Museum’s immersive audio brings refugee experience to life

Project: FLUGT Refugee Museum of Denmark

Location: Oksbøl, Varde, Netherlands

Award: Publicly Accessible Interiors: Museums & Galleries, Silver, 2023

Design Practice: Tinker Imagineers

Client: Varde Museums

FLUGT Refugee Museum of Denmark is built on land that once housed the largest refugee camp for German civilians in Denmark after World War II. The designers created a concept for the exhibitions inside the museum, as well as for the storytelling in the former refugee camp outside which is now a 4.5 square kilometre forest.

FLUGT wanted to be the first museum in the world dedicated to refugees’ stories: both contemporary and historical. Creating a new museum around such a sensitive subject came with its own set of challenges. How to fully immerse visitors in a sensitive story that is both contemporary and historical and how to represent reality without taking stance. Tinker came up with an innovative immersive design that tells the stories of refugees of all ages in a way people have never experienced before. Audio functions have been used as the backbone of the experience design rather than just in support. The museum experience consists of several exhibition rooms and a large outdoor area. The refugees' personal stories are brought to life with visual highlights, soundscapes, animations, interviews and original film material.

Design highlights 

Outside, a model of the former camp, made of concrete and Corten Steel, indicates its scale. An immersive audio walk through the forest begins here. Visitors hear sounds and voices, experiencing history through the eyes of former camp refugees and getting an accurate sense of what daily life in the camp might have been like.

Photo credit: Mike Bink / Tinker imagineers