On April 2 1805 Hans Christian Andersen was born in the beautiful city of Odense, before coming to Copenhagen as a teenager. We all know of him – his fairytales have entertained and amazed countless children and adults since his birth all those years ago, and now Odense is celebrating him in the loveliest way.
So, the city has opened H.C. Andersen Hus museum – a museum dedicated to everything Hans Christian Andersen related, and it opened this month. Now, this isn’t some stuffy old museum with creaky chairs. It’s inspired by the very fairytales Andersen penned. Nobody in Copenhagen can deny the simple elegance of our Little Mermaid, but other fairytales written by Andersen are immortalised in architectural design too.
Speaking to Lonely Planet, Kengo Kuma and Associates, the architects designing the museum, say: ‘The idea behind the architectural design resembled Andersen’s method, where a small world suddenly expands to a bigger universe.’ It’s designed to be a truly immersive experience. Stepping into the museum will be like stepping into a fairytale, with images, sounds, and architecture used to create a wondrous world inspired by Andersen’s works.
A walk through the underground museum brings visitors out into beautiful gardens, and these gardens cover a staggering 7000 square meters, leading to the childhood home of H. C. Andersen. An onsite cafe offers refreshments whilst the children play in a small house designed for their entertainment. The museum had a soft launch last year but it has opened officially this month and it’s truly something to behold.
Visiting is a truly magical experience. The beauty of being a child is that the possibilities of reality are endless. Fantastical things can and do happen, and life abounds with whimsical characters. Andersen created an amazing world for children to escape to but he did so candidly. He wrote some of the most brutally honest children’s stories to ever have existed, but those tragedies still offer a wonderful escape, and this museum hopes to suck us into a world more fantastical than our own, too. Check out the website for more information.