Museum of Sør-Trøndelag
Proposal for a new Art Museum, Trondheim, Norway
Competition, 2025, gloriously failed
with Tim Langerbeins,
collaborators: Maximilian Abeln, Julian Kirchner, Teresa Di Muccio, Erjia Ren, Sara Sapone
THE MUSEUM THAT‘S NEVER FINISHED
What if the museum didn’t have a front door?
What if it was open to the city from every side – absorbing, not enclosing? What if it dissolved the threshold between institution and society, and reclaimed the museum as a civic tool, that can de redeveloped by future generations?
This proposal responds by prioritizing openness, flexibility, and public value. It avoids a singular formal statement and instead combines multiple architectural strategies into a spatial system that is adaptable, inclusive, and deeply integrated in its context. It offers not one narrative, but many.
THE POROUS GROUND
The former parking lot is no longer a residual surface – it becomes the connective tissue of a new cultural quarter, where the continuous paving frees the street from the dominance of cars. Above this new ground, a large wooden canopy spans the site. It is held by a dense field of timber columns – a forest of possibilities. This structure lets daylight reach deep into the interior and allows for a variety of activities: workshops, exhibitions, café, reading zones, informal performances, and education programs. The space becomes a porous platform for society: Workshops, installations, market stalls, café tables, book displays, lecture circles – this is not a prescribed programme, but a set of spatial conditions for public life. This ground floor remains open late. It welcomes the theatre audience after hours. It hosts school groups, open rehearsals, academic spillover, spontaneous performance. The building becomes a host. Museum fatigue is countered not with entertainment, but with generosity and diversity and a low threshold between city and institution.
THE MUSEUM THAT WANDERS THE CITY
The museum is not confined to its plot. Our central architectural motif is inspired by the glacial erratics - Flyttblokker - that dot the Norwegian landscape. We reinterpret these boulders in various ways: sculptural structures of varied scale, placed both on-site and far beyond within Trondheim or even Norway. Some are shelters, others information points, mobile exhibition spaces, or miniature ateliers. They appear next to schools, at public transport nodes, in underused squares. They create curiosity, hinting at the museum’s presence.
These objects can change location over time, moved collectively by communities or institutions. In this way, the museum expands its presence and builds long-term engagement. Culture is not limited to a central address — it becomes visible and accessible across the city.
THE INTROVERTED VOLUMES
In counterpoint to this porosity stand four solid volumes — the introverted boulders. Each block is compact, composed, and precise. Here reside the museum’s more static programmes: classic exhibitions spaces, restaurant, library, ateliers, administrative offices, and spaces for scholarly and curatorial work. The atmosphere shifts — from the bright and open foyer to quieter, controlled spaces of focus and depth. Carefully curated openings allow views over Trondheim and toward the fjord. The positioning of the volumes enables pedestrian circulation and visual connections throughout the site. Each volume extends down into the existing underground structure, anchoring the building both physically and programmatically.
THE PRODUCTIVE BASEMENT
The existing underground parking structure is not erased — it is transformed. The four boulders extend downward through it, anchoring the new structure and dividing the subterranean space into functional zones. What was once a space to store cars, becomes now a place for the production of a museum. This level is not hidden — it becomes an active part of the visitor experience. Glass partitions and guided paths allow public insight into museum operations: restoration processes, archive storage, and the technical infrastructure behind exhibitions. What was once a closed, residual space now becomes a place of production, learning, and transparency. It redefines the museum not as an archive of finished narratives, but as a living process of cultural stewardship.
A MUSEUM FOR THE LONG TERM
This is not a museum about itself. Instead, it builds a robust framework for change, collaboration, and public use — spatially and institutionally. It opens up new relations with the theatre, the university, the streets, the seasons. It‘s a framework for future generations to define how a museum should work.