Other striking features within the museum include the cafe located at the one end of the courtyard (featuring a dramatic outdoor stairway leading down to it) as well as  a stunning auditorium that occupies the very heart of the whole complex. Symbolising transparency and the importance of public gatherings (a concept at the very core of BIG studio’s working ethos), the auditorium has a somewhat unconventional structural layout, as it sits on two intersecting slates that diagonally cut into each other, forming an X shape. 

Part of a broader initiative to attract the general public into the Helsingør port area, the Danish National Maritime Museum integrates gracefully into the area’s master plan in a multitude of ways where its bridges connect neighbouring buildings, its south-eastern bridge extends into a harbour promenade and the ground level around the museum is an open plaza, with public seating lined up across its southern side. Inspired by the shape of ship bollards, the granite seats in the open plaza designed by KiBiSi also offer a playful element of public intervention: their arrangement of dots and dashes contains a secret message in Morse code, just waiting to be deciphered by urban explorers visiting the museum.