Kunsthaus Graz

In the middle of Graz's red-tiled old suburbs sits a bulging, blue-black bubble with nozzle-like skylights sprouting from its roof. Locals nicknamed the Kunsthaus the "Friendly Alien", and the name stuck: few buildings make their contrast with their surroundings so deliberately, or so good-naturedly.

The museum was designed by the British architects Peter Cook and Colin Fournier and opened in 2003, the year Graz was European Capital of Culture. It is a key example of so-called blob architecture: a free-form, curving volume clad in iridescent acrylic panels. On the façade facing the river, the Berlin studio realities:united installed BIX, a "media skin" of 930 fluorescent rings that can be switched individually, turning the building into a low-resolution screen for images and text after dark; the concept later entered the architecture and design collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. The new form was grafted onto an old one: the building incorporates the Iron House, a cast-iron structure from 1848.

Inside, the Kunsthaus works differently from most museums. It has no permanent collection and does not collect; instead it stages changing exhibitions of contemporary art from the 1960s onward, often across disciplines. It is run by the Universalmuseum Joanneum, the state museum of Styria.

Graz, Austria's second city, grew up around the Schlossberg hill on the River Mur; its historic centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which makes the Kunsthaus's intrusion into the old roofscape all the more pointed.

Getting there

The Kunsthaus stands on the bank of the Mur in central Graz, under 1 km from the city centre. The nearest airport is Graz (GRZ), about 9 km to the south.