Archinect - News

Esja Architecture’s Icelandic viewing platform draws inspiration from Viking traditions

2023-09-04T12:13:00-04:00

Copenhagen/Reykjavik-based Esja Architecture, in collaboration with Arkibygg Arkitektar, has unveiled plans for a ring-shaped viewing platform to be located 2,100 feet above sea level on the slopes of Mount Bjólfur, Iceland. Named the Ring of Bjólfur, the platform will overlook the scenic, artistic town of Seydisfjordur, as well as a fjord that houses the only ferry connection from Iceland to mainland Europe.

Photo credit: Render artists Alex Cetea & Andrei Ducu Predescu

The platform measures 105 feet in diameter and will offer visitors a continuous walkway and seating arrangement around its 330-foot circumference. The scheme is secured to the landscape using four anchoring points, while the slightly sloping structure remains entirely wheelchair accessible.

Photo credit: Design team

The three predominant materials to be used in the scheme’s construction are concrete for the primary form, local larch for the inner railing, and stainless steel for the outer railing. Chosen in part to re...

Nordic architects' open letter reignites scorching Autodesk criticism

2022-09-21T15:47:00-04:00

Some of Northern Europe’s leading architecture firms have signed an open letter lamenting the lack of “serious development” laden in Autodesk’s proprietary design software, an aging suite of tools the authors claim is asking usurious prices despite neglecting years of industry-wide complaints.

The letter addressed to Autodesk CEO Andrew Anagnost was written by the Association of Consulting Architects in Norway (AiN), the Association of Finnish Architects’ Offices (ATL), the Association of Architectural Firms in Iceland (SAMARK), and the Danish Association of Architectural Firms — each the largest professional architectural bodies in their respective Nordic home countries and representing more than 14,000 architects combined. Its contents included pointed criticisms of the multi-user license system, the incompatibility and lagging interoperability of Autodesk products to each other and to modern computing systems, and continual price gouging.

Their invective offers an update to a 202...

This glass cabin in Iceland lets you sleep under the northern lights

2018-03-22T14:03:00-04:00

Panorama Glass Lodge is a luxury vacation cabin in Hvalfjörðu, Iceland. Situated directly by the sea, visitors will experience stunning views of the Aurora Borealis from above and reflected off the water below. The structure features an all glass bedroom allowing travelers to experience sleeping under one of the world's most spectacular light shows.

Panorama Glass Lodge located in Hvalfjörðu, Iceland. Image: Panorama Glass Lodge.

This secluded cabin is the perfect viewing destination due to its removal from any light pollution.

Panorama Glass Lodge located in Hvalfjörðu, Iceland. Image: Panorama Glass Lodge.

If that wasn't enough to satisfy, the cabin also includes a hot tub to view the spectacle above.

Panorama Glass Lodge located in Hvalfjörðu, Iceland. Image: Panorama Glass Lodge.

A lush, photographic tour of the Icelandic Turf House

2017-07-27T14:08:00-04:00

The Turf House Tradition of Iceland was nominated for UNESCO World Heritage status in 2011. “The turf house is an exceptional example of a vernacular architectural tradition, which has survived in Iceland,” according to the nomination. “The form and design of the turf house is an expression of the cultural values of the society and has adapted to the social and technological changes that took place through the centuries.”

Although living walls are still considered to be somewhat noteworthy in contemporary design, Iceland's architecture has been overgrown with the technique for hundreds of years. Along with a history of turf as a building material (and the pressures of modernism on Iceland's architecture in the 20th century) this National Geographic article showcases the haunting beauty of the Icelandic turf house, where the climate is pretty much rainy and picturesquely contemplative for the entire year.

Image: Thomas Ormstom via Flickr

Icelandic researchers turn CO2 into stone

2016-06-14T13:06:00-04:00

Scientists think they have found a smart way to constrain carbon dioxide emissions - just turn them to stone. The researchers report an experiment in Iceland where they have pumped CO2 and water underground into volcanic rock. Reactions with the minerals in the deep basalts convert the carbon dioxide to a stable, immobile chalky solid. Even more encouraging, the team writes in Science magazine, is the speed at which this process occurs: on the order of months.

It feels rare to hear good news from the climate front these days. Here's some more:

From sundlaugs, to rockpools and The Basin

2016-05-24T00:07:00-04:00

These public pools, or sundlaugs, serve as the communal heart of Iceland, sacred places whose affordability and ubiquity are viewed as a kind of civil right....The pool is Iceland’s social space: where families meet neighbors, where newcomers first receive welcome, where rivals can’t avoid one another.

Dan Kois considers how communal pools and the sociability of soaking, are "a key to Icelandic well-being."

On a related note, Dan Hill recently published an essay reflecting on ‘The Pool’, a book published as part of The Australian pavilion for the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale. The interviews collected therein he finds, make a case for the pool as the authentically antipodean contribution to urbanism, a distinctly Australian public place, the country’s piazza.

IceCave Iceland is a city in the glacier

2015-01-05T14:25:00-05:00

There's an interesting construction/excavation project going on over in Iceland right now: an artificial tunnel and cave complex being dug into the Langjökull Glacier. When complete, the publicly accessible infra-glacial facility "will consist of numerous nooks and dens which will house exhibitions, information, restaurants and even a small chapel for those who would like to marry deep within an ice cap."

Team jvantspijker / Felixx wins competition for the redevelopment of Vogabyggð, Reykjavik.

2014-01-30T15:23:00-05:00

Two Rotterdam based offices jvantspijker and Felixx will design the new redevelopment plan of an industrial seaside area in Reykjavik, Iceland. The firms have won the first prize through an invited two-stage competition. The plan consists of 110.000 square meters of mixed use program, including four hundred new dwellings.

The location is tightly embedded within a port and transshipment area, a residential area and a large nature reserve. The competition is one of the first focus areas of a large long-term masterplan set up by the municipality of Reykjavik. The overarching plan commits to redevelopment, densification and sustainability.

The firms jvantspijker (planning and architecture) and Felixx (landscape architecture) used the ambition of densification to reconnect the urban area of Reykjavik to the surrounding Icelandic landscape. "In the current situation landscape and city are related as the inverse of each other", according to the Rotterdam design team.

"The renewed link between...

Harpa Wins 2013 EU Prize for Contemporary Architecture - Mies van der Rohe Award

2013-04-30T13:37:00-04:00

The European Commission and the Mies van der Rohe Foundation have announced Harpa, the Reykjavik Concert Hall and Conference Center in Iceland, as the winner of the 2013 European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture - Mies van der Rohe Award.

The 'Emerging Architect Special Mention' award goes to María Langarita and Víctor Navarro for the Nave de Música Matadero (Red Bull Music Academy) in Madrid, Spain.

Previously: Five Finalists for 2013 EU Prize for Contemporary Architecture - Mies van der Rohe Award

Rafmögnuð Náttúra By Marcos Zotes

2012-04-06T14:49:00-04:00

Marcos Zotes has shared with us his winning light installation for the Reykjavik Winter Lights Festival 2012.

Photo by Ragnar Th Sigurdsson

Marcos Zotes, winner of the Reykjavik Winter Lights Festival 2012, and Chris Jordan presented Rafmögnuð Náttúra in Reykjavik, Iceland, as the main event for the festival in February. The work consists of a temporary, site-specific installation that appropriates the facade of Hallgrímskirkja church with a large video-mapping projection. The aim is to transform the static condition of this iconic landmark into a dynamic, engaging and participatory visual experience, and to intervene by socially activating its surrounding public space.

Photo by Pétur Már Gunnarsson

Marcos explains: “I am fascinated with finding new ways to interact with the existing urban environment. I feel the city is there for us at our entire disposal, and we must reclaim its public spaces and urban structures in ways that exceed the limited uses for which they were o...

Harpa – review

2011-08-28T00:18:00-04:00

The facade of Harpa is the work of an artist, the Icelandic-Danish Olafur Eliasson, who gets more attention and a higher billing than the hall's architects, the 52-year-old practice Henning Larsen Architects. They wear sober suits; Eliasson's leather waistcoat and silver-framed shades suggest creative leadership. His job is to provide that service that would once have been performed by Corinthian columns and statues of buxom nudes: to endow the house of culture with meaning and importance.