About 1 km south of the town centre, the new Ilulissat Icefjord Centre stands on a slight hill. Congregating below its curved roof are an exhibition on the local natural and cultural history designed by JAC Studios, a movie theatre, research facilities, and a café. From the wood-covered roof terrace, visitors can take in the natural spectacle all around.
Dorte Mandrup and her Copenhagen-based firm won the competition for the new building in 2016, with a design whose lightweight structure and aerodynamic form are more than mere aesthetics. 52 steel frames support the roof, facades, and floor slab of the new building, which is detached from the ground except for the concrete spot footings, allowing the abundant melt water that occurs in spring to flow underneath it unimpeded. For the same reason, a timber structure was ruled out; the large amounts of water and constant alternation between frost and thaw would have been too hard on the material. The streamlined shape, inspired by the wing of a snowy owl, is designed to prevent snow drifts on the facades and under the building. The influence of the extreme climate can also be seen in the details. For example, the wooden roof deck in European oak is anchored to the trapezoidal metal roof skin only with movable point holders through the foam glass insulation. The building is heated electrically, using infrared heating panels. What is often held to be an inefficient heating method makes sense here: green hydropower electricity is abundant in Ilulissat, while a heat pump system was not an option due to the permafrost and low outdoor temperatures in winter.
