Nationalmuseum

Wingårdh Architects and Wikerstål Architects were jointly commissioned to plan the comprehensive renovation of Nationalmuseum in 2012, and the following year the building closed for the start of construction. The project brief was to create an enduringly functional museum by • reclaiming opportunities for daylight and views to the exterior; • reclaiming for public use several areas that had previously been used for internal activities; • improving the logistics through alternative circulation patterns for the public and separate and secure routes for the art; • replacing and augmenting all technical systems—the middle level had no climate control system at all and the upper level needed a new one; and • achieving all these enhancements with respectful consideration for the building’s architecture and cultural historical value. Our work with Nationalmuseum has oscillated between identifying self-evident opportunities and discovering unexpected ones, though the self-evident dominated the design. Most of Nationalmuseum’s new design is derived from the painstaking work of the building’s original architect, Friedrich August Stüler, and the lion’s share of our work has been to ensure we meet the new technical and operational requirements while remaining true to the building’s own inherent qualities. Because the Nationalmuseum building was conceived for a variety of different uses, over time it accumulated layer upon layer of compromise. By the end of the twentieth century, it was badly worn and the floor plans had become haphazardly configured. International demands to provide more secure and stable conditions for the art ultimately made the need for a thorough renovation urgent. Our first challenge was to resolve the logistics. Visitors and artworks both now move along new circulation paths. The floor of the basement level, which had previously been a low-ceilinged space that was largely filled by pipes and wiring, has been lowered to make room for bathrooms and a coat check. These are reached by two new staircases, one of which is clad in the renovation’s characteristic finish: patinaed brass, a material with the ability to harmonize with the museum’s warm and soft character. Art and visitors alike can be transported in spacious elevators, the largest of which holds ninety-seven people. Our preliminary design called for adding elevator shafts to the exterior, but that solution was scrapped for reasons of conservation as well as logistics. Instead we chose to allow the elevators to occupy space inside the south atrium. The space had not been uncovered until the renovation, and was therefore a more reasonable place for the addition of an elevator shaft. It looks like a freestanding object that could be removed if desired—and in fact it could be removed. It is wrapped in a weave of patinaed brass, a choice we think Stüler would have appreciated. Treating this lighter and more temporary sheathing (in contrast to the building’s heavy, permanent walls) as a building component with its roots in weaving was an idea that emerged at just the same time Nationalmuseum was formed. The elevator shaft’s kinship to the new mechanical building recently constructed in the museum park is acknowledged by giving both a similar woven cladding. These two structures are our most visible additions. The relief in the surface of the mechanical building’s prefabricated concrete panels is only thirty millimeters deep, but it is effective in its precision. The lower portion of the elevator shaft can be opened on the sides to reveal a large video screen that can transform the atrium into a lecture hall. Both of the atriums are lit from above by vaulted glass roofs that are shallow enough to avoid changing the building’s silhouette. But a vaulted ceiling has the unfortunate attribute of focusing sound waves toward a point in the center of the space. In order to give the atriums the best possible acoustics, the glass roof structures are built up of many small pyramids. The faceted surfaces all but eliminate reverberations at floor level by redirecting sound waves to the surrounding walls, where they can be absorbed by a sound-attenuating stucco finish. This has made it possible for both atriums to host a variety of public events in a building whose floor area has been doubled. The neutral gray color of the walls enhances the quality of the incoming daylight, which benefits the surrounding gallery spaces as well. By raising the atrium floors 175 centimeters, we have achieved two things. First, we made space below for large mechanical rooms that also reach deep down into the bedrock. Second, we united the atriums with the building’s other public spaces. Together with the so-called “Church” in the center of the building, they now form a grand, contiguous space. This was made possible by lowering the floor of the Church 44 centimeters, restoring the lofty spaciousness that had been truncated in 1961 when the floor was raised 89 centimeters. We have added a restaurant, café, and bar in what are some of Stockholm’s most magnificent rooms—spaces that had formerly been used for things like conservation studios. Staff functions have been almost entirely relocated, allowing the whole ground level to become part of the life of the city. Here people can meet, drink coffee, read, or just enjoy sitting for a while without paying the entrance fee. The entrance loggia, too, has become more accessible: its function as an outdoor space has been restored, and because its floor is now flush with the adjacent indoor spaces, everyone can enter the building through the main entrance. Because the windows have regained their original significance on the interior, the art can be experienced in a new way. Daylight and views to the outside were long seen as threatening to both the art and the viewing of it. Today we have a greater appreciation for the role they play in visitors’ enjoyment, orientation, and experience of the art itself, and we now understand that daylight is not as damaging to older paintings as was once believed—the paint is actually most sensitive when the painting is new. In order to take advantage of the large windows without undermining the indoor climate or the lighting conditions, the interior windows dating back to the 1910s and 20s were replaced with steel-framed glazing that together with solar shades can satisfy the complex demands for security, solar heat gain, views, daylighting, and insulation. Another example of how earlier qualities have been reclaimed is the restoration of the upper-level floor plan. Almost a hundred years ago, Stüler’s intricate sequence of spaces was discarded in order to create a pair of large galleries. The fact that walking through the top floor, with the play of sunlight there, has become a more richly varied experience is a credit primarily to the original architect. What made it possible to reclaim its original grandeur, however, was the need to make room for the huge chases required for the new climate-control system. Besides a lot of space for ductwork, the system includes a great deal of radiant floor tubing that leads to custom-designed distributors, which are camouflaged as rosettes in the crowns of the vaulted ceilings—a high-tech detail that, like the Nationalmuseum as a whole, speaks to the potential for uniting reverence, innovation, function, and craftsmanship when all interests are aligned and pulling in the same direction. Gert Wingårdh Erik Wikerstål.