Dorte Mandrup completes climate research centre in Greenland

Dorte Mandrup Arkitekter has revealed the first photographs of the Ilulissat Icefjord Centre, a climate research and visitor centre on Greenland's rugged coastal landscape.

Located 250 kilometres north of the Arctic Circle, the centre will function as a hub of research, education and exhibitions exploring the impact of climate change in this region.

Ilulissat Icefjord Centre is located on Greenland's west coast

The architecture studio, led by Danish architect Dorte Mandrup, designed the building with a twisted, triangular structure and a rooftop viewing platform. The aim was to make it appear open and lightweight, so visitors feel connected to the landscape.

"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," said Mandrup.

A series of trusses give the building a twisted form

In line with the building's function, the structure was designed to have a minimal impact on the environment.

To reduce the need for concrete, a material understood to have a significant carbon footprint, Mandrup's team specified a steel frame.

Lightweight steel beams effectively pin the building to the bedrock terrain, allowing it to be slightly raised. This means the space underneath the building can continue to be a habitat for plants and wildlife.

Visitors can access the roof for an elevated view of the Kangia Icefjord icebergs

The main form of the building is generated by a series of steel trusses that gradually curve and rotate as they extend across the landscape. This create the unusual twisted shape, which helps to prevents snow build-up on the roof.

Mandrup likens the form to "a snowy owl's flight through the landscape".

The building includes sheltered, open-air terraces at both ends

The twist also has the benefit of providing pedestrian access onto the sloping roof. This elevated viewpoint naturally forms a new end point for local hiking routes, offering a view out to the icebergs of the Kangia Icefjord.

Interior spaces are fully glazed on all sides, plus there are also some open-air terraces sheltered beneath the roof. The aim was to allow visitors to experience Greenland's dramatic lighting conditions throughout.

Interior spaces are fully glazed so visitors can always see the landscape

"In Greenland, you only have daylight during the summertime. In the winter it's very dark, but you have reflection from the snow and the ground," said Mandrup, speaking about the project while it was still under construction.

"In the summer, the colour of the light is very different; you have blue light on one side and a very reddish light on the other side," she explained. "Hopefully you will experience that when you move through the building."

JAC Studios designed the exhibition, which charts the history of the Arctic landscape

Ilulissat Icefjord Centre is now open to the public, with facilities including an exhibition gallery, a movie theatre, research and educational facilities, a cafe and a shop.

The exhibition, designed by JAC Studios, features archeological objects and films contained in glass prisms that were designed to replicate real-life ice blocks. It also includes ice core drillings, dating from 124,000 BC to the present.

Facilities include a cafe and shop for visitors

Dorte Mandrup Arkitekter first unveiled its design for the Ilulissat Icefjord Centre back in 2016 and also presented the design at the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2018.

The project was funded by local and national government, with support from Danish philanthropical foundation Realdania.

Research and educational facilities are also provided, along with a movie theatre

The studio previously completed the thatched Wadden Sea Centre and the angular Ama'r Children's Culture House, both in Denmark, and has also designed a whale watching centre for the northern coast of Norway. However this is its first project in Greenland.

Other major architecture projects in Greenland – the world's largest island that is not a continent – include the Katuaq Cultural Centre designed by Schmidt Hammer Lassen and a proposal by BIG for a National Gallery.

Photography is byAdam Mørk.

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An IKEA store with rooftop park features in today's Dezeen Weekly newsletter

The latest edition of our Dezeen Weekly newsletter includes an IKEA store in Copenhagen with a rooftop park.

Dorte Mandrup has designed a city centre IKEA store with a public rooftop park that will act as a "green lounge" for Copenhagen, Denmark.

Scheduled to open in the Vesterbro neighbourhood in 2023, the store will be easily accessible by foot or by bike and topped with a tree-lined roof.

Commenters are impressed – one said the design, "beats the big blue suburban box stores".

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Other stories in this week's newsletter include the interiors of a burger joint in Turin, a 3D-printed wearable air purifier, and Jan Boelen's claims that Elon Musk is the world's greatest living architect.

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Dorte Mandrup designs IKEA Copenhagen store with rooftop park

Danish studio Dorte Mandrup has designed a city-centre IKEA store with a public rooftop park that will act as a "green lounge" for Copenhagen, Denmark.

Slated to open in the Vesterbro neighbourhood in 2023, the store has been designed by Dorte Mandrup with IKEA to suit the behaviours of urban consumers.

It will be easily accessible by foot or by bike and topped with a tree-lined roof that will offer "much-needed green space to the busy centre" of the capital city.

Top image: Dorte Mandrup has unveiled visuals of IKEA Copenhagen. Above: it will be topped by a rooftop park

"Vesterbro is a densely populated and active district of the city that only has a few green pockets and walkways available," said the studio's founder and creative director Dorte Mandrup.

"With the new rooftop park, we want to give back a green lounge to the local community and create both intimate resting places and opportunities for spontaneous meetings," she added.

"From the top of the roof, you have a beautiful undisturbed view over Vesterbro, the canal, and the inner city."

It will be accessible by bike or by foot

Externally, the Copenhagen IKEA store will be distinguished a wavy white facade, designed by Dorte Mandrup to challenge the traditional classic blue and yellow facing of other IKEA stores.

The facade intends to evoke a curtain, with folds that open to reveal product displays and lifts to create shaded seating areas at street level.

"The facade draws inspiration from a white curtain motif," explained Mandrup.

"Flowing down from the edges of the rooftop park, the curtain is pulled aside in a few places, revealing the displayed items in-side. The curtain ends in a pedestal on street level where you can take a short rest in the midday sun in between the rippled folds."

Once complete, the store will be accessed by a plaza that bridges over nearby train tracks and doubles as another public green space.

This plaza will also house a cafe, parking spaces for hundreds of bicycles and IKEA cargo bikes, alongside access routes to a new bus terminal.

The entrance plaza will contain bike stores

By encouraging visitors to use sustainable transport methods, the store is intended to support Copenhagen's aim of being the first carbon-neutral city in the world by 2025.

The public rooftop will also be accessible directly from the plaza. The rooftop's landscape design will include native trees, shrubs and grasses, alongside bug hotels to encourage biodiversity.

The store will be complete with greenery on the facade and 1,450-square-metres of solar panels to generate electricity. Water from the local canals will also be reused to help cool the store.

Dorte Mandrup's hope is for the store to achieve BREEAM outstanding certification, which is the highest rating attainable using the sustainability assessment method.

Danish architect Mandrup founded her eponymous studio Dorte Mandrup in Copenhagen in 1999. Other recent projects by the studio include proposals include the Exilmuseum Berlin and an Arctic whale-watching facility that will appear to "grow out of the landscape".

IKEA Copenhagen is the latest in a string of smaller city-centre stores being developed by IKEA in its move away from its traditional warehouse sites to better accommodate its urban customers. Querkraft Architekten is developing a branch in Vienna Westbahnhof with the Swedish furniture giant that will not have any car parking spaces.

Visuals are by Dorte Mandrup.

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