Between 1945 and 1949, 35 000 Germans who had fled the eastern areas of their country lived in Denmark’s largest refugee camp: Oksbøl. Featuring a school, a theatre and a hospital, this settlement behind barbed wire soon became the fifth-largest city in the country. At the end of June, the Flugt – Refugee Museum of Denmark opened its doors there. In the face of global crises and conflicts, the problem is more current than ever: at this time, far more than 100 million people have fled their homes. The museum aims to give a voice and face to their individual challenges, emotions and stories.
To this end, BIG Bjarke Ingels Group have renovated and redesigned one of the few buildings that have been preserved on the camp grounds in Oksbøl – the hospital. The architects have connected the two long, single-storey structures, which form a right angle, with a meandering reception building at their vertex.
The entrance is located in the curve of the ribbon-like structure, which extends towards the road. Seen from outside, the building and its windowless facade of Corten steel appears sealed off. It harmonizes well with the brick masonry of the existing structures.
Upon entering, visitors are surprised by a spacious, open lobby with an exposed supporting structure of light-coloured wood that bears the curvilinear roof like a vault. A bowed glass wall offers a view of a sheltered inner courtyard. At the centre of this courtyard, a small pool reflects the roof, which is covered with Corten steel. From the lobby, visitors enter the gallery spaces in the north wing. In this area, 40 small sickrooms have been joined to create 8 large exhibition spaces. The south wing accommodates a café, further exhibition spaces and back-of-house functions. Light-coloured materials, such as a continuous floor of yellow brick, whitewashed visible masonry and transitions clad with white wooden boards visually connect the three structures.
Tinker imagineers of the Netherlands have created an interactive design for the exhibitions. Rooms bearing the titles Flee? In Safety? Everyday Life? and Home? bring stories of flight from past and present to life by means of installations, video and audio documents, found objects and newspaper clippings.
Comprehensive documentations about projects by BIG can be found in the monograph "BIG. Architecture and Construction Details", 208 pages, 20 projects, numerous drawings and photos, editor: Sandra Hofmeister, Edition DETAIL, Munich 2022.
Architecture: BIG Bjarke Ingels Group
Client: Vardemuseerne
Location: Oksbøl (DK)
Structural engineering, building services engineering: Ingeniør’ne
Exhibition design: Tinker Imagineers
Landscape architecture: BIG Landscape
Acoustic engineering: Gade & Mortensen
