Statens Naturhistoriske Museum

The inauguration of the new museum for natural history “SNM” in Copenhagen is getting closer. The project is quite complex where existing buildings has been transformed into an entirely new museum where most new parts are underground. The most eye-catching new build is the “Ocean sal”, which is a super elliptical dome structure that will be the exhibition area for Whale skeletons hanging from the dome and creating an illusion of being under water. The structure consists of a nodal steel structure that form the shape of the dome.

The glazing system is a shingling glass system where the outer glass in each IG unit is overlapping the one below, similar to a roof tile system. The glazing system is based on aluminum profiles horizontally that generate a step in the façade so that there is 4 levels of glass in each cross point horizontally.

For vertical attachment the LS3000 Light system is used to enable us to install from the outside but securing the glass on the inside to the steel structure.

Since the structure is a super elliptical dome, the ~1600 pieces of glass can only be mirrored once so that we have 800 unique pieces of glass in the structure.

For the underground areas and the surrounding brick buildings of the project we supplied special skylights and wall partitions in bespoke steel systems that recreated the look of old times.