COPENHAGEN.- With their winning project “SMK Back into the Park” the Polyform office will be behind the revitalisation of the 7,500m² area in front of the National Gallery of Denmark. The winning project was presented by the Gallery and the City of Copenhagen earlier today at a reception held at the Gallery. On that occasion the architectural office SLA was awarded second prize for their design proposal. Polyform’s winning design and seven other proposals will be exhibited at the Gallery until 15 January 2012. The inauguration of the new Museum Garden is projected for 2013.

SMK Back into the Park
In June of last year the National Gallery of Denmark and the City of Copenhagen launched a competition inviting proposals for a new design to reinvigorate and reinvent the Museum Garden. After a preliminary pre-qualification round, a total of eight enterprises from Denmark and abroad were invited to submit their proposals. Now, the judges have unanimously pointed to Polyform as the winner. With the project “SMK Back in the Park” Polyform solved the task by letting the green spaces provided by the Østre Anlæg park reach all the way around the Gallery. The stringent, Baroque-infused layout of the present-day garden design will disappear and be replaced by e.g. grass-clad hillocks, large trees, and serpentine pathways that lead around and envelop the Gallery building and the green bastions.

The judges’ comments include the following statement about the winning proposal: ”The proposal is particularly commended for its simple underlying approach, which demonstrates respect for and understanding of the link between building, park, and city, thereby creating a precisely articulated and compelling architectural whole that brings out the full authority of the building.”

Gallery Director Karsten Ohrt comments: ”It is a great pleasure for us to see how the judges have pointed to a proposal that perfectly complements the Gallery’s desire to become even more open to the world around us. Polyform’s winning design will create a new social and recreational space in Copenhagen and embed the Gallery as an integrated part of the park and city space that surrounds it.”

Technical and Environmental Mayor Ayfer Baykal comments: ”I am very pleased to see how this will create a new, green urban space where the people of Copenhagen can experience art and culture, a place where you can breathe freely and deeply and interact with other people in a beautifully verdant setting. We need such spaces within the city, and I look forward to seeing the new Museum Garden teeming with life.”