Here, not just is knowledge fostered but lived. The forces behind the design drive every part of the building. The complex is made up of seven long wings, their form dictated by the winds. Between them, three big atriums breathe as spaces dug out by the flowing currents.
The entire complex is an extension of the Icelandic landscape, a place where the forces of nature are investigated.
The winds dictate the shape: Upward and sheer pressures organize the campus, dividing the ground, and creating the seven research wings. The resulting slabs are then lifted, frozen mid-air to house and shelter the program.
The prevailing direction of the winds and the descending pressures mold the roofs, orienting and bending the surfaces.
But it is the gusts and violent southern winds that bring unpredictability, injecting movement into the shapes. The rooflines shift, twisting, curving and sinking, as if caught in mid-motion, capturing the storm's sudden rage of turbulence.
Within these walls, knowledge is fashioned from the elements themselves. Wind, geothermal, and solar power studies are conducted within labs, workshops and prototyping spaces. Exhibition halls, an auditorium and educational spaces further the spread of that sustainable energy knowledge.
The same forces that build the architecture keep it operating: the power of air shapes the very curving roofs, wind-sculpted surfaces that become a landscape of solar panels, harvesting the sun's energy and fueling the work below. In the exterior, geothermal gardens display the process of harnessing the heat of the earth.
More than a research facility, the complex serves as a new landmark, projecting onto the waters of Reykjavik’s bay, and shining as the midnight suns’ new beacon. A place where individuals stay in the presence of raw, unbridled energy, and where the sources of the future's energy are not hidden but revealed, interwoven in public spaces, making nature's invisible forces almost tangible.
Here, when the fury of the winds cease, and the calm waters reflect the imposing canopies, there remains the wisdom produced within, fueled by the sun’s heat, celebrating the earth’s own movement, and sculpted by its relentless winds.
This energy is contained in the curving surfaces, freezing the mass in a moment of the tempest's fury, indelibly stamped in steel, glass, and timber. The sunken wings give space for the urban connections and the geothermal gardens, from which the rugged lines of the landscape originate.
Team: Andreas Palfinger, Ana Cyano, Aysin Sahin, Aryaman Garg, Nele Herrmann, Param Patel, Ankit Muhury, Gabriel Perucchi, and Luan Fontes.
