A museum that captures the voice of Hans Christian Andersen is set to open in Odense

The Danish city bets heavily on the legacy of its famous son

A new museum dedicated to the legacy and inspired by the work of Hans Christian Andersen is set to open doors this summer in the Danish city of Odense. The native town of the famous fairy tales writer already has two museums dedicated to his memory, one of them being his birth house, but the new project is more ambitious in scope and seeks to create a sensory feeling of the philosophy that lies behind Andersen’s literature – elements of surprise and wonder will be heavily featured into the layout of the museum.

The design of the new facility has been delegated to Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, and a large part of the funding has been provided by The A.P. Møller Foundation.

C. Andersen is the author of some of the most classic fairy tales and stories that we have

Most people are familiar with the stories left to us by the 19^th-century author, many of them have been made into feature films and animation, such as The Snow Queen, The Ugly Duckling, The Emperor’s New Clothes, The Little Mermaid, and more.

Kengo Kuma and Associates have decided to use the story of The Tinderbox fairy tale as an inspiration in this specific case. A part of this story deals with supernatural elements and magic, as well as the exploring of unknown places. It is this sense of wondrous, unexpected discovery that the designers want to imbibe the museum with, as well.

”Hans Christian Andersen’s artistic universe is fantastic because it reverses how you imagine this world you thought you knew, but without putting anything else in its place. His fairytales do not point towards a universal truth, but rather into the open – towards the peculiarity and multiplicity of the world. In the new museum, we maintain this ambiguity by using Andersen’s own artistic strategies as the starting point for how the garden, the house and the exhibition have all been shaped, as well as for the many artistic contributions that will also be part of the museum,” said Henrik Lübker, the Creative Director of the new museum, as quoted on the museum’s website.

The idea is to spatialize the spirit of the writer’s works and let visitors experience them personally through sight and sound. The creators promise that cutting edge technology will play a central part in this experience.

It will cover an area of 5600 square metres and will contain a children’s house, an underground museum and a magical garden. The exhibition will also lead to the writer’s birth house, thus joining, or expanding the museum experience that is already on offer in the city.