The Wadden Sea Center is an exhibition and dissemination center located on the outskirts of a town Vester Vedsted – a place where the city meets a marshland. The Wadden Sea is a unique marsh and tidal area: it is Denmark’s largest, flattest and wettest national park. Here is nature in a constant change as the tide constantly keeps modifying the landscape. Wadden Sea center is an important intermediate station for millions of migratory birds on their long journey from South Africa to Siberia’s tundra landscapes.
The National Park was admitted to UNESCO’s World Heritage List in 2014.
The outdoor space around Wadden Sea Center is in a stylized form seeking to mime the types of landscapes, elements and processes that characterize the area and its history: beaches, wet ditches, dunes and wind are included in the landscape treatment. In the sheltered courtyard of Wadden Sea Center is established a stylized tundra landscape – there are growing relatively tough plants which species are inspired by the migratory birds breeding site in Siberia. The room functions as a learning and communication room with integrated play and stay.
It has been of utmost importance to focus on equal accessibility and experience for everyone: all children should, in every way, be able to enjoy and experience the possibilities for play and activities. For example, in the courtyard the sandbox is designed so that it is easy and unobstructed to roll into with a wheelchair and “sand bowls” are designed at a height so that children in wheelchairs can join the play. All elements for play and nature dissemination are connected by a level-free and coherent course of action. Around the excavated lake, the trail is led further so that wheelchair users can come close to the water level and participate in activities related to the lake.
Gravel paths that are accessible for everyone are leading the visitors around Wadden Sea Centre. Oval and circular wooden surfaces are attached to the paths, accommodating various activities and challenges that are referring to Wadden Sea.
Name of the project: Vadehavscentret
Project category: Hospitality
Role of the entrant in the project: Idea and design, procurement, tender and construction.
Full-service consultancy services: Dorte Mandrup Arkitekter A/S.
Project location: Okholmsvej 5, Vester Vedsted, DK-6760 Ribe, Denmark
Design year: 2014
Year Built: 2017
