In 2014, the Wadden Sea in Denmark was listed as an Unesco World Heritage area. Only a few years later the Vadehavscentret can open with a new visitor center and a new exhibition. The new building was designed by architect Dorthe Mandrup and the exhibition by  JAC studios in consortium with No Parking. The consortium has been involved from the start of the construction phase – determining the exhibition spaces, and has developed and supplied the experience as well as AV / IT equipment.

The new exhibition shows the Wadden Sea and its migratory birds in a poetic, aesthetic and modern way. There are experiences involving guests in the Wadden Seas wondrous world with both a playfull and teaching approach. The exhibition brings the visitors up close and tells about tides, wildlife, storm surges, migratory birds and large swarms. Many projections are used, along with tactile installations that create understanding through interaction.

For example, you can explore the tidal forces through an interactive sandbox, where you can experiment with building dikes, and try to prevent the water from flooding the town of Ribe. A sensor reads the sand height and leads floodwaters into the low areas. Another place you can rotate the moon around the earth, and see how high and low tide are formed. No Parking has been responsible for the development of interactive installations, which have been designed together with JAC Studios and built up in natural materials. One of the exhibition spaces uses digital  telescopes, where you can explore models of birds through Virtual Reality. Other offers in the exhibition are games aimed at the younger audience.

One of the interactive games, communicates the importance of wading bird foraging on the mudflats. You navigate the bird around via 4 buttons, and must reach food to fill its fat stores up before time is up. In another game you can compose music with the voices of birds from various shorebirds. The audience discovers that each bird voice has a distinctive feature – and at the same time the bird voices have a common characteristic and rhythm.

All together No Parking delivered more than 25 installations, some of which consist of several components and parts. The exhibition has been automated with a central control system. We have provided an APP that visitors can use on the way to the Wadden Sea and as an audio guide in the exhibition. The new Wadden Sea Centre has received very good reviews for both the construction and exhibition. Politiken’s culture reviewer gave it the top score of 6 Hearts out of 6, and the exhibition has won German Design Awards Gold 2018.