When the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design opens its doors this month in Oslo, the city will claim bragging rights as host to the largest museum in Scandinavia. The Naples–based architect Klaus Schuwerk designed the nearly 600,000-square-foot waterfront space, which conjoins two retrofitted structures to almost double the size of the previous location. Behind the Norwegian slate façade, some 90 rooms gather across two floors, along with cafés and the most extensive art library in the region.
The institution’s blockbuster holdings, from Edvard Munch’s The Scream to work by Norwegian Pritzker Prize–winner Sverre Fehn, will have their own rooms, as will other selections from the permanent collection of 400,000 medieval tapestries, royal gowns, and examples of modern design. Temporary exhibitions—like the opening survey of Norwegian Contemporary art, featuring 150 artists and groups—are set up on the roof, where the alabaster Light Hall offers views of Oslo’s idyllic coastal landscape.
