AROS

SKYSPACE

ARoS Kunstmuseum is located on a natural rise in the topography of Aarhus, at the center of the city’s cultural green swath. Its roof is the city’s highest public viewing platform offering an uninterrupted 360–degree view of the city, hinterland, docks and sea beyond. The proposed installation floats above the cubic building as a marker and a two-way viewing device. Unlike a church steeple—a stable visual anchor—the new museum top changes identity from every point of view through camouflage or optical displacement. The scenic overlook, where travelers expect to get their bearings, is unexpectedly defied. The pavilion perched at the edge of the museum building is a parallelogram in section with 45° polished stainless steel facades acting as urban periscopes. The north-east face tips down, offering a rooftop view of the city to pedestrians in the street; the south-west face tips upward offering a sky view to the rooftop spectator while erasing the pavilion mass. Projectors line the periphery of the enclosed rooftop pavilion offering live time images of the surrounding city or video replacements of it. A glass café/bar spears the solid event space above, toggling between real and mediated panoramas. The conventions of the revolving restaurant are inverted: a static space with a rotating view.