The Museum Building, the Art Gallery and the Magazine
Dalarna's Museum is located in Falun - Dalarna's city of residence. The museum building, with art gallery, at Hälsingtorget houses permanent and temporary exhibitions, offices and workshops. On the southern edge of the city is the Dalarna Museum's magazine with additional offices and workshops.
The tanner
The museum building and the Art Gallery are located along the Faluån in the district Prästtäkten, which historically had large plots and houses belonging to merchants and craftsmen. Until the first half of the 1900th century, Prästtäkten was the foremost artisanal district in Falun. On the site of the museum building was the Flodströmska tannery, which gave the neighborhood a name called Garvaren. In 1959, the tannery burned down completely. Its void was soon filled by a new museum building that was bricked up brick by brick.
The museum building
The museum building was designed by Halland - born architect Hakon Ahlberg, 1891-1984. He wanted it to harmonize both with nature and with man. In 1962, the building was completed with the tallest brick facades in the monk's and with a walled courtyard, similar to a medieval castle. The shape of the building is directly adapted to the location along the Faluån, its moat. The museum visitor enters under an arch, crosses a courtyard and enters a bright entrance hall in the middle of the building's center. From there, exhibitions can be reached in all directions.
The museum building's irregular roof shapes and wall surfaces that are alternately closed and glazed are characteristic of their time. Some rooms are wide open to the city and the movement outside. They allow culture to be a dynamic part of life, while other rooms are completely closed and protect light-sensitive works for the future.
In 1984, the museum was added to drawings by falu architect Jack Hansson, born in 1927 in New York. The extension links the then museum building with an adjacent merchant's house along Stigaregatan. Then new offices, a spacious auditorium and a children's workshop were added. The brick extension is architecturally subordinate to the original building, but the style of the time, postmodernism, is reflected in the stepping-out façade with bay windows.
The art gallery
The art gallery was built in 1936, as a grand piano to the then citizens' house on Engelbrektsgatan. This building was also designed by architect Hakon Ahlberg. The style is a mixture of strict neoclassicism and early function.
The art gallery consists of two skylight halls on each side of an apse-shaped entrance hall. The building is built of brick as a smooth plaster and stands under a copper-covered gabled roof. The roof drainage of copper sheet is discreetly located inside the facade life and belongs to the building's architectural features that contribute to the stripped-down expression.
The main entrance to the north has a portico of four marble pillars and centered above is the marble decoration in relief The creative inspiration of the sculptor Eric Grate. Its figures are images of art, power, imitation and artistry. The art gallery is used today for both art exhibitions and cultural history exhibitions.
Hakon Ahlberg
During his long career, architect Hakon Ahlberg showed skills within a wide range. He designed, among other things, detached houses in the folk home construction, department stores, industrial buildings, hospitals and churches, spread from Lund to Lapland. In Dalarna, Ahlberg has above all made an impression with Brunnsvik Folk High School during the 1930s and the center facility in Gränsgesberg during the 1950s. In his old age, he said "Falun is my city" and referred to the fact that he created three important cultural buildings along the west bank of the Falun River: Dalarnas museum (1962), Konsthallen (1936) and Stadsteatern & Folkets hus (1964).
The magazine
The 4800 square meter warehouse building was designed by architect Magnus Fredin at MOVADO
architects in Stockholm together with IK Inredningskonsult. The architect let the forest set the tone for the shape of the building. He wanted to take advantage of the site's tallest pine forest and plant the building comfortably in the moss just below the treetops.
The magazine is built in concrete elements under plant roofs. Three of the building's facades have a surface structure in the form of a bark relief that is reminiscent of the surrounding pine trunks. The front façade has a very glass part that contrasts with smooth surfaces. Inside the glass section rests the large Nature Room with candles and plants, like an extension of nature. There is the entrance and an environment to get strength and inspiration in.
The building was originally built as an office and warehouse for Apoteket AB and was completed in 2003. Since the autumn of 2019, there is the Dalarna Museum's magazine with collections and archives that carry cultural history from all of Dalarna County.
Read more:
The houses tell, 2012, Falu municipality
Architecture in Dalarna, 2001, Dalarna's ancient monument and local history association
Falun the city that disappeared, 2012, Dalarna Museum
Jack Hansson Architect, 2012, Dalarna Museum
Architect magazine Forum, 2014
