A proposed new building meant to house a visitors’ centre for the seed and document vaults on Svalbard will tower across the town’s landscape if architects have it their way, according to Svalbardposten.

Arctic Memory and Snøhetta propose a building called "The Arc", which will have a height of some 50 meters. The proposed building site is located in the area between the seed vault and mine 3, not far from the Longyearbyen shooting range.

The construction costs are estimated at NOK 200 million.

- The product will probably look different once it is finished. However, in order for us to proceed with this, it is important for us to know whether this is something Longyearbyen wants or not, Rune Bjerkestrand of Arctic Memory says to the paper.