we are experience designers
vardemuseerne and tinker join forces again for refugee museum flugt
What does it mean to be a refugee and what it is like to stand on the other side as the recipient country? Tinker imagineers dives into this issue with FLUGT – Refugee Museum of Denmark, because our design agency has been selected for this meaningful new project. The museum will be built in the remnants of Denmark's largest refugee camp, in the woods outside Oksbøl, where 35,000 German refugees formed Denmark's fifth largest city for five years following World War II. The plan is for the museum to open by the summer of 2022.
Vardemuseerne’s Museum Director Claus Kjeld Jensen, is looking forward to the collaboration: ‘For the last four months, the competition between three of the world’s leading design agencies was intense, as we had to choose the right one for making the exhibitions for FLUGT – Refugee museum of Denmark. Our expectations for the new museum are sky high, and we want the museum to explore new ways of telling highly topical and sensitive stories. The process of choosing the right design agency has been – as we expected – tough and eye-opening. My expectations for the museum have been raised even higher by the project presented by Tinker imagineers. Together, the teams of Tinker and Vardemuseerne will create a fantastic museum.’
Today, the buildings that in 1945 housed the hospital at Denmark’s largest camp for German refugees stand empty. But next year, the ground will be broken for the new museum, FLUGT – Refugee Museum of Denmark. The result will be a brand new and modern museum designed by BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group, which deals with flight and refugees. The exhibitions and stories are still on the drawing board, but the main subjects of FLUGT will be the German refugees who fled to Denmark in 1945 and the many refugees from Vietnam, Bosnia, Syria, and other countries, who came to the country in recent years.
Erik Bär, founder and art director of Tinker imagineers, feels honoured that Tinker will once again be designing such a prestigious project in Denmark. ‘When we first heard that the ambition for FLUGT is to make it the ‘the most courageous museum in the world’, we knew straight away that we wanted to participate in this pitch. We know the Vardemuseerne’s team to be very capable and professional. They have big dreams, which we have in common, and they are a joy to work with. We have previously also worked with Bjarke Ingels Group, the architect of the museum, and are, once again, impressed with their designs. We very much look forward to working together to realise another new museum. Now it is up to all of us to achieve the ambition. It will be hugely exciting and challenging to combine personal histories with social impact, and turn FLUGT in an uplifting visitor experience.’