When Copenhagen studio PLH Arkitekter decided to enter a design competition for an experience and knowledge centre at a historic Danish Viking site, they had a particularly creative idea: to build it in the image of a viking shield.

The studio’s design for the centre in Trelleborg – a Viking ring castle that is one of Scandinavia’s most important Viking monuments – subsequently won the competition, and will now be developed as a new cultural landmark.

PLH’s design was particularly inspired by the mystery of a lost Viking shield – the country’s only preserved artefact of its kind – discovered at the site.

“Imagine a Viking living in Trelleborg has at one time carried the shield and fought in battle here,” said Søren Mølbak, a partner at PLH. “We have designed and placed the building as a ‘lost shield’ casually left on the edge of the forest.”

The grass-topped circular structure merges with the surrounding landscape and skews upwards like a shield left on the ground, providing a vantage point from which visitors can look over the battle-scarred landscape.

“Our aim has been to connect the past and present in a single gesture – linking communication, narrative and form in a very contemporary aesthetic,” said the architects in a statement. “We’ve worked hard to bring the site to centre-stage; the story is central to the architecture.”

Facilities inside the 2,000sq m (21,500sq ft) centre will include a café, lobby, multifunctional lecture space, a workshop and an exhibition area, which will present a narrative story following a Viking family.

“We have recreated the Viking atmosphere with a gripping audio-visual universe of exhibition spaces, the crackling of the fireplace in the café, the tarred timber exterior cladding and the Viking sails decorating the facades”, explained Søren.

“From the moment the visitor approaches the building, it is to be mysterious experience, where the boundary between exhibition and architecture and past and present becomes unclear.”

The ‘Lost Shield’ proposal has been developed in collaboration with ALL Atelier Lorentzen Langkilde, GHB Landscape Architects, MOE Consulting Engineers and exhibition architects GODdesign.

Film director Rumle Hammerich and art director Søren Buus were also involved in developing the concept.

The design competition was organised by the Danish National museum and the Slagelse municipality, which governs the area.