The H.C. Andersen Hus museum in Odense had a preliminary presentation in June 2021 and has now officially opened. The new facilities – all of 5,600 square meters – rise beside the house where Hans Christian Andersen (1805-1875), the Danish author of tales like The Steadfast Tin Soldier, The Little Mermaid, and The Ugly Duckling, was born.

As the architect Yuki Ikeguchi, who served as project leader, explains, the scheme drawn up by the firm Kengo Kuma & Associates – winner of the competition held for the purpose in 2016 – sought to reflect the duality of opposites that surrounds us, as in Andersen’s literature. Cylindrical volumes interconnect tangentially, forming a continuous meandering route from the gardens to the museum, where the exhibition spaces are placed below grade. The project seeks to give visitors an experience that immerses them in worlds imagined by the writer, through a narrative sequence of scenographic places like labyrinths, forests, underground spaces, and more.