The Wadden Sea is Denmark’s largest national park, one of the most frequented migratory sites in Europe and part of Unesco’s World Heritage list. In the breathtaking landscape of this southern area of Jutland, between the vegetation, the marshes and the uncontaminated sea, between the light and the mist appears the horizontal, dynamic yet serene shape of this building that is contemporary but with echoes of the past.
Modern in the irregular nature of a diagonal that cuts the main front and highlights the glazed entrance corner yet traditional in the clear references to rural architecture with its wide continuous straw roof and the facades covered with thin slats of wood.
This is the Wadden Sea centre designed by the Danish Dorte Mandrup studio and intended to assist visitors to the area. This intervention is grafted onto a pre-existing building by extending its U-shaped layout with a large green courtyard bordered by two other rectangular parallel volumes. An inclined and paved ramp precedes this hieratic presence and becomes a public exhibition space for the centre which develops over 2,800 square meters and is intended for display and communication activities to support the naturalistic character of the Wadden Sea.
Spacious glazed sections outline the façade facing the courtyard linking the full height white interior spaces with the outdoor exhibition area and the surrounding landscape in a gesture that stands between the landscape and traditional rural architecture, represented here in the use of materials and techniques.
PROJECT The Wadden Sea Centre
ARCHITECT Dorte Mandrup A/S
LOCATION Ribe, Denmark
YEAR 2017
PHOTO Adam Moerk
AUTHOR: Maria Vittoria CAPITANUCCI
BIOGRAPHY
DORTE MANDRUP A/S HAS 25 YEARS OF PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE AND A LINE OF INTERNATIONALLY RECOGNIZED ICONIC BUILDINGS TO ITS NAME. THE COMPANY HAS FOUND ITS AREAS OF EXPERTISE WITHIN THE WORLD OF TRANSFORMATIONS, MIXED USE BUILDINGS, EDUCATION & WORKSPACE AND LANDMARKS.
MAIN PROJECTS
IKEA Hubhult, Malmö, Sweden, 2015
Salling Tower, Aarhus, Denmark, 2015
Sundbyøster Hall II, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2015
Valencia, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2014
Råå Pree school, Råå, Sweden, 2013
Munkegaard School, Gentofte, Denmark, 2009
Seaplane Hangar H53, Copenhagen, Denmark, 2011
