NORD Architects and Grontmij Malmö were recently named winners of the invited competition to design a new Marine Educational Centre in Malmö – a facility that strives to provide users with a deeper understanding of marine life. The team won the competition with a proposal that combines architecture and landscape, creating an engaging learning landscape. The indoor and outdoor spaces merge together under a large roof, encouraging visitors to dive into a multitude of educational activities with a principle focus on marine life.

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In the learning landscape, users will find floating laboratories on small removable pontoons, teaching signs on the seabed and underwater sea binoculars to name a few. Inside the centre, guests are able to study the buildings technical installations and the role that the architecture plays as part of the area’s resource cycle. Water handling, energy consumption and ventilation are all on display and work as a key part of the learning experience. The centre is designed to be highly flexible, allowing the built organisation and allocated functions to adapt over time with the emergence of new technologies and changing needs.

“With the changing climate, rising oceans and increased severity of cloudbursts, there is a need more than ever to understand the profound influence that marine life and the oceans have on our lives”, says Johannes Molander Pedersen, partner at NORD Architects. “We have developed a learning landscape where education is everywhere. It is in the landscape, in the building and in the transition between nature and culture. The centre is open for everyone who is interested in the role we as humans play in nature’s life cycle. It allows a hands on learning experience that invites users to explore using their senses in the field, and thereafter analyse and understand their observations of the marine life”.

Facts about the project:
Client: Malmö City
Primary Advisor: NORD Architects
Secondary Advisor: Grontmij Malmö
External consultant: The Øresund Environment School, City of Copenhagen
Construction cost: 22 million SEK
Surface area: 700 square metres building area / 3,000 square metres landscape