Scan Magazine | Attraction of the Month | Denmark
Exhibition. Photo: Tinker Imagineers
Attraction of the Month, Denmark
A hidden treasure on the Danish west coast One of the most spectacular and anticipated museums in the world has finally opened its doors. Tirpitz in Blåvand offers stunning architecture and exhibitions that will change your view on the Danish west coast forever. By Nicolai Lisberg
It is almost invisible. From a distance it looks just like another white sand dune. But, when you get closer, you will see a magnificent glass building almost hidden in one of the dunes. Tirpitz is the name of the museum that, back in January, the American TV station CNN named as one of the 13 most anticipated buildings to open in 2017. “The idea of the architects was that the museum had to be something in direct 86 | Issue 102 | July 2017
contrast to the unfriendly colossal bunker that’s located right next to it. We wished to create an open and welcoming democratic space – not an obstacle but an enrichment of the landscape. You can look at the exhibitions from the outside, because we want to make the invisible visible and metaphorically show our guests that there are so many good stories to tell right below the sand,” says Claus Kjeld Jensen, museum director at VardeMuseerne, which Tirpitz is a part of.
The museum opened on 30 June this year and was designed by the wellknown architects Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG). The name comes from the cannon fortress, which dates back to 1944 but was never finished before the Germans surrendered in May 1945. The original Tirpitz fortress is a part of the museum area, and visitors can learn how it would have functioned had it been finished.
An impossible project “The job we gave the architects was almost impossible. We wanted worldclass architecture, and we wanted it to be invisible. When we got the permission to build a museum in this protected landscape, we wanted to show our love