Danish architect Lundgaard & Tranberg has won a competition to design the $30m refurbishment of a Viking ship museum in Roskilde, eastern Denmark. The firm beat a starry field of competitors to the prize, including CF Møller, Foster + Partners and Snøhetta.
The Roskilde Viking Ship Museum was originally opened in 1969 to display five 1,000-year-old longboats. These date from the late Viking age and were found in Roskilde Fjord 60 years ago.
Lundgaard & Tranberg is proposing a new timber museum building. This will, it says, be an unassuming design that “humbly steps to the side and gives space to the dramatic nature around the fjord and all the activities the Viking Ship Museum already has”. The building’s structural details are also to be left exposed in way that mirrors the ribs of a dragon boat.
The structure of the existing ship hall will be retained, but reclad with an eye to making the museum more open and enticing to visitors.
Jacob Engel-Schmidt, Denmark’s minister for culture, said: “We recently had extremely bad weather which, once again, underlined the need for new surroundings for the Viking ships in Roskilde.
“It’s really good news that the project has taken this vital step forward. Because in the future we will also need to look after the unique cultural heritage these ships represent, and exhibit the ships so that the public can learn about a vital period in our history.”
Malene Hjortsø Kyndesen, an architect with Lundgaard & Traneberg, said: “In the Viking age, the Roskilde Fjord was the link between the town and the seven seas. It was vital for us that the new museum building would contribute to visitors noticing that connection.”
