H.C. Andersen’s House by Kengo Kuma & Associates

Even in his lifetime, Andersen’s richly imaginative stories of folklore and fable were celebrated around the world, and his work since become an integral part of Danish literary and cultural history.

Kengo Kuma & Associates, working alongside Danish architect Cornelius Vöge and landscape architects MASU Planning, incorporated VOLA products through the project. ‘VOLA is simple, yet at the same time very unique in its expression. It was designed over 50 years ago, but it still appears extremely modern,’ says Dan Cornelius of Cornelius Vöge. ‘It has been our responsibility to choose products that work with the museum's simplicity and tranquillity. This is where VOLA comes into play - it's almost personal in its design. In this way, VOLA perhaps resembles Andersen's fairy tales: timeless and modern at the same time.’

Like VOLA, Andersen’s work retains a timeless appeal. As a creator and collector of fairy tales, both ancient and original, the Danish author achieved global fame, bringing literature to a younger generation and catalysing the role of imagination, play and the otherworldly in childhood. Kuma’s proposal was chosen because of its explicit use of architecture as a storytelling device. The geometric plan unwinds the path of Andersen’s life and stories, presenting it as a journey through a series of spaces with nature at their heart, thanks to the sunken planted courtyard at the centre of the exhibition spaces.

The extended museum now seeps into the surrounding streets of Odense (the author’s birthplace), but the gardens themselves are treated as part of the exhibition, a series of narrative spaces developed by Kuma’s studio in collaboration with Copenhagen-based landscape architects, MASU Planning. Surrounding this landscape of mature trees, curved hedges and beds are a series of wood and glass pavilions, housing exhibits and education spaces.

These enchanted spaces mirror the realms in Andersen’s fairy tales, where gardens and plants often take on magical properties to reveal new elements of the story. In stories such as "The Princess and the Pea," "The Little Mermaid", "The Garden of Paradise" and "The Emperor's New Clothes", Andersen blends the fantastical with the real, worlds populated by memorable characters and emotive imagery. Here you’ll find exhibits that bring these stories to life through immersive architecture, with playful media that treats each tale like an artistic installation, alive with music, sound and form. 

Another natural element that influenced the design are the country’s dense and historic forests. The structural frames have been inspired by abstracted forms of tree trunks, with the pavilions also acknowledging Denmark’s rich design heritage through their contemporary update of the traditional half-timbered houses that can still be seen in Odense. The timber clad interiors themselves take on the character of a forest clearing, with dappled light shifting and changing throughout the day.

Through the design and material choices, the museum demonstrates the interplay between the built environment and the natural world. This is a building designed to be experienced all year round, with the seasons outside changing the dynamics and light of the interior spaces. This substantial architectural transformation not only brings Andersen’s creative worlds to life but blends these imaginative realms with the wider cityscape. A public path that winds through the edge of the museum site brings with it glimpses into the museum itself, flashes of an extraordinary and mysterious landscape that evoke memories of childhood. 

As one of Japan’s leading contemporary architects, Kuma has worked on cultural projects around the world, from Japan’s National Stadium in Tokyo to the V&A Dundee in Scotland. His work celebrates craft through innovative formal language, often focusing on a pared back material palette that gives each structure a monumental form as if they were carved from natural materials like wood, stone or glass. 'The materials we used for the museum are not special materials - green hedges and wood and glass. Quite ordinary materials. But we have tried to create a different world with these classic Danish materials,' says Kuma.

With imagination and insight, the museum has proved that simple forms can create extraordinary new worlds with the power to inspire a new generation. As part of our ongoing commitment to celebrating great design around the world we are incredibly proud to be part of this uniquely Danish project. 

H.C Andersen´s House