A
The Space Between
Name
Clara Bardt
Education degree
Kandidat
Fagfelt
Design
Institute
Design and Visual Interaction
Program
Strategic Design and Entrepreneurship - Architecture, Design and Business
Year
2026
This project explores The Space Between tradition and innovation in a cultural institution. Developed in collaboration with Marine Merzoug and Designmuseum Danmark as our dialogue partner, we investigated how the museum could reconnect with its cultural heritage by evolving into a learning-oriented campus.
Based on the museum’s ambition to create a unified campus identity that connects its buildings both physically and conceptually, the project aims to strengthen its relationship with the local design community while reinforcing its role as a relevant cultural and educational institution.
The outcome is a strategic framework designed to support the museum’s future development and encourage ongoing dialogue within the organisation.
developing Design Campus Denmark
Designmuseum Danmark has played a central role in shaping both the development of Danish Modern Design and its international reputation.
Throughout its history, the museum has functioned as a place for learning, teaching, and experiencing design. Danish architect and designer Kaare Klint was instrumental in transforming the museum into what it is today, using its facilities not only as a site of practice but also as a space for education. Within these walls, Klint taught some of Denmark’s most influential designers, including Arne Jacobsen and Hans J. Wegner, establishing a strong legacy of design education and innovation.
The former King Frederiks Hospital
Architectural drawings, side view
To reconnect to its educational mission, the new Videnshuset is being developed as a workshop building dedicated to hands-on learning and design experiences.
The museum's overall mission is to connect to the workshop building and establish a broader Design Campus that attracts local design professionals, students, and creative communities.
Designing the physical and conceptual Space Between both buildings to establish the campus as a unified whole.
Initially, our project focused on designing the courtyard, connecting both buildings, as a way of physically establishing a campus. Through our research and dialogue with stakeholders, we realised that a single spatial intervention would only provide a temporary and superficial response to a much more complex challenge.
The Projects scope
We realised we had to approach the project through a multi-layered strategy. To establish a campus, the idea must be represented on organisational, physical, and relational levels.
Multilayered approach
Uniting the departments
The Platform
Rather than proposing one fixed design solution, we developed a dialogue tool in the form of a digital platform.
The platform is intended to support internal discussions about the museum’s future development, helping stakeholders generate ideas, align multiple visions, and collectively explore how the “green learning universe” can be realized. In this way, the tool serves as a long-term framework for decision-making and collaboration, enabling Designmuseum Danmark to shape a coherent and sustainable future campus.
We developed a series of design assets that define three levels of intervention for the courtyard. These assets function as a toolbox within the platform, enabling the museum to explore and envision different future scenarios for the space.
Beyond supporting design decisions, the platform serves as a conversation tool. It helps facilitate dialogue across departments, align expectations, and establish a shared understanding of the Campus vision. By creating common ground among the various stakeholders, the platform supports not only the physical establishment of a Design Campus, but also the development of a shared Campus identity that can be communicated consistently both internally and externally.
By combining our backgrounds in spatial design and communication design, we created a strategic and practical tool tailored to the needs of our collaboration partner, one that supports both immediate interventions and the long-term evolution of the Campus.
The Royal Danish Academy supports the Sustainable Development Goals
Since 2017 the Royal Danish Academy has worked with the Sustainable Development Goals. This is reflected in our research, our teaching and in our students’ projects. This project relates to the following UN goal(-s)
