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A new Berlin museum
will tell the stories
of the people exiled
from Germany by the
Nazi regime. Magali
Robathan speaks to its
designer Dorte Mandrup
and finds out about
her other intriguing
attractions projects
At the end of the summer of 2020, Danish architect Dorte Mandrup revealed visuals of a new Berlin museum that will bring to life the stories of the hundreds of thousands of people exiled from Germany by the Nazi regime. The Exile Museum is due for completion in 2025 and will incorporate the ruins of the Anhalter Bahnhof railway station, which was used by people fleeing the country during World War II before it was bombed in 1943.
The museum will include biographies of famous exiled Germans – including Albert Einstein and Thomas Mann – as well as ordinary people forced to flee their homes during the war.
“It’s the most fantastic thing to be creating a place where the understanding of exile will be illuminated,” says Mandrup, speaking to me from her airy, light studio in Copenhagen. “This museum is so important; we have millions of people forced to flee their countries right now. It’s vital to have empathy for people forced to leave everything they know.”
This is the latest project from an architect responsible for a series of unique and intriguing attractions buildings that include a whale observatory in Norway, a climate change museum in Greenland and a visitor centre at the Wadden Sea, which is Denmark’s largest national park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
“We love to work with culture and landmarks,” says Mandrup. “Every architect dreams of designing museums – you want to be part of something that has importance. It matters to us that the buildings we’re designing and the exhibits happening inside them are meaningful.”
THE EXILE MUSEUM The idea for the museum was proposed in 2009, when Nobel laureate Herta Müller wrote an open letter to German Chancellor Angela Merkel proposing a museum of exile. A civic initiative, the Stiftung Exilmuseum Berlin was established in 2018, by Herta Müller, former German President Joachim Gauck, and the art dealer and co-founder of Villa Grisebach, Bernd Schultz, to develop the museum. Largely financed by private donations – including E6.3m raised by Bernd Schultz in an auction of artworks from his private collection – the museum is estimated to cost around €27m.
The museum’s focus will be on stories and biographies told via multimedia exhibits rather than on the display of material objects, with exhibitions working in “a very media-intensive way with scenographically conceived spaces,” according to the architect.
The ruins of the Anhalter Bahnhof train station – which was used by many to leave Berlin and by the Nazis to deport Jews to the Theresienstadt concentration camp – are being left intact and incorporated into Mandrup’s new three-storey building.
Visitors will arrive at the museum via the curved entrance into a large, glass-sided foyer, with cobblestones that echo the stones of the plaza outside. “The foyer connects to all of the galleries, so it will be a place people can come out to reflect,” explains Mandrup, adding that the vaulted space was designed to echo the large spans found in railway stations. “We wanted to enhance the emotional feeling of being in transit by creating these large vaults. The ground floor space is very open and, I think, quite emotional.”
The museum will house permanent and special exhibitions, as well as a space exploring the history of the Anhalter Bahnhof station itself.
SUPPORTING THE CONTENT When designing museums, Mandrup says it is important to work with exhibition designers from an early stage, to ensure that the architecture enhances the visitor experience.
“It’s vital that the exhibition isn’t working against the building and vice versa,” she says. “You need to understand the needs of the designers and the curators. It’s also crucial to have exhibition designers that understand that the connection between the architecture and the exhibition is important, otherwise the visitors will feel like they’re in a black box. The relationship between what you see in a museum and the building itself is important in order to feel you’ve had a humane experience.”
THE WHALE In 2019, Dorte Mandrup won an international competition to design The Whale, an Arctic attraction on the Norwegian island of Andoya that will allow visitors to experience and get a better understanding of migrating whales in one of the world’s best places to see the animal close up. Mandrup’s sloping, whale-inspired building will also house exhibition spaces that will tell the story of the whale, as well as a café, shop and office.
A deep sea valley a few miles from the shore is visited frequently by migrating whales, and the gulf stream means it’s less cold than other places in the Arctic, making it an excellent place to see the creatures.
The 4,500sq m building – which is expected to open in 2022 – has been designed to look as though it’s rising out of the dramatic landscape, with a curved, stone-covered roof that visitors can climb on to watch the whales and admire the landscape and the Northern Lights.
“The building is very fitted to the landscape; when you’re inside, you’ll almost feel as though you’re in a cave; as though a thin layer of the earth has been lifted up by a giant and you’re hidden underneath,” says Mandrup. Inside, exhibitions will focus on the story of whales from a cultural, scientific and artistic viewpoint, inspired by the animals’ journey around the globe. The interior is a large, column-free vault, featuring a long, horizontal view of the mountains and the sea, and large rocks underlining the connection between the exhibition and the landscape.
“The interior is a soft organic shell that allows media to be projected onto the walls and the ceiling,” says Mandrup. “It’s a poetic way of showing media and will help visitors feel part of the space and the landscape when they’re in the building, because the projections will relate to the views and the horizon.”
Outside, a series of paths, platforms and viewpoints will highlight the landscape, while a tidepool, campfire and stepping-stones will “invite visitors to explore the surroundings in-depth and underline the connection between the building and the surrounding nature.”
ICEFJORD CENTER Mandrup has also used her skill in working with the landscape to create the designs for Ilulissat Icefjord Centre, a research centre and visitor attraction located 150 miles north of the Arctic Circle on Greenland’s west coast.
The centre will allow researchers to study the 250-year-old Ilulissat Icefjord glacier, and act as a meeting place for visitors to learn about the earth’s changing climate.
Groundbreaking for the project took place in the summer of 2019, and it is due to open in the summer of 2021.
Designed to blend into the dramatic scenery, the centre features a gently sloping wooden boardwalk leading up to a curved roof, which will act as a gathering space and viewing platform for the glacier and surrounding landscape.
“The Icefjord area carries 4,000 years of cultural heritage and is essential for the understanding of climate changes,” says Mandrup. “It will tell the story of ice, of human history and evolution in both a local and global sense.”
LOOKING FORWARDS For Mandrup, designing with the challenges of COVID-19 in mind poses a dilemma. “Social distancing is about having enough space, but on the other hand, as architects, we want to design places for people to meet,” she says. “If you focus on social distancing, you’re creating architecture where people don’t meet, and that would be terrible.”
Despite the likely ongoing challenges of the pandemic, 2021 looks set to be a good year for Mandrup and her practice, she says.
“2021 will be mainly about moving several really exciting projects onwards. We’re opening the Icefjord Centre in midsummer, we’ll have full speed on doing the drawings for the Exile Museum and are working on a wooden mixed use building on Gothenburg’s riverfront in Sweden.
“I’m looking forward to an extremely exciting year,” she concludes.
THE WHALE, ANDENES, NORWAY
The new Arctic attraction, The Whale – located in the small Arctic town of Andenes in Norway – will ‘tell the story of the big inhabitants of this underwater world’ from a scientific, cultural and artistic viewpoint.
The curved building will rise gently from the landscape, providing column-free exhibition space and dramatic views of the sea and the whales from both inside and from the roof. The attraction is expected to open in 2022.
EXILE MUSEUM, BERLIN
In August 2020, Dorte Mandrup won the international competition to design the new Exile Museum on Askanischer Platz, Berlin, which will tell the stories of the millions of Germans exiled by the Nazi regime.
The museum will house a permanent exhibition and special exhibitions as well as education facilities and a restaurant. Dorte Mandrup was supported by architecture firm Höhler & Partner and landscape architects TOPOTEK1 from Germany, along with the international engineering firm Buro Happold in the competition.
The museum is estimated to cost €27m to build, and is due to open in 2025.
ILULISSAT ICEFJORD CENTRE, GREENLAND
Looking out onto the ancient glacier of Sermeq Kujalleq on the western coast of Greenland, the Ilulissat Icefjord Centre will act as a research centre for scientists to observe the effects of climate change and for visitors to learn about the topic.
Designed by Dorte Mandrup to blend in to the dramatic landscape, the centre will offer views of the glacier, and will “tell a story of ice, of human history and evolution on both a local and global scale.”
The client is the Government of Greenland, Qaasuitsup Kommunia & Realdania. It is due to open in summer 2021.
Read more from this issue of Spa Business magazine
View contents of Spa Business 2021 issue 1
Editor's letter: Doing better
The Black Lives Matter movement has challenged museums professionals to ask testing questions about their role in reparative history and the way we display and interpret racist and colonial collections
People: Brent Bushnell
Two Bit Circus has pivoted to an innovative online model aimed at keeping its community in touch
People: Michel Linet-Frion
After decades creating for Disney, Grévin and Center Parcs, Linet-Frion has launched his own consultancy
People: Anthony Rawlins
The Digital Visitor CEO explains a new whitepaper on how attractions can survive 2021 and beyond
Interview: Sarah Roots
Warner Bros’ Sarah Roots shares exciting details of the second Harry Potter Studio Tour, set to open in Japan in 2023
Inspired: Alone with Vermeer
The Mauritshuis in The Hague has allowed visitors one-to-one time with Vermeer’s <i>View of Delft</i>, ‘the most beautiful painting in the world’
Aquariums: Into the deep
Merlin and the Sea Life Trust share the highs and lows of the epic journey to get two whales to their new home in the world’s first beluga whale sanctuary in Iceland
Innovation: Sea change
Edge Innovations’ incredibly
life-like robot dolphins could spell the end of marine mammals in aquariums, says CEO Walt Conti
Interview: Bob Rogers
As BRC Imagination Arts celebrates 40 years in business, its founder celebrates his team’s achievements
Sponsored: Technically Creative
With clients including the Xplore
Family Entertainment Centre in Athens,
Technically Creative provides a one
stop, in-house solution to create
memorable and magical experiences.
We talk to CEO, Marc Broadbent
Sponsored: Fun Spot: Providing turnkey solutions
Industry innovator, Fun Spot, is on a roll, with a new EMEA
office and a range of innovative new products to help operators
deliver excellence to the family fun market. We find out more
Interview: Phil Hettema
The Hettema Group president on weathering the pandemic and creating powerful experiences
In today’s premium spa environment, every detail shapes the guest experience – right down to
the softness of towels and the freshness of linens. [more...]
A new Berlin museum
will tell the stories
of the people exiled
from Germany by the
Nazi regime. Magali
Robathan speaks to its
designer Dorte Mandrup
and finds out about
her other intriguing
attractions projects
At the end of the summer of 2020, Danish architect Dorte Mandrup revealed visuals of a new Berlin museum that will bring to life the stories of the hundreds of thousands of people exiled from Germany by the Nazi regime. The Exile Museum is due for completion in 2025 and will incorporate the ruins of the Anhalter Bahnhof railway station, which was used by people fleeing the country during World War II before it was bombed in 1943.
The museum will include biographies of famous exiled Germans – including Albert Einstein and Thomas Mann – as well as ordinary people forced to flee their homes during the war.
“It’s the most fantastic thing to be creating a place where the understanding of exile will be illuminated,” says Mandrup, speaking to me from her airy, light studio in Copenhagen. “This museum is so important; we have millions of people forced to flee their countries right now. It’s vital to have empathy for people forced to leave everything they know.”
This is the latest project from an architect responsible for a series of unique and intriguing attractions buildings that include a whale observatory in Norway, a climate change museum in Greenland and a visitor centre at the Wadden Sea, which is Denmark’s largest national park and a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
“We love to work with culture and landmarks,” says Mandrup. “Every architect dreams of designing museums – you want to be part of something that has importance. It matters to us that the buildings we’re designing and the exhibits happening inside them are meaningful.”
THE EXILE MUSEUM The idea for the museum was proposed in 2009, when Nobel laureate Herta Müller wrote an open letter to German Chancellor Angela Merkel proposing a museum of exile. A civic initiative, the Stiftung Exilmuseum Berlin was established in 2018, by Herta Müller, former German President Joachim Gauck, and the art dealer and co-founder of Villa Grisebach, Bernd Schultz, to develop the museum. Largely financed by private donations – including E6.3m raised by Bernd Schultz in an auction of artworks from his private collection – the museum is estimated to cost around €27m.
The museum’s focus will be on stories and biographies told via multimedia exhibits rather than on the display of material objects, with exhibitions working in “a very media-intensive way with scenographically conceived spaces,” according to the architect.
The ruins of the Anhalter Bahnhof train station – which was used by many to leave Berlin and by the Nazis to deport Jews to the Theresienstadt concentration camp – are being left intact and incorporated into Mandrup’s new three-storey building.
Visitors will arrive at the museum via the curved entrance into a large, glass-sided foyer, with cobblestones that echo the stones of the plaza outside. “The foyer connects to all of the galleries, so it will be a place people can come out to reflect,” explains Mandrup, adding that the vaulted space was designed to echo the large spans found in railway stations. “We wanted to enhance the emotional feeling of being in transit by creating these large vaults. The ground floor space is very open and, I think, quite emotional.”
The museum will house permanent and special exhibitions, as well as a space exploring the history of the Anhalter Bahnhof station itself.
SUPPORTING THE CONTENT When designing museums, Mandrup says it is important to work with exhibition designers from an early stage, to ensure that the architecture enhances the visitor experience.
“It’s vital that the exhibition isn’t working against the building and vice versa,” she says. “You need to understand the needs of the designers and the curators. It’s also crucial to have exhibition designers that understand that the connection between the architecture and the exhibition is important, otherwise the visitors will feel like they’re in a black box. The relationship between what you see in a museum and the building itself is important in order to feel you’ve had a humane experience.”
THE WHALE In 2019, Dorte Mandrup won an international competition to design The Whale, an Arctic attraction on the Norwegian island of Andoya that will allow visitors to experience and get a better understanding of migrating whales in one of the world’s best places to see the animal close up. Mandrup’s sloping, whale-inspired building will also house exhibition spaces that will tell the story of the whale, as well as a café, shop and office.
A deep sea valley a few miles from the shore is visited frequently by migrating whales, and the gulf stream means it’s less cold than other places in the Arctic, making it an excellent place to see the creatures.
The 4,500sq m building – which is expected to open in 2022 – has been designed to look as though it’s rising out of the dramatic landscape, with a curved, stone-covered roof that visitors can climb on to watch the whales and admire the landscape and the Northern Lights.
“The building is very fitted to the landscape; when you’re inside, you’ll almost feel as though you’re in a cave; as though a thin layer of the earth has been lifted up by a giant and you’re hidden underneath,” says Mandrup. Inside, exhibitions will focus on the story of whales from a cultural, scientific and artistic viewpoint, inspired by the animals’ journey around the globe. The interior is a large, column-free vault, featuring a long, horizontal view of the mountains and the sea, and large rocks underlining the connection between the exhibition and the landscape.
“The interior is a soft organic shell that allows media to be projected onto the walls and the ceiling,” says Mandrup. “It’s a poetic way of showing media and will help visitors feel part of the space and the landscape when they’re in the building, because the projections will relate to the views and the horizon.”
Outside, a series of paths, platforms and viewpoints will highlight the landscape, while a tidepool, campfire and stepping-stones will “invite visitors to explore the surroundings in-depth and underline the connection between the building and the surrounding nature.”
ICEFJORD CENTER Mandrup has also used her skill in working with the landscape to create the designs for Ilulissat Icefjord Centre, a research centre and visitor attraction located 150 miles north of the Arctic Circle on Greenland’s west coast.
The centre will allow researchers to study the 250-year-old Ilulissat Icefjord glacier, and act as a meeting place for visitors to learn about the earth’s changing climate.
Groundbreaking for the project took place in the summer of 2019, and it is due to open in the summer of 2021.
Designed to blend into the dramatic scenery, the centre features a gently sloping wooden boardwalk leading up to a curved roof, which will act as a gathering space and viewing platform for the glacier and surrounding landscape.
“The Icefjord area carries 4,000 years of cultural heritage and is essential for the understanding of climate changes,” says Mandrup. “It will tell the story of ice, of human history and evolution in both a local and global sense.”
LOOKING FORWARDS For Mandrup, designing with the challenges of COVID-19 in mind poses a dilemma. “Social distancing is about having enough space, but on the other hand, as architects, we want to design places for people to meet,” she says. “If you focus on social distancing, you’re creating architecture where people don’t meet, and that would be terrible.”
Despite the likely ongoing challenges of the pandemic, 2021 looks set to be a good year for Mandrup and her practice, she says.
“2021 will be mainly about moving several really exciting projects onwards. We’re opening the Icefjord Centre in midsummer, we’ll have full speed on doing the drawings for the Exile Museum and are working on a wooden mixed use building on Gothenburg’s riverfront in Sweden.
“I’m looking forward to an extremely exciting year,” she concludes.
THE WHALE, ANDENES, NORWAY
The new Arctic attraction, The Whale – located in the small Arctic town of Andenes in Norway – will ‘tell the story of the big inhabitants of this underwater world’ from a scientific, cultural and artistic viewpoint.
The curved building will rise gently from the landscape, providing column-free exhibition space and dramatic views of the sea and the whales from both inside and from the roof. The attraction is expected to open in 2022.
EXILE MUSEUM, BERLIN
In August 2020, Dorte Mandrup won the international competition to design the new Exile Museum on Askanischer Platz, Berlin, which will tell the stories of the millions of Germans exiled by the Nazi regime.
The museum will house a permanent exhibition and special exhibitions as well as education facilities and a restaurant. Dorte Mandrup was supported by architecture firm Höhler & Partner and landscape architects TOPOTEK1 from Germany, along with the international engineering firm Buro Happold in the competition.
The museum is estimated to cost €27m to build, and is due to open in 2025.
ILULISSAT ICEFJORD CENTRE, GREENLAND
Looking out onto the ancient glacier of Sermeq Kujalleq on the western coast of Greenland, the Ilulissat Icefjord Centre will act as a research centre for scientists to observe the effects of climate change and for visitors to learn about the topic.
Designed by Dorte Mandrup to blend in to the dramatic landscape, the centre will offer views of the glacier, and will “tell a story of ice, of human history and evolution on both a local and global scale.”
The client is the Government of Greenland, Qaasuitsup Kommunia & Realdania. It is due to open in summer 2021.
Read more from this issue of Spa Business magazine
View contents of Spa Business 2021 issue 1
Editor's letter: Doing better
The Black Lives Matter movement has challenged museums professionals to ask testing questions about their role in reparative history and the way we display and interpret racist and colonial collections
People: Brent Bushnell
Two Bit Circus has pivoted to an innovative online model aimed at keeping its community in touch
People: Michel Linet-Frion
After decades creating for Disney, Grévin and Center Parcs, Linet-Frion has launched his own consultancy
People: Anthony Rawlins
The Digital Visitor CEO explains a new whitepaper on how attractions can survive 2021 and beyond
Interview: Sarah Roots
Warner Bros’ Sarah Roots shares exciting details of the second Harry Potter Studio Tour, set to open in Japan in 2023
Inspired: Alone with Vermeer
The Mauritshuis in The Hague has allowed visitors one-to-one time with Vermeer’s <i>View of Delft</i>, ‘the most beautiful painting in the world’
Aquariums: Into the deep
Merlin and the Sea Life Trust share the highs and lows of the epic journey to get two whales to their new home in the world’s first beluga whale sanctuary in Iceland
Innovation: Sea change
Edge Innovations’ incredibly
life-like robot dolphins could spell the end of marine mammals in aquariums, says CEO Walt Conti
Interview: Bob Rogers
As BRC Imagination Arts celebrates 40 years in business, its founder celebrates his team’s achievements
Sponsored: Technically Creative
With clients including the Xplore
Family Entertainment Centre in Athens,
Technically Creative provides a one
stop, in-house solution to create
memorable and magical experiences.
We talk to CEO, Marc Broadbent
Sponsored: Fun Spot: Providing turnkey solutions
Industry innovator, Fun Spot, is on a roll, with a new EMEA
office and a range of innovative new products to help operators
deliver excellence to the family fun market. We find out more
Interview: Phil Hettema
The Hettema Group president on weathering the pandemic and creating powerful experiences
The UK spa review and discovery platform for consumers, the Good Spa Guide, has announced
it will host the Good Spa Guide Awards 2026 during an event on 16 November at Sopwell House
Hotel in St Albans, UK.
Eighty-four per cent of consumers now say wellness is a top priority in their lives, with this
percentage increasing year on year, according to a preview presentation of McKinsey’s Future of
Wellness 2026 research report.
Mass protests have been taking place since Monday 1 June in Albania over the development of
a luxury resort by Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner.
Global Wellness Day (GWD) marked its 15th anniversary on Saturday 13 June 2026, with the
theme: #JoyMagenta – a celebration of the healing qualities of simple gestures and activities
that spark joy.
Global luxury hospitality brand, Six Senses, has partnered with longevity healthcare provider,
HUM2N, to launch a clinic at Six Senses London, at The Whiteley.
As part of its first hotel partnership, Mayrlife – the medical health resort company known for its
site in Altaussee, Austria – has launched a day clinic at the Rosewood Vienna.
Premium London health club, KX Chelsea, will imminently unveil its most significant
redevelopment since its launch in 2002 to create an integrated wellness model combining
training, recovery and relaxation.
Rosewood Le Guanahani St Barth, on the northeast coast of Saint Barthélemy in the French
West Indies, is offering a programme of ocean-inspired yoga classes between 8-14 June to
celebrate Global Wellness Day (GWD).
Hotel de France, located on the British Isle of Jersey, has created a wellness retreat package
that includes a hot yoga session that will take place in Jersey Zoo’s butterfly sanctuary.
The Ritz-Carlton, Langkawi, in Malaysia, has revealed a schedule for Global Wellness Day
(GWD) that includes guided rainforest walks, mindful movement and guided coastal meditation
experiences.
In today’s premium spa environment, every detail shapes the guest experience – right down to
the softness of towels and the freshness of linens. [more...]
