From ‘local threat to valuable resource’: Could Iceland’s lava be a sustainable building material?
An architecture studio in Iceland is proposing the use of lava as a building material.
Arnhildur Pálmadóttir of s.ap architects is presenting her project Lavaforming at the Venice Architecture Biennale next year. Her team, which specialises in sustainability and circularity in construction, is exploring how to turn the volcanic substance into a sustainable structural material. Pálmadóttir sees the process as a way to turn a “local threat” into a “valuable resource”.
Lava can become ‘a resource that addresses a global emergency’
Lavaforming will feature in Iceland’s national pavilion at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition in Venice next year.
The project is a “proposal on how the brutal force of lava can be turned into a valuable resource, capable of lowering atmospheric emissions through its future use as a sustainable building material,” Pálmadóttir says.
The architect observed how Iceland’s exceptional geological location on a rift between two tectonic plates causes frequent seismic activity including the creation of extensive lava fields. Throughout history, the island’s volcanic activity has been perceived as a local disturbance and a threat to communities.
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Instead, Pálmadóttir, who is nominated for the 2024 Nordic Council's Environmental Award for interdisciplinary collaboration in architecture and her focus on recyclable building materials, wants to transform lava into “a resource that addresses a global emergency”.
“In our story, placed in 2150, we have harnessed the lava flow, just as we did with geothermal energy 200 years earlier in Iceland,” says Pálmadóttir.
"The main goal of Lavaforming is to show that architecture can be the force that rethinks and shapes a new future with sustainability, innovation and creative thinking.”
‘A lava flow can create the foundation for an entire city’
The project presented at the Biennale is still a theoretical proposal, but Pálmadóttir has an ambitious vision for the volcanic resource.
“A lava flow can contain enough building material for the foundations of an entire city to rise in a mat ter of weeks without harmful mining and non-renewable energy generation,” the architect says.
“The theme is both a proposal and a metaphor - architecture is in a paradigm shift, and many of our current methods have been deemed obsolete or harmful in the long term.
“In our current predicament we need to be bold, think in new ways, look at challenges, and find the right resources.”