Denmark's ARoS Aarhus Art Museum has unveiled As Seen Below – The Dome, a new Skyspace by American artist James Turrell that completes The Next Level, the museum's approximately 4,000-square-metre underground expansion designed by Schmidt Hammer Lassen. Opened to the public on 19 June 2026, the project marks the culmination of more than two decades of collaboration between the City of Aarhus, ARoS, and the Danish architecture practice, following the completion of the museum building in 2004 and the addition of Olafur Eliasson's Your Rainbow Panorama in 2011. Located beneath the redesigned Musikhusparken in central Aarhus, the installation forms the centerpiece of the museum's latest expansion and adds a new large-scale work by Turrell to its collection.
Rising 16 meters high and spanning 40 meters in diameter, As Seen Below – The Dome is described as the largest Skyspace realized within a museum setting to date. Visitors enter the work through an underground passage that leads into a circular domed chamber, where an opening at the apex frames the sky above. The installation forms part of The Next Level, a project that introduces a new sequence to the museum, extending the visitor experience below ground. While the original ARoS building is organized around a vertical journey through galleries, the expansion creates a contrasting route beneath the city before arriving at the central dome space.
The project was developed through a close collaboration between James Turrell, ARoS, and Schmidt Hammer Lassen over more than a decade. Rather than being integrated into a completed architectural framework, the artwork and the architecture were conceived and developed in parallel. According to the project team, the proportions of the dome, the opening to the sky, the material palette, lighting conditions, and the visitor journey were all designed as interconnected elements of a single spatial experience.
The architecture holds the sky close, so you recognize that the act of looking is the work itself. Here, light isn't description, it's the substance you stand within. - James Turrell
The scale of the installation required the development of several bespoke technical and engineering solutions. Among them is a movable roof element measuring approximately 100 square meters that allows the opening above the dome to be closed, creating different conditions of light and perception within the space. The project also demanded a high degree of precision in the construction of the dome's interior surface, alongside the integration of lighting systems and security measures. A circular bench positioned within the chamber conceals technical infrastructure while providing seating and directing visitors' attention toward the opening overhead.
In related news, several major cultural institutions have recently announced significant expansion and redevelopment projects. In Switzerland, the Fondation Beyeler in Riehen, near Basel, is preparing to open its expanded campus this autumn, bringing together Renzo Piano Building Workshop's original museum building with new additions by Peter Zumthor and a series of repurposed historic structures. Meanwhile, in France, a team led by STUDIOS Architecture, Selldorf Architects, and BASE Paysagiste was selected to lead the transformation of the Musée du Louvre as part of the "Louvre–Nouvelle Renaissance" initiative. In Panama City, the Museum of Contemporary Art of Panama (MAC Panamá) has also announced the selection of Mexican practice Palma + Taller TO to design its new building following an international competition launched earlier this year.
