As an Arctic piece of architecture, the Katuaq Cultural Centre emanates from Greenland’s snow-covered grounds, the bare icy mountains, and the particular light throughout the different seasons.
The building houses a variety of cultural offers, including an art school, a library, a TV studio, a café, a multifunctional theatre hall, and conference facilities. It is a building that (almost) never sleeps:
‘Katuaq is like a musical instrument that could start playing at any moment – throughout the day, it is full of dreams, and at night it is like a magnetic field that draws people in, towards the light.’ Arnakkuluk Jo Kleist, CEO
Art created either by Greenlandic artists, artists with strong bonds to Greenland, or artists from the Arctic permeates the building and further anchors it in the cultural local context. In the foyer, a piece that revolves around the old Greenlandic myth about the sun and the moon adorns the space. Inscribed on the curving wall, the art seamlessly integrates with the architecture – it neither subjects to nor does it seek to overpower it; the art and the architecture is in constant dialogue, mutually dependent in forming a unity and conveying a story.
Jury statement: ‘Architecturally the culture house project is related to the best of that which is characteristic of Nordic architecture, while at the same time, its interior and exterior design will act in a successful dialogue with the Greenlandic style of building.’