Kunsthaus Graz

Blob-shaped contemporary art museum, Graz's Friendly Alien

Designed by Peter Cook and Colin Fournier and opened in 2003 when Graz was European Capital of Culture, the Kunsthaus is immediately recognisable by its blob-like blue shell — the architects called it the "Friendly Alien." It stages ambitious exhibitions of contemporary art from the 1960s to the present. The building itself generates more conversation than some of the shows inside, but that is not necessarily a bad thing.

Lendkai 1. Open Tue–Sun 10am–5pm.

things to do museum architecture
A story
When the Kunsthaus opened in 2003, Graz residents nicknamed it the "Friendly Alien" — the name stuck and is now used by the museum itself in its marketing materials. The architects Peter Cook and Colin Fournier had never built anything at this scale before, and the building's nozzle-like projections (called BIX) were originally designed as a programmable light installation that could display images across the facade at night, making the whole building into a kind of low-resolution screen visible from across the river.