Responsive Visitors Centre Nunspeet

The question

The Veluwe is a very popular holiday destination in the Netherlands. The visitor flows offer opportunities for the area (economic, social), but also offer challenges to keep the ecological values ​​in balance. The NBTC predicts further growth of domestic and incoming tourism in the coming years, which will increase the pressure on the area. That is why parties on the Veluwe are working together on a strategy for an optimal balance. A network of reception locations and visitor centres will increasingly play a role in guiding visitors. For this purpose, we are developing a Charter for Veluwe Reception Locations as an instrument for visitor management on the Veluwe.

Within the various reception locations, the Nunspeet Visitor Centre will be the first to develop new principles of the charter and will therefore serve as an example location. The transferium and entrance area will be completely overhauled and the visitor centre will be redesigned. This offers the opportunity to develop a leading visitor centre in which experience, inspiration, education and wonder are central. DestinationX has been asked to supervise this project in order to arrive at a new visitor centre.

Our approach

Together with the organisations involved, we inventoried the frameworks for the new visitor centre. We then mapped out the stories that play a role in the visitor centre. We grouped and categorised these. All this information was brought together in a briefing for the designers.

As DestinationX, we came up with the concept: a responsive visitor centre. Nature is always in motion. It is an example of constant change. In spring, the Veluwe awakens, with buds opening and young animals exploring the world. Summer brings a colour palette and a symphony of sounds, while autumn introduces picturesque red, orange and gold. In winter, the area rests, sometimes even under a blanket of snow. But there are more subtle changes that nature adapts to. Think for example of wind, temperature, atmospheric pressure, animals moving through nature or a rotating starry sky.

A visitor centre that wants to bring the environment inside cannot be static. The starting point was that the continuous dynamics of nature should be brought inside. A visitor centre that moves along and can adapt to the movement of nature, in other words: a responsive visitor centre. In the space, colours, sounds, light, types of animals and information continuously adapt based on the season, the time of day, day and night etc. This creates a different visitor centre each time that continues to surprise.

We supervised the design process and, together with the designers, compiled an ambitious bid book. A work description and a request for quotation for potential suppliers were drawn up. We supervised the quotation process.

The result

The result is a bid book that on the one hand shows the concept of the responsive visitor centre, but on the other hand also gives a good picture of the different experiences that a visitor will have. The design is explained step by step and is supplemented with inspiring images. The bid book also includes testimonials from people who recommend the development of the visitor centre. Of course, the bid book also includes a budget. Fundraising will be started on the basis of the bid book.