IlulissatIcefjord

DORTE MANDRUP DESIGNS SPECTACULAR ICEFJORD CENTRE IN GREENLAND HIGHLIGHTING THE EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE

In the harsh yet beautiful Arctic landscape surrounded by snow and ice, Dorte Mandrup has designed Ilulissat Icefjord Centre on the edge of the UNESCO-protected Greenland wilderness.

Overlooking the Kangia Icefjord on the west coast of Greenland, 250 km north of the Arctic Circle, the building blends effortlessly into the landscape and offers a unique vantage point from which to experience the astonishing Icefjord and understand the dramatic consequences of climate change on this remarkable landscape.

Described by founder and creative director, Dorte Mandrup as “a snowy owl’s flight through the landscape", the aerodynamic, light structure of the building appears to levitate over the magnificent, rugged terrain - like an outstretched wing gently touching the bedrock. The shape frames the views towards the fjord while preventing snow build-up and creating a shelter from the snow and freezing winds.

"The Icefjord Centre offers a refuge in the dramatic landscape and aims to become a natural gathering point from which you can experience the infinite, non-human scale of the Arctic wilderness, the transition between darkness and light, the midnight sun, and the Northern lights dancing across the sky," says Dorte Mandrup. 

Designed as a year-round visitor centre and meeting place for local residents, companies, politicians, climate researchers and tourists, the centre will house exhibitions, a film theatre, a café and shop as well as research and educational facilities. It tells the story of ice, of humankind and evolution on both a local and global scale and relates to the history of time – sitting lightly on the Greenlandic bedrock – which is the oldest in the world.

The roof provides a natural extension of the area’s hiking routes, leading visitors onto one of the best look-out spots to see the massive icebergs in the fjord and the surrounding landscape. It Is created as a public space –a kind of gateway between the town of Ilulissat and the wilderness beyond. It is open to the public and free to access. At each end of the building there are also covered spaces, creating shelter, and gathering places.

When the first glimmer of light hits the horizon in January after six weeks of darkness, the community gathers in this area to celebrate the sun coming up for 40 minutes before leaving again. The hope is that the roof will become the place for this important gathering.

An important factor is that the building is as sustainable as possible. It is mainly constructed around a steel frame with the absolute minimum use of concrete – usually the main contributor to the carbon footprint – which also means the structure is extremely lightweight. The lightness of the structure makes the impact on the ancient bedrock and its fragile flora and fauna minimal.

Inside the centre, visitors can learn more about the nature and culture unfolding before their eyes. They can experience the journey of ice from the birth of the ice crystal in Greenland's cold cloud layer, to when it becomes part of the inland ice and finally moves towards the glacier and breaks off in icebergs. Also, how different Inuit cultures lived under these harsh conditions and how climate change manifests itself in the Arctic landscape.

The exhibition, designed by JAC Studios, consists of a landscape of ice flakes where archeological objects and films are exhibited in ice prisms of glass that visitors can move between. The ice prisms are created from ice blocks collected in the Kangia Ice Fjord, 3D scanned, and mouth blown in glass. Central to the exhibition are authentic ice core drillings taken from the ice sheet, they tell the story about our culture and climate from 124.000 years BC to the present

The Icefjord Centre is funded by a partnership between the Danish philanthropical foundation Realdania, Avannaata Kommunia and Naalakkersuisut - the government of Greenland. The exhibition was furthermore funded by Nordea Foundation, Augustinus Foundation, Bloomberg Philatropies and OAK Foundation.

An Icefjord Centre in Ilulissat will attract tourists to Greenland and contribute to our understanding of climate change. The Danish architectural firm Dorte Mandrup has designed the visionary building for the centre with respect of the unique, UNESCO-protected natural surroundings.

The vision of a world-class tourist attraction in Ilulissat has come one step closer to realization with the selection of Dorte Mandrup's proposal for an Icefjord Centre. The centre will help develop Greenland’s tourism and will serve as a global portal to understanding the ice fjord and, not least, its culture and history as well as the dramatic melting of the Greenland ice sheet. The parties behind the centre are the Greenland Government, Qaasuitsup Municipality and Realdania.

The winning project is a simple, twisting structure resembling a wing stretching across the landscape. “The flight of a snowy owl” was the poetic vision of the architects. The building will be a natural extension of existing hiking trails in the area, with the possibility of continuing the hike onto the roof of the building to enjoy the unique view of the ice fjord and the surrounding landscape. The open facade generates dialogue between the exhibition inside and the building’s natural surroundings; a dialogue between man and nature. The basic idea is that the building should have as little impact on the fragile landscape as possible.

“We selected the proposal from Dorte Mandrup as the winning project because it is a very poetic and visionary project with an architectural unity that underpins the overall vision beautifully. The new building will streamline smoothly with the spectacular natural landscape,” said Jan Søndergård, who is the spokesman for the assessment panel and a professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts and partner in KHR arkitekter.

The Icefjord Centre at Ilulissat will open its doors to the public in autumn 2020 and is expected to have up to 25,000 visitors annually. The Greenland Government, Qaasuitsup Municipality and Realdania signed a partnership agreement for the building project in 2015. The philanthropic association Realdania is contributing DKK 83 mill., while the Government of Greenland is contributing DKK 15 mill. and Qaasuitsup Municipality DKK 8 mill. Furthermore, work is ongoing to raise donations of up to DKK 10 mill. for the exhibition and for activities inside the Centre. The two international foundations Bloomberg Philanthropies and the OAK Foundation have each made donations. In the longer term, the Icefjord Centre will be self-sustaining, financed by its own revenues.

For Greenland and Ilulissat, the Icefjord Centre will open for new opportunities to increase the already growing stream of tourists from all around the world. The Ilulissaticefjord caught the attention of the world in 2004 when it was designated as a world heritage site by UNESCO, because of its unique significance for glaciological science and its outstanding nature. Growing tourism will mean more jobs, revenues and development for the area. According to the tourism strategy for Greenland, the centre is the first of five envisioned visitors’ centres, which together will take Greenland to a whole new level as a tourist destination. The idea is that the many nature experiences and cultural heritage narratives that Greenland has to offer will be communicated at several experience centres geographically across different regions in Greenland, inspired by centres such as the Norwegian Glacier Museum &Ulltveit-Moe Climate Centre in Fjærdal, Norway and the Thingvellir National Park in Iceland. The Icefjord Centre will also serve as a gathering point and activity centre for the local community.

VittusQujaukitsoq, Minister for Industry, Labour, Trade and Foreign Affairs, Government of Greenland, said: “Promoting tourism is high on the Government agenda. One of the cornerstones of our new strategy for tourism is to set up regional visitor centres. Therefore,I’m extremely pleased to see the Icefjord Centre taking shape. Our partnership with Realdania is a vital contribution to developing tourism in the years to come.”

Ole Dorph, Mayor of Qaasuitsup Municipality, said: “We’re very happy to see the great interest in helping to build the Icefjord Centre that will make Ilulissat and Disko Bay an even more impressive attraction than it is today and thatwill disseminate knowledge about the ice fjord, and the Arctic climate and living conditions.”

Construction work will be managed by Realdania, and through its Realdania By&Byg subsidiary, will have the building ready for the first tourists, researchers and local visitors in 2020.

Jesper Nygård, CEO of Realdania, said: “The Icefjord Centre will provide a front-row seat for the melting ice sheet and it will communicate the tangible consequences of climate change to us all. We are confident that the Icefjord Centre will be a significant contribution to the development of tourism in Ilulissat and Greenland as a whole, and not least become a global gathering point for research and climate debate. We now have a world-class architectural solution that underpins such a vision and which will take its place respectfully on the edge of the unique World Heritage Site.”

Ilulissat and the ice fjord are already attracting many glaciologists, heads of states and tourists with an interest in climate change. Ever more researchers are setting up camp around this active glacier in attempts to decode the past, present and future of climate change. The Icefjord Centre will underpin Greenland as the centre of global climate debate and research

The next four years June 2016: Selection of the winning project 2017: Final content and design of the exhibition decided Summer 2017: Successful proposal fully developed and drawn Summer 2017: Site preparation; i.e. sewerage, electricity and water connections Spring 2018: Construction commences 2019: Exhibition content produced Spring 2020: Building complete, internal furnishing and fitting out commences October 2020: Open to the public

Functionality at the Icefjord Centre About half of the 900-square-metre building will be an exhibition area. The Icefjord Centre will also house the present Icefjord Office, which administrates the UNESCO World Heritage. There will also be a café, shop and field station for researchers.

The exhibition Three themes will serve as the cornerstones of the Icefjord Centre’s exhibition. Ice and landscape - how ice forms as snowflakes on the Greenland ice sheet and ultimately ends up as icebergs in the fjord. Cultural heritage and civilization - why ice is so life-giving and has helped shape the more than 4,000-year-old Inuit culture along the fjord. Climate change - why ice is life-changing and has an enormous influence on the local and global climate. In addition to the dramatic narrative about the ice, visitors can also sit down for a rest and a bite to eat in the Centre’s experience room.

Advisory Board An advisory group of relevant experts from Greenland, Denmark, Norway and Iceland has been linked to the Centre. The group will advise about the ambitious exhibition that will form the core of the visitor experience at the Icefjord Centre. The group has been selected very carefully on the basis of professional and academic competences within climate, research and communication. The members are: Klaus Nygaard (Director of Greenland Institute of Natural Resources), Olav Orheim (Norwegian glaciologist and climate researcher), Kirsten Hastrup (Professor of anthropology and Greenland researcher, University of Copenhagen), Erik Bjerregaard (Director of Hotel Arctic in Ilulissat and member of the board of Visit Greenland), Òlafur Orn Haraldsson (Director of Thingvellir Visitor Centre in Iceland).

More attractions under development To ensure that Ilulissat becomes a destination that can offer tourists several days of activity, the Ilimanaq settlement south of the Ilulissat Icefjord will also be developed. Two listed historic buildings from the 1700s will be restored and turned into places to eat and meet for tourists, who will have 15 new luxury chalets to stay in. The buildings will also sell local arts and crafts and local delicacies. In addition to the Icefjord Centre and Ilimanaq, tourists can seek out adventure on Disko Island, the Oqaatsut settlement and Glacier Lodge Eqi. The Ilimanaq project is a collaboration between Qaasuitsup Municipality (infrastructure), World of Greenland (chalets) and Realdania By & Byg (owner and responsible for restoring the buildings).

The Ilulissat Icefjord Kangia is the Greenlandic name for the ice fjord. It is one of the most spectacular natural habitats in the world. It is located by Ilulissat in West Greenland, 250 km north of the Arctic Circle. The icebergs in the fjord are calved from Sermeq Kujalleq, the largest and most active glacier in the northern hemisphere, with an area of 3,000 km2 and lying at the bottom of the approximately 60-kilometer-long ice fjord. The glacier moves by up to 40 meters a day and calves more than 46 km3 of ice every year, corresponding to 10% of all the ice calved from Greenland. Some of the oldest ice in Sermeq Kujalleq has been estimated to be 250,000 years old. In recent years, the glacier has retreated by many kilometers due to melting of the Greenland ice sheet.

UNESCO World Heritage In 2004, the entire region around Kangia and Sermeq Kujalleq was the first area in Greenland to be included on the UNESCO World Heritage List. The ice fjord was included because of its unique significance for glaciological science and its astounding nature. The area has traces of early Greenland settlements, for example around the Sermermiut settlement.

Give Steel’s exciting 320 ton steel structure provides the framework for this centre, that is intended to increase tourism in Western Greenland.  What makes the location of this tourist centre unique is the icefjord, which is one of the places where climate change is most apparent.

From the centre you can see close up how Greenlandic inland ice is melting.

The Ilulissat Icefjord Centre designed by the studio guided by the architect Dorte Mandrup blends harmoniously with the beautiful and rugged Arctic landscape, on the edges of an UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Overlooking the Kangia frozen fjord and surrounded by ice and snow for most of the year, the centre is located near the Ilulissat village and ancient glacier of Sermeq Kujalleq. It can stage exhibitions and in addition to the areas dedicated to research and training, it also features a cinema, café and shop. The centre is designed to be a meeting place for local residents, companies, politicians, tourists and climate researchers. The whole area, in fact, has been studied for over 250 years, and the information we have today on glaciology and the climate changes currently in progress is linked to the research conducted on the ancient glacier of Sermeq Kujalleq.

From its special position in the powerful but delicate scenario of the glaciers, the building allows visitors to understand the dramatic consequences of climate change in person. The light, streamlined structure of the building is inspired by the flight of the snow owl, a typical bird from the Arctic Circle.

The shape of the roof is a natural extension of the local hiking trails, and the wooden gangway that covers it is the starting point of the World Heritage Path. The slightly curved design of the Ilulissat Icefjord Centre recalls the shape of a boomerang, while its volume is like a tent made up of around 50 triangular steel frames with an open, covered space at both ends. The structure is made of steel, approximately 80% of which is recycled, and concrete, which is the main contributor to its carbon footprint.

The floors, ceilings and roofs are in ecologically certified oak. The roof and floor are clad with heavy insulating panels and the triple glass façade helps to contain heat and insulate the building perfectly. The energy used is also supplied from a local hydroelectric plant. The steep incline of the sides offers a safe shelter from the snow and icy Arctic winds, allowing researchers and tourists to enjoy a unique view over the Kangia fjord, from which 10% of Greenland icebergs come. In spring when the snow melts, the water can flow under the building and along its original path into Lake Sermermiut.

JAC Studios has designed a permanent exhibition for the centre entitled “The Story of Ice”, which narrates the meaning of ice in both a local and global context. Visitors are invited to explore the enormous scale of this phenomenon in 400 m2 that ranges from an ice crystal to the vast Inland Ice sheet and its impact on the world.

The archaeological finds discovered in this area are preserved in showcases made of blown glass based on 3D scans of the real frozen blocks from the Kangia fjord that originally contained them. At the centre of the exhibition route are a number of authentic ice cores that recount the history of humanity and climate from 124,000 BC up until today. These show the first traces of pollution that date back to the period of the industrial revolution in Great Britain.

The artificial lighting takes into account the natural light that remains constant for many long months. Just like natural light fills the building’s transparent architecture, the artificial lighting, obtained mainly with projectors, escapes into the nature of the surrounding landscape in a gentle and non-invasive manner. In the exhibition zone, 56 mm diameter View projectors were used. These are DALI devices with a black finish, mounted on black tracks, parallel to the windows, to reproduce the way natural light enters the building. The entire range of optics has been used (SS 4° - M 16° - F 28° - WF 46°) to create accent lighting effects on the exhibits and combine with the general lighting obtained from the wider optics. In the library area, on the other hand, the lighting is produced by Palco main Voltage projectors (Ø102mm) and a range of optics from spot to wide flood.

In the “cinema” area where the story of ice is recounted through a series of audiovisual media, the artificial lighting is provided by Laser Blade L Adjustable luminaire with a 30° optic is focused on the blown glass sculptures. The colour temperature for all the environments is 3000K.