C. F. Møller Architects have designed the extension for the National Maritime Museum. Most of the building was located underground as a respect to the existing historic building. The rest carries the language of the Baroque and Victorian facades while keeping a contemporary aesthetic.

‘…The main idea of the extension – which C. F. Møller Architects won in an international architectural competition in 2006 – has been to ensure minimal interventions in this sensitive historic site and yet give the museum a new, distinctive main entrance and the necessary additional exhibition space, as well as a new café, restaurant, library and archives that meet the particular demands for storage of historical documents.

The design solution by C. F. Møller Architects has created a new main entrance emerging from the terrain. Most of the new building, however, is located underground – in total 5500 m2 out of 7300 m2. The roof of the new wing is a green, public landscaped terrace overlooking the Park, accessed at all levels by gentle ramps, even more so causing the building to blend with the park landscape. The extension has a contemporary aesthetic, but is inspired by the Baroque buildings’ rhythmic sequence of windows, and the profile of the new extension has been kept low to allow the Grade I listed Victorian facade of the existing south west wing of the museum to be appreciated as a backdrop to the striking new building.

The goal of the expansion has been to open up the museum and allow the display of more collections than ever before. The museum’s collections range from e.g. a toy pig that survived the sinking of RMS Titanic to Lord Nelson’s last letter to his daughter. The maritime archive contains some 100,000 books and nearly two miles (3.2 km) of shelved manuscripts…’

DESIGN ARCHITECT: C. F. Møller Architects, Århus, Denmark. EXECUTIVE ARCHITECT: Purcell Miller Tritton. LANDSCAPE DESIGN: Churchman Landscape. LOCATION: Romney Road, Greenwich, London SE10. DESCRIPTION: Cultural / museum . STATUS: completed. AREA: 7300 sqm. DATE: 2011. No part of this web site may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior permission of Morfae and the copyright owner.