Ilulissat Icefjord Centre by Dorte Mandrup. Photography by Adam Mørk.
The structure is made of steel, approximately 80% recycled, with a minimum amount of concrete. The floors, the ceilings and the roof are made of oak with an ecological certificate. The roof and the floor, covered with heavy insulating panels, and the triple-glazed façade help prevent heat dispersion and insulate the building in the best conditions. A local hydroelectric plant generates the energy used.
Ilulissat Icefjord Centre by Dorte Mandrup. Photography by Adam Mørk.
Ilulissat Icefjord Centre by Dorte Mandrup. Photography by Adam Mørk.
Ilulissat Icefjord Centre by Dorte Mandrup. Photography by Adam Mørk.
Project description by 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.
Shaped by extreme conditions
The unique arctic surroundings, outline the design of the Icefjord Centre. The complex structure of the building consists of 50 skeletal steel frames, creating a boomerang shape - almost resembling the remains of an animal lying on the rocky terrain. This aerodynamic shape prevents the build-up of snow, enabling the wind to swipe snow away from the facade. In the spring, when the snow melts, the melting water follows its original path underneath the building into Sermermiut Lake. The roof provides a natural extension of the area’s hiking routes, leading visitors onto one of the best lookout 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.
The Story of Ice 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 into icebergs. Also, as 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 archaeological 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 the 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.
