Moesgaard Museum

The archaeological and ethnographic museum south of Aarhus has a grass roof that slopes up out of the landscape. The roof is a hillside where people sit and go sledging in winter. Inside, a great staircase leads through time.

Moesgaard Museum had long kept its collections in a manor house south of Aarhus. A new museum was needed, and after a competition in 2008 Henning Larsen Architects were chosen. The new museum opened in October 2014. It holds archaeology and ethnography, including the Grauballe Man, one of the best-preserved bog bodies of the Iron Age.

The building is a wedge rising out of the slope. The roof is covered with grass and moss and serves as a public space, where visitors can walk up and look out over the landscape. Inside, a broad staircase leads down through the exhibitions, and its steps can be read as layers in an archaeological excavation. The façades have patterned concrete and large areas of glass.

The museum has become one of the most visited in Denmark and has won several awards. It shows how a contemporary building can become part of the landscape and a meeting place. The slope of the roof is used all year round, for picnics in summer and sledging in winter.

• Contemporary architecture
• Henning Larsen Architects