Photo: Adam Mørk, 2026.
Beneath ARoS Aarhus Art Museum in Denmark, As Seen Below, a new Skyspace by American artist James Turrell, has opened inside a 40-metre-wide dome.
The installation forms the centrepiece of The Next Level, a 4,000m2 expansion designed by Danish architecture and urban design practice Schmidt Hammer Lassen. The project adds new exhibition and public spaces below ground and includes the largest Skyspace realised within a museum. The work is also Turrell’s 100th in the series.
Visitors reach As Seen Below through an underground corridor beneath the museum’s surrounding landscape before emerging into The Dome. Rising 16 metres high, the structure was developed alongside Turrell’s Skyspace over more than a decade.
The Next Level expands ARoS underground
The opening follows the museum’s completion in 2004 and the addition of Olafur Eliasson’s Your Rainbow Panorama in 2011.
The Next Level comprises three new elements: The Dome, The Salling Gallery, and ARoS Art Square.
Alongside Turrell’s installation, the project includes The Salling Gallery, a 1,000m2 subterranean exhibition space dedicated to site-specific contemporary art. Above ground, ARoS Art Square provides a permanent outdoor setting for future art presentations.
Together, the additions expand the museum’s capacity for large-scale installations and contemporary art commissions.
Architecture and artwork developed side by side
The Dome differs from a conventional museum extension in that the architecture and artwork were developed together over more than a decade.
James Turrell, ARoS, and Schmidt Hammer Lassen collaborated throughout the design process to shape the dome’s proportions, materials, lighting, and spatial arrangement.
At its apex, a circular opening frames the sky, allowing changing daylight and weather conditions to become part of the installation.
A dome shaped by the landscape
Most of the expansion sits beneath Musikhusparken, the landscape surrounding the museum.
Above ground, The Dome appears as a circular grass-covered landform rising from the terrain. Its design draws on the ancient burial mounds found across the region, reinterpreting the historic form within a contemporary museum setting.
The project continues to use geometric forms seen in the existing museum while reinforcing links between the institution, the park, and the city.
Within the underground spaces, exposed fixtures, alternating surface finishes, and a raw industrial aesthetic define the architecture. The new spaces complete ARoS’ latest expansion beneath Musikhusparken, extending the museum below the landscape that surrounds it.
