Krabbe

Background

 

Denmark’s coastlines have for centuries been part of the country’s strongest tourism potential. Over the past decade however, tourism has become increasingly competitive and international demands for Danish coastal vacations have consequently declined. Comparatively, holidays in Denmark are widely considered expensive and thus, its coastal competitiveness must be based on expected yet evidently missing superior experiences. Coincidentally, Danish coastlines have for almost a century been protected against any developments. It describes an overlooked opportunity of implementing architecture to accentuate the settings, but also a national desire to preserve their natural attraction. The purpose of this thesis was therefore to challenge the protection act by investigating how an architectural intervention can enhance the experience of a place by accentuating its existing atmosphere.

 

Stevns Klint is an eastern coastal cliff-line along the island of Zealand that in 2014 was appointed to UNESCO due to its geological importance. The cliff harbors successional layers of exceptional exposure that tells of how Earth has changed throughout millions of years. This narrative is amplified by the site’s present and future situations, as coastal erosion and fluctuating weather constantly change it. The site is nevertheless almost unknown outside of Denmark. The current facility is mostly ignored because of its seclusion from the coastline and visits are generally short due to barely any encouragement to explore the site. Most visitors are thus oblivious to the phenomena that would otherwise amplify the narrative and experience. The aim of this thesis was hence to explore the architectural potential of accentuating the site’s atmosphere as a narrator of Earth’s ever-changing situation by illuminating its dynamic setting.

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Concept

 

The resulting proposal is a journey along the cliff between four diverse structures that prolong the experience and serves the purpose of narrating the dynamic situations through their placement in the eroding landscape and by illuminating the fluctuating weather. Accordingly, the presence of the shifting daylight is interiorly enhanced by contrast of darkness as each of the structures has been designed with different types of limited apertures. Additionally, each of the structures illuminates the daylight one step further as they are partly embraced by a concrete embedment of crushed and locally sourced flint with a resulting marble of reflective surfaces. Lastly, the final aim was to materialize the wind and its changing properties by integrating it into the design of the structures.

 

The outcome is a thesis that challenges the implementation of otherwise conventional architecture bound to shelter yet distance visitors from the site, instead proposing a physical and mental journey that uncovers its phenomena, thereby presenting the architectural potential of bringing visitors closer to the cliff’s dramatic past, present and future.