Architecture Competition Iceland Northern Lights Rooms 2018
The idea of the design is based on coherent connecting and disconnecting design systems. The climate, environment and space in Iceland generate necessity to introduce certain limitatations while designing. The materials used in the design are reinforced concrete, steel, pdlcd lucite and wood, which – in order to ensure the lightness of the construction - is used in modest amount mainly in constructing bedrooms’ mobile domes.
The core of the design is the space of mobile guests’ houses, which have the option of disconnecting the bedroom from the building lump and dividing the space with folding walls. The bedrooms, which can move around the whole designed area, are connected to the building lumps permanently located in the eastern part of the premises. This solution is synchronised with the natural surrounding of the landcape. The houses are sunk into the ground and covered with green roofs which hide them in the area and provide natural protection from heat loss.
The mobility of the bedroom is possible thanks to a movement system based on steel construction and hydraulic telescopic cylinder which docks the room to the base construction of the guests’ house. The movement system is at the first stage of investment designed as mechanical and the movement is enabled by vehicles. In the future the system may be replaced by an independent system based on waymo which can be controlled with the use of an application by the guests.
The project shows a dwelling house with hosts and staff’s areas, public toilets with sauna for the guests and reception in the lower part of the premises. The spaces for the hosts and the staff are connected with the guests’ houses by a network of firm gravel paths. The buildings are conjoined but at the same time each of them seems independent.
The third designed building is a horse shed which can be used by everybody present not only during bad weather. The shed which is, in fact, a building complex consists of a shelter for horses, a utility room, a small kiitchen which can be used by the guests and a glass cube with a terrace, which is perfect for observing the sky and the northern lights in all weather conditions, and relax/playground area. In the daytime the cube is a greenhouse which generates solar power.
All three areas meet in the garden which is a system of living machines responsible for filtering the greywater produced in the premises. The trees are planted in order to represent the idea of the system. Moreover, ecological solutions providing water and energy, i.e. hvac systems (photovoltaic links), solar collectors, heating pumps, rainwater cisterns are highly recommended.
