In beautiful Ribe, you will find the Wadden Sea Centre – a gateway to Denmark’s largest, flattest and wettest national park. Designed by architect Dorte Mandrup, the Wadden Sea Centre reflects the surrounding marshlands: the building is covered with reeds – the facade, the roof, even the underroof. It stands as a shining example of how architecture can become one with nature.
“For us it was primarily about getting the building to grow out of the landscape. The building is allowed to take root and grow up from the yellow grass and the distinctive brown landscape surrounding it.”
– Dorte Mandrup
Guardians of the Wadden Sea
The Wadden Sea extends for 500 kilometers along the coasts of Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands. And since 1978, the three countries have worked together to protect the wetlands through the Trilateral Wadden Sea Partnership. In 2009, the German and Dutch sections of the Wadden Sea were inscribed on UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites. And our Danish Wadden Sea was added to the list in 2014. But what does it mean to be on this list of World Heritage Sites?
Did you know...
- The Wadden Sea Centre is made up of 25,000 bundles of thatching reed from the Limfjord and Ringkøbing Fjord.
- Its thatched facades and eaves represent an entirely new approach to the traditional thatched roof.
- Normally, only the roof of a structure is thatched, but on the Wadden Sea Centre, the thatched roof extends all the way down to where the building meets the ground.
