Objective: Competition Submission for Bee Breeder’s Iceland Cave Tower Competition

The competition site is located in Northern Iceland near lake Mývatn. The site sits on Vogar farmland and boasts a ground fissure known as Vogagjá. This ground fissure is the result of seismic activity and is the tectonic divide between Europe and America. The Vogagjá fissure also boasts caves that house geothermal bathing pools. Competition participants were asked to propose a tower (a pinnacle or beacon in the landscape), a small visitors center/cafe, an observation platform and a walking path module. 

Cloudscape Codex responds to the site through the celebration of site-specific stone. White powder-coated rebar creates an ethereal mesh by encasing and suspending the local rock and volcanic obsidian. These gabion walls herald the existing topography, generate a secondary landscape and stitch the fractured ground. The walls also serve as a geothermal infrastructure to the cafe + visitor’s center. 

The floating path mitigates damage caused by frequent foot traffic and protects the precious landscape by elevating visitors off of the ground and guiding them to the bathing caves, the cafe + visitor’s center and the Skýgrind viewing platform. 

Skýgrind, which means “cloud frame” in Icelandic, spans the two tectonic plates and enables visitors the opportunity to directly engage with the fissure. The gabion walls are excavated from the Skýgrind at the point directly above the fissure leaving just the mesh and the path between the observer and the void of the fractured earth. Observers directly engage with the natural wonder and are fully engulfed in the steam filled atmosphere.

Collaboration with Jeffrey Wigen