This Scale Model Embodies a New Synthesis Between Architecture and Art

“Architecture is NOT ART … ”

When Patrik Schumacher took to Facebook to tell the world to cease confusing these two fundamental disciplines, it raised the question: what would Zaha Hadid Architects’ company director and Senior Designer think of James Turrell’s work? As an artist primarily concerned with light and space, the American’s installations often manifest as whole buildings, and his designs are frequently carried out in tandem with architects from conception to completion.

© Morten Fauerby / Montgomery ApS

James Turrell (right) discusses the design of The Next Level with schmidt hammer lassen.

Turrell’s latest cross-disciplinary collaboration is with Danish firm schmidt hammer lassen architects, which is teaming up with the artist to design and build a dramatic extension to the ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum. Entitled “The Next Level,” the expansion will be comprised of a 12,900-square-foot (1,200-square-meter) subterranean gallery together with two semi-subterranean installations by Turrell named The Sphere and The Dome.

Long section through The Next Level: the existing museum building is shown on the right, with Turrell’s subterranean additions to the left.

Section detail: The Sphere

Together with a large-scale model of the project, schmidt hammer lassen has released a section drawing that illuminates just how Turrell’s artworks will be embedded within the museum landscape. First, The Sphere contains a 46-foot-wide (14-meter-wide) void suspended within an underground structure, its uppermost portion is visible in the sculpture plaza above. The bottom section of The Sphere is lined with integrated, inclined seating, which is designed to focus the inhabitants’ views toward an oculus that frames the sky as a dynamic artwork.

Section detail: The Dome

Further from the museum’s existing envelope, The Dome takes this concept to another scale, entirely: a vast 105-foot-wide (32-meter-wide) chamber is sunken into the sculpture plaza, with a maximum internal height of almost 53 feet (16 meters). These dimensions make the space around 75-percent the diameter of the Pantheon’s iconic concrete dome and will form a dramatic sculpture, both internally and externally.

© Morten Fauerby / Montgomery ApS

Turrell places a scale figure onto the upper surface of The Dome.

“It is a privilege for me as an architect to have the opportunity to work with James Turrell on this ambitious project,” said Morten Schmidt, Founding Partner at schmidt hammer lassen. “The Next Level project will develop the museum horizontally in contrast to the existing vertical movement, and it is exciting to work with the great lines spanning from the river to the square of the Aarhus Music Hall. Our studio is not just designing a new room for a new artwork, we are co-creating the space and the installation simultaneously with James Turrell.”

© Morten Fauerby / Montgomery ApS

Turrell within the existing museum in Aarhus, which was designed by schmidt hammer lassen

The €30-million project constitutes James Turrell’s largest to date within a museum context and looks set to form a new typological precedent at the intersection of art and architecture. Following on from his collaborations with Tadao Ando — many of which can be explored on Naoshima, Japan’s extraordinary ‘Art Island’ — The Next Level demonstrates an even greater level of ambition and reflects the burgeoning confidence of a man who has more architectural experience than almost any other living artist.