ICELAND VOLCANO COFFEE SHOP
SUMMARY
Iceland Volcano Coffee Shop
DATE
03.2022 - 05.2022
LOCATION
Haverfjell, Iceland
TEAM
Zechariah Fung
TYPE
Competition - Entry
Each of the destinations in the Hverfjall area were created over the years through the use of geological movements and events, resulting in a dynamic landscape defined through extreme but consistent cycles of cold and heat. Pockets and fissures within the volcanic rock and lava flow become lakes, fissured streams for flora to grow. As one approaches Hverfjall along the main entrance road, the rough fauna slowly gives way to black volcanic gravel.
The buildings form and material embraces these geological metamorphoses - the two wings of the buildings slide past each other and meet at a "fault" that marks the main entrance.
PROGRAM / CONCEPT
Turf homes of Torfbaeir in Icelandic were the chosen vernacular since the days of original Viking settlement around 870 AD. These homes burrowed into the earth as protection against the winds; uncut stone and heavy timber formed the foundation and framing respectively and the turf was layered on top to insulate but also to camoflage into its surroundings. As settlements became larger and more permanent vernacular homes moved out of the earth to the characteristic colorful painted wood clad homes common throughout the Nordics.
As Iceland fully adopted the sleek and innovative modernist styles moving through the 20th century, rising concern for climate change meant also paralleled this movement meaning large expanses of steel and glass were no longer a given. CLT provides a modern example of that structural wooden framework that held up the turf homes, without the use of rapidly diminishing old growth timber. As that framework was buried under stone and became part of its surroundings, this project also uses its local material, black volcanic stone.
CONSTRUCTION
