mass of the ship’s hull going down the launchway made a lasting impression on her.

To open the museum, H.M. Queen Margrethe used a dinner going from the East Asiatic Company’s passenger-cargo liner Jutlandia – an important ship in the history of the Danish merchant navy – on which she had voyaged on a Royal Tour to the Far East in 1963. Previously, the Jutlandia had famously been used as a hospital ship during the Korean War in the early-1950s.

The Royal Party was then taken on a tour of the museum’s exhibits and such was their interest that this lasted for somewhat longer than scheduled. The museum then opened for the general public who, in the interim, had formed a long queue outside. Later that afternoon, the

curators, who had worked long and hard to assemble the exhibits, were relieved and delighted to see so many happy visitors using the interactive displays, examining artefacts and taking in the museum’s remarkable atmosphere. After a great deal of hard work, many trials and tribulations, finally the project could be declared a success.

6 The opening of the Museet for Søfart originally was planned for 29 June 2013, coinciding with the beginning of the tourist season and school children getting their summer holidays.

Friday, 31 May was exceptionally warm and humid and in the afternoon thunderclouds began to form. One particularly tall and dark cloud of tropical proportions unleashed a torrent of heavy rain on the area around the museum. It drained into a temporary hole dug outside the western external wall, forming a vast mud pool and flooding into the museum via a service room, adjacent to the upper gallery level. Due to the museum’s sloping floors, the muddy water began to work its way around all the galleries and down to the lower level, causing extensive damage. As it would be impossible to order, manufacture and install new equipment in only a few weeks, the decision was taken to cancel the opening ceremony.

190

CHAPTER 5

191

Her Majesty Queen Margrethe declares the Museet for Søfart open.

On the sunny morning of 5 October 2013, Her Majesty Queen Margrethe arrives to open the Museet for Søfart while crowds of spectators look on from the dry dock’s perimeter.

H.M. The Queen and H.R.H. Prins Henrik with invited guests behind are addressed by the Chairman of the Board of the Museet for Søfart, Erik Østergaard.

CHAPTER 6

MAKING IT POSSIBLE: THE SUPPORTING FOUNDATIONS

194

CHAPTER 6

M a k i n g i t P o s s i b l e : T he Support i n g F ou n dat i o n s

195

The Museet for Søfart in Helsingør was sponsored by eleven different foundations, ranging from funds attached to shipping lines in Denmark and overseas to other corporatelysponsored trusts in Denmark and independent charities. Their generousity and enthusiasm for the project is much appreciated and has enabled a worthy and lasting legacy for Denmark’s maritime industry to be created.

196

A.P. Møller og Hustru Chastine Mc-Kinney Møllers Fond til almene Formaal was set up in 1953 and is one of the largest in Denmark today. It encompasses projects with substantial budgets as well as ideas in need of less support. The statutes define a number of areas demanding particular attention: Danish life in the German-Danish border-region, co-operation between Denmark and the other Nordic Countries, Danish shipping and industry, science (especially medical science), and philanthropic projects. Among the latter, the Foundation has traditionally supported a very broad spectrum of Danish cultural activities. This has not only included renovating churches, museums, art galleries, historic sites, parks and gardens, wind and watermills, harbours and significant listed buildings but also new constructions, such as facilities for science, leisure and sports, music, literature, theatre and ballet. The Foundation’s long name refers to its founder, A.P. Møller, and his American wife, Chastine Mc-Kinney Møller.

Arbejdsmarkedets Feriefond uses its resources to enable holiday experiences for salaried workers and families with children through the provision of support to institutions and organisations that bring new opportunities and activities for these groups while on holiday. The Fund strongly supports the creation of new opportunities in relation to daily and work life that are carried out in a lively and inclusive manner. The Fund’s primary area of activity involves giving resources to organisations to arrange holiday accommodation and holiday activities benefitting less advantaged families and children. The Fund was established in relation to Danish holiday law and its resources come from unclaimed holiday savings fund money.

The Augustinus Fund was created in 1942 by the industrialist Ludvig Augustinus and is based in

CHAPTER 6

Copenhagen. The Fund’s purpose is to support charitable and humanitarian, artistic, social and research activities. Beyond the objectives of its constitution, the Fund also supports social action, research to fight illness, cultural activities, environmental enhancement, nature conservation, architectural restoration, travel for study, education, research, church and religious activities and the loan of musical instruments.

The Danish Maritime Fund provides financial support to initiatives and undertakings serving to develop and promote Danish shipping and shipbuilding industries. The Fund was established in 2005. Its trust funds comprise 10% of the shares in Danmarks Skibskredit A/S (Danish Ship Finance Ltd.), and its dividends provide the Fund’s main income. The focus of the Fund has been maritime research, promotion of the ‘Blue Denmark’ and development of innovative technical solutions to the challenges facing the shipping industry, including sustainability. Furthermore, the Fund has engaged in the development of a talent development programme for young professionals from the industry.

D/S NORDEN // D/S Orients Fond is a charitable fund originally created by the shipping company Aktieselskabet Dampskibsselskabet Orient. On 1 January 1994, it was merged as part of a reconstituted Dampskibsselskabet NORDEN A/S. Originally D/S Orient was founded in September 1915 by the East Asiatic Company (see below). Its initial purpose was to take over EAC’s steamships as a result of the parent company’s fleet rapidly switching entirely to motor vessels, following the introduction of MS Selandia in 1912. The fund provides support for employees of D/S NORDEN and their relatives, maritime-related activities including education, the dissemination of knowledge, cultural projects, research, initiatives to promote D/S NORDEN’s

M a k i n g i t P o s s i b l e : T he Support i n g F ou n dat i o n s

activities plus charitable work at both national and international levels. Gifts from Dampskibsselskabet Orients Fond will typically be presented under the joint name ‘D/S NORDEN // D/S Orients Fond.’

The Lauritzen Foundation was established in 1945 by the brothers Ivar and Knud Lauritzen and their sister Anna Lønberg-Holm. This coincided with the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the steamship company ‘Vesterhavet,’ which was begun by their father Ditlev Lauritzen in 1895. It is a commercial foundation with several objectives, amongst which are supporting Danish entrepreneurship and social activities. The Foundation is parent company of the shipping companies J. Lauritzen A/S (wholly owned), DFDS A/S (38 % holding) and the private limited company LF Investment ApS (wholly owned). Each year, the foundation distributes approximately DKK 20-25 million to support projects with a maritime, humanitarian or cultural focus, both inside and out with Denmark’s borders. It also supports employees affiliated with the Lauritzen Group and their education. The Foundation’s charter is built on four core values: promise, strength, ambition and passion. Together with the Lauritzen Foundation’s tagline ‘Believe in you,’ they summon the essence of the Foundation’s work and the projects supported.

The Oticon Fund was founded in 1957 by the businessman William Demant to safeguard the future of his family’s companies, William Demant Holding and William Demant Invest. Originally, the Fund was named ‘William Demants og hustru Ida Emilies Fond’ but, more recently, it was given the name of Demant’s famous Oticon business, widely regarded as a leading developer and manufacturer of hearing aids and one of Denmark’s best-known global companies. The fund also makes generous donations to scholarly research projects seeking further to refine

197

hearing technologies – including a special centre at the Technical University of Denmark – and to support PhD students carrying out investigations in this field. Moreover, it also supports numerous initiatives seeking to bring about better cross-cultural understanding, a reduction in social isolation and to encourage innovative developments across the arts and culture in general.

The TK Foundation was established in 2002 by Teekay Corporation (formerly known as Teekay Shipping Company). This well-known Bahamian-headquartered company had a Danish founder, J. Torben Karlsøj, a dynamic entrepreneur whose vessels were involved in the international bulk cargo trades. The TK Foundation seeks to help disadvantaged youth to access education, training and life skills, to promote knowledge of the seas and oceans and to encourage initiatives seeking to improve maritime safety.

A/S Dampskibsselskabet TORMs Understøttelsesfond (The TORM Fund) was formed in 1948 by the TORM shipping company. Established in 1889, it operated tramp steamers mainly in the North Sea and Baltic trades before diversifying in the 1930s with diesel-powered cargo ships capable of carrying chilled fruit from Mediterranean ports.

Subsequently, in the post-Second World War era, TORM gradually switched instead to operate mainly tankers and bulk carriers in world-wide service and today its fleet consists entirely of large oil and dry bulk vessels. The Fund principally supports projects assisting in the personal development of TORM’s employees, seafarers in general, institutions and organisations related to the enhancement of shipping and the marine environment in Denmark and other types of charitable endeavour. Projects and activities it has funded relate to shipping, the sea, sailing sport and the environment.

198

The EAC Foundation primarily supports projects and activities that strengthen and expand relations and business interests between Denmark and the countries in which the East Asiatic Company (EAC) has done and continues to do business, especially the Asian countries. The foundation was established in June 1988 by A/S Det Østasiatiske Kompagni (EAC) and the EAC board of management at that time: Henning H. Sparsø, John Arthur Hansen and Flemming Hasle. In accordance with its statutes, the objects of the Foundation involve research, humanitarian tasks, environmental protection and education, as well as artistic and national objectives.

In 2006, the Foundation took over the Asia House building near Copenhagen Freeport. This building served as EAC’s first head office and has played an important role in the history of EAC. With this takeover, the objectives of the Foundation were expanded to support activities emphasising EAC’s heritage and promoting knowledge of the company’s historical business operations.

Aage og Johanne Louis-Hansens Fond was initially known as Aage Louis-Hansens Mindefond when established in 1967 in memory of the civil engineer and businessman Aage Louis-Hansen.

He was a mechanical engineering graduate of the Polyteknisk Læreanstalt (Technical University of Denmark) whose study focused on shipbuilding, but who instead made his reputation in other areas. In the early 1950s, he established a plastic packaging company, Dansk Plastic Emballage, and thereafter in 1957 he founded the medical technical company nowadays known as Coloplast A/S. It too uses plastic as the basis for its products. Coloplast A/S is a global company headquartered in Northern Sjælland and Aage og Johanne Louis-Hansens Fond is one of its major shareholders.

CHAPTER 6

M a k i n g i t P o s s i b l e : T he Support i n g F ou n dat i o n s

A dance performance choreographed by Ingrid Kristensen takes place in the dry dock for the entertainment of invited guests.

As well as attending the opening ceremony, representatives of the eleven foundations attended a special private function in the museum. The auditorium, cafĂŠ, galleries and circulation spaces have great potential for special events use of this kind.

199

200

CHAPTER 6

M a k i n g i t P o s s i b l e : T he Support i n g F ou n dat i o n s

201

AUTHOR Bruce Peter ART DIRECTION & GRAPHIC DESIGN WAAITT (We Are All In This Together) ILLUSTRATIONS BIG WAAITT Nanna Arnfred PUBLISHER Marie Arvinius EDITOR Julie Cirelli ART EDITORS WAAITT Bruce Peter PRINT AND BINDING Livonia Print SIA, 2014 Latvia ISBN 978-91-980756-4-9 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author wishes to express especial thanks to Dan Pode Poulsen of Maritim Museums Byg and Maritim Museums Fond, Peter Poulsen and Charlotte Trillingsgaard of Maritim Museums Byg, Marie Arvinius and Julie Cirelli of Arvinius+Orfeus, Jess Jensen, Dennis Müller, Celine Tan and Anders Rimhoff of WAAITT, Henriette Gavnholdt Jakobsen and Benjamin Asmussen of Museet for Søfart, Bjarke Ingels, David Zahle and Kai-Uwe Bergmann of Bjarke Ingels Group and Petra Schilders of Kossmann.deJong for their kind assistance in producing this book.

The author wishes additionally to thank Ann Glen, Elspeth Hough, Søren Lund Hviid, Nicholas Oddy, John Peter, and Sarah Smith for their support.

ARVINIUS + ORFEUS PUBLISHING Box 6040, SE 102 31 Stockholm, Sweden Tel +46 8 32 00 15 E-mail: info@ao-publishing.com www.ao-publishing.com

© 2014 Arvinius + Orfeus Publishing All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, digital, photographic, mechanical or otherwise without the prior written permission of Arvinius + Orfeus Publishing.

Thanks to the following photographers and organizations for their permission to reproduce the images in this book.

AGERSTEN, KIM Page 191, 198-199 A.P. MØLLER-MAERSK Pages 184 (top), 185 AUTHOR'S PRIVATE COLLECTION Pages 30 (bottom), 31 (top, bottom, right), 36 (top, bottom), 37 (top, bottom), 182, 183

MAGNUSSEN, ARNE/MAJ OG MAGNUSSEN FOTOGRAFER Pages 190-191 MUSEET FOR SØFART Pages 12, 14, 16-17, 18-19, 20-21, 31, 32 (top), 32 (bottom), 34, 35 (bottom) PODE POULSEN, DAN Page 108

BYSKOV, RASMUS Page 111 (bottom)

ROLFF, CLAUS Pages 110 (top, bottom), 110-111 (centre)

DFDS Page 184 (bottom)

SANTIAGO MORA, LUCA Pages 112, 113, 120, 126-127, 128, 134-135, 136, 138139, 141, 143, 149, 150-151, 152, 153, 154-155, 156-157, 160, 178-179, 180-181

DRAGØR LUFTFOTO Pages 8-9 (foldout), 42, 49, 78-79, 200-201 D/S NORDEN Pages 187 (top, bottom) CORREIA, LOUIS MIGUEL Pages 33, 35 (top) HJORTSHØJ, RASMUS Pages 123, 124-125, 129, 130-131, 132, 133, 137, 142, 144, 147, 148, 177 J. LAURITZEN Page 186 (top) JARVIS, DENNIS Page 40 LINDSAY, MICK Page 30 (top)

THISTED, JAMES Pages 199 THOMSEN, OLE Pages 45, 46-47, 53 (top, bottom), 72, 74-75, 76, 90, 91, 92, 93, 104-105, 106, 107, 111 (top), 114, 115, 116-117 TORM Page 186 (bottom) WAAITT Pages 166, 194 WOLZAK, THIJS Pages 162-163, 164, 165, 168-169, 170, 172-173, 175, 176 TIMELINE All courtesy Museet for Søfart, except for the centre image on page 28-29, taken by Ann Glen, and the far right image on page 29, from the author's private collection.

204

CHAPTER 6