Natural History Museum

Natural History Museum is a competition entry for a museum interior by Alex Poulsen Architects in Copenhagen, Denmark. The proposal addresses key visitor areas for the Natural History Museum in the Botanical Garden, including public galleries, entrance areas, café, shop, and spaces for learning and events.

Developed with Engel Architects, the scheme includes a 400 sqm entrance area within a 2,000 m² overall project. The design focuses on visitor experience, universal accessibility, and spatial storytelling, with a layout intended to allow visitors of different abilities to move through the museum without barriers. The project is stated as not executed and competition 2023.

The proposed material palette uses natural stone and wood as sculptural and fragmented elements within an ordered interior. The concept introduces human-scale cave-like rooms made from natural stone, creating spaces within spaces for layered encounters with the museum’s narratives and exhibits. Lighting is treated as part of the visitor experience, with bespoke lighting for the cave-like spaces, spotlights for exhibition objects, and minimal glass pendant lamps in the entrance hall. The proposal links its material choices to the museum’s sustainability aims and to ideas of history, erosion, and time.