Project description
Once upon a time, a boy was born in a tiny yellow house in Odense, Denmark. The year was 1805 and the boy was given the name Hans Christian Andersen. From a less than easy childhood, like an ugly duckling turning into a beautiful swan, H.C. Andersen grew up to be one of the most beloved writers the world has ever seen.
In 2022, to commemorate his incredible life, a new museum was built in extension of his childhood home.
The museum, H.C. Andersen’s House, is an architectural masterpiece, designed to interact with the visitors and to guide and draw them into H.C. Andersen’s world of amazing stories and fairy tales.
The museum spaces are composed of a series of circular shapes organized in a non-hierarchical, non-centric manner, which gives the visitors a sense of being lost and disoriented – like in a fairy tale.
The museum is 5.600 m2 and about two thirds of the building is situated underground with parts of the museum garden placed on the rooftop with open access from the street. The team of contractors and Gyproc technical specialists worked closely together in the development of solutions to the challenging constructions both inside and outside.
The project is characterized by cooperation, complexity and great visions. And like in the fairy tales of H.C.Andersen, the parties involved in the project entered unknown territory, met several challenges along the way, found the keys to the right solutions, and ended up being even smarter, stronger, and more skilled than before.
Main information
Building size
5 600 m²
Building purpose / type
Museum
Building owner name
Odense Municipality
Architect name
Main Architect
Kengo Kuma And Associates
Assistant Architect until Jan. 2020
Cornelius Vöge
Contractor
Company name: S. Guldfeldt Nielsen A/S
Main Representative: Mr. Kim Birkerød
Number of collaborators: 276
Specialties: Carpentry and woodwork, All kinds of enterprises
Founded in: 1938
Biography: S. Guldfeldt Nielsen A/S has more than 80 years of experience with carpentry and woodworks in general. The company’s core values are quality and reliability, which are an integrated part of every relation internally and externally. They rely on strong relations with their employees as well as with their customers and partners. S. Guldfeldt Nielsen A/S has a strong sense of community responsibility and always encourage their employees to be innovative in solving the many challenges in the building process.
Their strengths are construction management to insure a high level of professional skill and quality. Always with the customer at the center of focus.
Contractors: S. Guldfeldt Nielsen A/S
Key Challenges
- Ventilation system challenged the strength of the walls
- Internal walls could not be designed to go from floor to ceiling
- Curved walls – internal as well as external walls – with complex joints and maneuvering room
- Façade: solving the soil pressure and need for railings as a part of the façade
- Façade with external stairs: development of new solutions using Gyproc applications
Key Achievements
- Close collaboration with S. Guldfeldt Nielsen, C&W Architects and Gyproc cleared out technical complex challenges one by one with world-class craftmanship.
- The internal walls were strengthened with new solutions to make room for the installations beneath floor level and with a 10 cm open gap below the ceiling.
- The joints between the curved walls are made beautifully and without surface irregularities.
- Glasroc H Storm (GHSE 9) was used for the external walls with cast-in fiberglass mat, which means that even the strong external walls can be bent.
- The façade made with new solutions of several Gyproc systems, e.g., using the steel studs in a new way to dam the soil pressure while functioning as a base for the railings at the same time
Saint-Gobain products & systems
