The Icefjord Centre: Dorte Mandrup brings the Arctic extreme to Venice

Icefjord Centre by Dorte Mandrup in Venice – Photo by Andrea Avezzù, courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia.

Venice Biennale 2018 – Visitors can experience the unique conditions of Greenland in Dorte Mandrup Arkitekter‘s immersive light and sound installation at the FREESPACE exhibition in Corderie dell’Arsenale. On show a 1:12 model of the Icefjord Centre is surrounded by a white environment where mist and glacier sounds tune tune with the colours of the Arctic skies.

Photo by Frencesco Galli, courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia.

“Our ambition has been to create a sensuous installation for the 16th Exhibition, which expresses the extreme natural conditions which have defined the building – more than a mere presentation of the building itself”, explains Danish architect Dorte Mandrup.

Photo by Italo Rondinella, courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia.

Due to be completed in 2020, the centre offers a industurbed breathtaking view on the surrounding Nature of Icefjord, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Ilulissat, Greenland, and one of the world’s most active glaciers, 250 km from the Arctic Circle.

As a direct result of global warming, over recent years the Icefjord has continually withdrawn several kilometers. This is why the Icefjord is a gathering point for climate scientists and head of states, who wish to give attention to climate change.

Photo by Frencesco Galli, courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia.

The L-shaped project sits on a cliff partially stretching on a lake and partially submerged in the rugged landscape.The wooden framework is covered by a gently sloping, curved wooden boardwalk that becomes the starting point for the World Heritage Trail and, at the same time, acts as a gathering point and an informal seating platform to watch the sunset in the evening sun.

Image by MIR, courtesy of Dorte Mandrup Arkitekter.

“Walking across the roof, like when hiking to reach the top of a hilltop, visitors will reach a magnificent open view of the icefjord and overlook the route of the trail before walking on”.

Inside, the project hosts a cafe, and exhibition area and offices. The building’s geometry changes in section with a continuous flow and frames constantly changing views. The centre will tell the story of ice, of human history and evolution in a both local and global sense.

Image by MIR, courtesy of Dorte Mandrup Arkitekter.

“The historic significance of the location where ‘the Inuit people and Europeans (Norse) met’, combined with the making of a habitable place for social interaction within the ‘superpower of nature’ has produced a project robust enough to sit lightly on the earth and to exert a singularly poetic presence” Say the curators of the Biennale Architettura 2018 are Irish architects Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara.