~speculative
2018 - 

LAVAFORMING

Lavaforming is Iceland´s Pavilion for the 19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia 2025

What if structures emerge straight from the earth's crust and if the buildings of the future are created from the materials that are available, transformed by the energy and resources that can be found in their immediate environment? How do the most natural structures on Earth look like? Lavaforming is a story of a future society that has managed to harness lava flow and found ways to use it as a building material. During the time of Snorri Sturluson, when Reykjanes last erupted, a volcanic eruption must have been an otherwordly event. In our story, placed in 2150, we have harnessed the lava flow, just as we did with steam power 200 years earlier in Iceland. We look back at history for events that influenced development, but the goal with our story is to show that architecture can be the force that rethinks and shapes a new future. A lava flow can contain enough building material for the foundations of an entire city to rise in a matter of weeks without harmful mining and non-renewable energy generation. Lavaforming casts a light on how a local threat is transformed into a resource that addresses a global emergency.