A bulbous, biomorphic shape of dark blue acrylic panels, studded with light and sprouting strange nozzles from its skin, the Kunsthaus Graz looks like something that has settled beside the river rather than been built there. Affectionately nicknamed the Friendly Alien by its own architects, it has become the defining emblem of contemporary Graz. The building was created for 2003, when Graz held the title of European Capital of Culture, and designed by the British architects Peter Cook and Colin Fournier, leading figures of a visionary, experimental tradition in architecture. Its radical form was a deliberate statement that the historic city, a World Heritage Site, could embrace the boldly modern. Inside, the exhibition halls are housed within the great blue bubble, reached by a travelator that curves up through the structure, while the skin of the building doubles as a giant low-resolution display, the BIX facade, whose hundreds of fluorescent rings can show simple animations and messages across its surface at night. As part of the Universalmuseum Joanneum, the Kunsthaus has no permanent collection and instead presents changing exhibitions of contemporary art, architecture, design and photography, using its unusual spaces to stage work that engages with the present. The contrast between the alien form and the red-tiled medieval roofs around it is central to its appeal, and a viewing area called the Needle, jutting toward the river, frames that juxtaposition for visitors looking out over the old town. Connected by a bridge to the far bank of the Mur and within easy reach of the central square, the Kunsthaus anchors a revitalised quarter of the city, and whether or not its exhibitions appeal, the building itself draws a steady stream of admirers and remains one of the most recognisable works of twenty-first-century architecture in Austria. The building belongs to a visionary strand of architecture that imagined organic, almost living structures long before the technology existed to build them, and its realisation in Graz was a coup for a city keen to shed any provincial image. Locals quickly took the friendly alien to heart, and whether admired by day as a glossy blue creature among the rooftops or watched by night as patterns ripple across its glowing skin, the Kunsthaus has done as much as any single building to put contemporary Graz on the map.

Type: Tourist Attraction

Address: Lendkai 1, Graz, Austria

Telephone: +43 316 8017 9200

Website: https://www.museum-joanneum.at

Opening Date: 01/01/2003