Danish company Kvorning Design & Communication are simultaneously developing projects across all of Norway’s World Heritage sites, creating bespoke exhibitions for each site celebrating the country’s history.

Kvorning beat a number of Norwegian architecture firms in a design competition for the contract, which includes the DKR24m (US$3.65m, €3.25m, £2.55m) development of a visitor centre at each of Norway’s eight World Heritage sites.

Included in this list is Struves Geodetic Arc, Alta’s rock art, Vega Archipelago, Røros Mining Town, The West Norwegian Fjords, Urnes Stave church, Bryggen in Bergen and the Rjukan-Notodden Industrial Heritage site.

“It’s going to be realised over the next four or five years,” said Arne Kvorning, managing director of Kvorning, speaking to CLAD. “Three of the sites already have a physical building but the idea is that all eight will have a building just for this exhibition.”

The UNESCO project will included a basic exhibition about the country’s World Heritage across each site, with a bespoke exhibition for each specific project. The basic exhibition will include indoor and outdoor sections – the indoor section incorporating digital and interactive elements, and the outdoor utilising analogue features. Each exhibition will be developed at a cost of around DKR3m (US$455,000, €405,000, £315,000).

“It’s a bit difficult working on multiple World Heritage sites – some are building sites, some are just landscapes,” said Kvorning. “You can’t just copy-paste, that’s impossible. The basic information is there, but all of them will be very different in content and design.

“There are also a lot of rules as to what you can’t do because it’s a World Heritage site. You can’t touch a lot of things, so that’s certainly a challenge. UNESCO gives you a spot where you can build something and we more-or-less have to work within those confines.”

Kvorning is working with Norwegian film company Fabelaktivon on the project, with the filmmaker producing a video presentation for each site and one presentation about UNESCO World Heritage.

Kvorning will first develop a pilot exhibition for the rock art of Alta, which is being presented to the Norwegian World Heritage organisation before creating a fully-working and interactive mock-up. The first of the eight exhibitions is expected to open in 2017 with further sites being rolled out between 2017 and 2019.

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