7.15.22 | DIGS.NET 17
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P R O F I L E | D O R T E M A N D R U P
surround. That this hub for education, research and exhibitions
pushes the boundaries of contemporary architecture to the
absolute extreme is a credit to the reliably nonconforming
Mandrup, an architect suspicious of orthodoxy and sensitive
to complex sites, whether it's a World War II bunker on the coast
of the Wadden Sea in Germany, or in this instance, at the mouth
of the Sermeq Kujalleg glacier in Greenland.
In what is another effort by Mandrup to understand a place
and put in context, she shaped the structure like a boomerang
soaring over the vast landscape. With the elbow of the building
cantilevered over a hilltop, the sinuously twisted structure rests
on a raised steel frame and presents as strikingly aerodynamic.
Conceptualized as "a snowy owl's flight through the landscape,"
the improbably light-looking building "appears to levitate over
the magnificent, rugged terrain—like an outstretched wing
gently touching the bedrock," Mandrup describes. That one
wonders if at any moment this "wing" might take flight is one
of the many intrigues of a space that hovers gracefully, almost
wispily, over the ancient Greenlandic bedrock—the oldest in
the world.
The walkable roof, meanwhile, was designed to create its own
landscape. With overhangs toward the the east and west of
the building, its purpose is twofold: to prevent snow build-up
and create shelter from the snowfall and knee-buckling winds,
and to serve as "a natural extension of the area's hiking routes,
leading visitors onto one of the best places to see the massive
icebergs—which break off from the largest glacier in the northern
hemisphere—in the fjord and the surrounding landscape." With
echoes of a boardwalk, this gateway to the town of Ilulissat and
the vast wild beyond is the building's connective tissue. "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 studio
notes. "The hope is that the roof will become the place for this
important gathering." In this way, the building is also a map.
