Built topography
Thy National Park Centre by Loop Architects
© Rasmus Hjortshøj, COAST
Denmark’s Largest Wilderness: this homepage slogan promotes Thy National Park, which is located in northwestern Denmark. With 244 km2 of dunes and heathland, the park extends 54 km along the North Sea coast of Jutland.
At the gateway to the wilderness we find: a big parking lot. Nowadays, this is usually the case, but things are different at the national park centre in the harbour of Nørre Vorupør, a small village in the middle of the protected area, for the new building by Loop Architects of Aarhus lies hidden beneath an artificial dune designed by the SLA landscape architecture studio.
© Rasmus Hjortshøj, COAST
Indeed, this dune seems to rise from the coastal terrain and extend towards the centre of the town. Three wedge-shaped cut-ins show that the interior has more to offer than sand and salt water. Two of the cut-ins form entries to the information centre; at the end of the structure, the third features a panoramic window with a view from the interior over the harbour and the surrounding flat-roofed fishermen’s houses.
© Bertrand Verney
© Rasmus Hjortshøj, COAST
Exposed concrete of a slightly sand-coloured tone, galvanized steel and oak represent the limited material palette of the 700 m2 new building. A striking ribbed ceiling of exposed concrete bears the load of the masses of sand above it. In front of the rear wall at the east end of the centre, a panoramic window extends over the entire width of the exhibition space, providing light to the panoramic picture found there.
© Rasmus Hjortshøj, COAST
© Rasmus Hjortshøj, COAST
Lorem Ipsum: Zwischenüberschrift
Architecture: LOOP Architects
Client: Nationalpark Thy
Location: Vesterhavsgade 168, 7700 Thisted (DK)
Structural engineering: LB Consult
Landscape architecture: SLA
Further project participants: P+P Arkitekter, Thøgersen and Stouby
Gallery
These articles might also interest you
-
With a light ecological touch
Sands End Arts and Community Centre by Mæ in London
In their design of the community centre in South Park, Fulham, the Mæ architectural office abstracted the style of historical glasshouses – and realised it with an efficient glued laminated timber structure.
-
Serpentine lines against a square background
Manhattan’s Little Island
Simon Ng and Paul Westwood of Heatherwick Studio talk about their work on the Little Island project.
-
Crystal blossom on the fjell
Glass Pavilion in Greenland by Konstantin Ikonomidis
About 1,000 glass bricks on a steel supporting structure make up this pavilion by Swedish architect Konstantin Ikonomidis in the western Greenlandic village of Sarfannguit.