ARCHITECTURE IN MOTION A research station in dialog with the Vatnajรถjkull glacier
Asger Skov Rasmussen Studio 2A Student no // 4001981 Supervisor // Thomas William Lee Spring 2019
Table of contents 1 Abstract 2 Personal motivation 3 Substance 4 Movement 5 Mercury & Vulcan 7 The movement of Iceland 10 The heat 12 The water 14 Human movement 18 VatnajÜkull’s movement 20 The fire 22 24 26 28 30
The glacier The supernatural glacier The imaginative glaciologist The tools & depiction I Anagogical model
31 33 34 35
The study trip Traces of motion Traces of scale The site
37 3 Typologies 38 The turf house 40 The wooden house 42 The concrete house 46 II Anagogical model 47 Program 53 References 54 Bibliografi Apendix // 57
Extract from a hypothetical dairy
Abstract The project started out as a dialogue between, the dynamic nature and prudence science – between the imaginative and the systematic. It soon became a discussion of how architecture can connect the two.
The site is in the valley between the tall black mountains of Hafrafell and Skaftafell, at the retreating border between the Vattnajökull glacier and the expanding delta, on south east Iceland.
The program is a research station for natural scientists exploring the secrets of the retreating glacier. A shelter for fantasy and work in the nearness of the glacier.
The architecture stages the mythical movement of nature by staying. Staying means making nature inhabitable, and staging means making visible.
”Nearness, it seems, cannot be encountered directly. We succeed in reatching it rather than by attending to what is near” Heidegger for architects p.25
1
Personal motivation The project is grounded in a personal interest in exploring how architecture can reconnect people to nature. A connection that has been challenged by growing urbanization and digitalization. When traveling I have always been fascinated by my meetings with people living in remote and powerful cosmic landscapes. People in strongly tied communities whose perception of life is shaped by the exposure to a vast and often mythical landscape. Through this project I wish to investigate; both the pragmatic and phenomenological aspect of settling in a site like the edge of the Vatnajökull glacier. A context which is everchanging between light and heavy, quick and slow, calm and harsh.
”Give me a place to stand, and I shall move the world ”
Archimedes
2
Substance There are thousands of scientists from all over the world and in all fields of science, that use the glaciers and the traces they leave to understand the past and present climate and to get a sneak peek into the climate of the future. A climate they are predicting to become more dynamic. A climate where droughts and rising sea-levels will force millions to seek new places to live. To make these predictions onsite research is crucial.
By returning to the physical present of the natural phenomena the scientist passionately studies, fantasies and wonder together with the scientist’s extensive knowledge can push the scientific field forward. The nearness of the mystical glacier ignites the mind in ways that the huge amount of data they receive from satellites can’t.
Currently as the scientists collects the data in desperate need of dwellings. Presently their only available inhabitations are small tents that are far from suiting in a dynamic climate and old barracks that once were placed next to the research site but now lays far from the retreating glacier. A research station that stays in the proximity of the contracting glacier is the key to collect, analyze and share data efficiently. It helps not losing precious time on transportation through the difficult moraine terrain to and from the glacier and making sure that knowledge is shared among the many scientists that work on and near the glacier. Another vital aspect of the research station is the need to strengthen the scientific, bodily and mythical bond between the scientist and the nature.
3
Movement Moving: a verb describing a change that is perceived spatial. The word movement itself has many interesting layers. Movement // muːvm(ə)nt/
- The act of moving - A change or development - A group of people working together to advance their shared political, social or artistic believes - A principal division of a longer musical work, self-sufficient in terms of key, tempo, and structure. 1 Movement is always experienced in relation to a point of reference, an anchor point. A spatial anchor point like the starting line of a race A cosmic anchor point like the stars and horizon A personal anchor point of believe from which the world is perceived. Even though time and distance – the two components making up the physical definition of speed – are constant, movement is still experienced relatively.
”The relativity of time is the subject of a folktale known almost everywhere: a journey to another world is made by someone who thinks it has lasted only a few hours, though when he return, his village is unrecognizable because years and years have gone by. ”2 Festina Lente // Hurry Slowly. 4
Mercury & Vulcan Italo Calvino writes in his book “Six Memos for the next millennium” About movement; The displacement from one point to another or one state of mind to another, is always in relation to a fixed point of measuring. Calvino argues that movement is in fact two sided in this regard. Movement will only become bearing with meaning if it is both responsive and systematic and rigidus. In Roman mythology are two gods, the brothers Mercury and Vulcan, sons of Jupiter. Mercury is the god of communication and meditation. He is sharing messages between the gods and from heaven to earth. He represents agility and lightness with his winged feet with which he can be light, airborne, agile, adaptable, and free, he can easily bring communication between the gods and humans.
“Shut up in his smithy, where he tirelessly forges objects that are the last word in refinement: Jewels and ornaments for the gods”” to Mercury’s areal flight, Vulcan replies with his limping gait and the rhythmic beat of his hammer.”2 Mercury represents syntony when he in harmony responses to the environment. Vulcan represents focalization when he with his hammer brings the agility of Mercury into focus. Vulcan’s precise and systematic craftmanship is needed to record Mercury’s adventures and agility. Mercury’s swiftness and mobility is needed to make Vulcan’s endless labors become bearers of meaning.
While Mercury with agility flies around in the sky, his brother does not even live in the heavens nor the surface of the earth. He is the god of fire, Vulcan, and he lures deep in the craters of earth.
Mercury Mercury &Vulcan Vulcan &
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6
Jan Mayen // N 71°06 W 08°12 // Population 0
The movement of Iceland
Iceland // N 64°01 W 16°41 // Population 357.050
Iceland is born by movement. The continental plates of North America and Europa have been drifting apart. Giving birth to several islands along its ridge with Iceland being the biggest and most populated of them. The continental plates have been moving away from each other with 25 mm each year for millions of years. Letting out magma from the center of the earth into the ocean.
Azores // N 38°28 W 28°24 // Population 245.746
Until the magma 16.5 million years ago reached the surface of the ocean creating Iceland.3 The traces of rapid geological movement are found all over Iceland. Huge volcanoes and volcanic landscapes appear along the active rifts. From the central highlands enormous amounts of water are transported through rivers and glaciers towards the shore. These movements have affected the Icelandic history, culture and architecture since its settlement.
Saint Peter and Paul Rocks // N 0°55 W 29°20 // Population 0
Ascension Island // S 07°59 W 4°25 // Population 806
Saint Helena // S15°57 W 5°41 // Population 4534
Tristan da Cunha // S 37°05 W 12°17 // Population 293
Gough Island // S 40°20 W 10°00 // Population 0
Bouvet Island // S54°24 E 03°21 // Population 0
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Volcanoes Craters Faults, Eruptive fissures Holocene lava Active rifts Fraucture zone Interplate Volcanic belt
Cities
Bárðarbunga
2014
26
1
Reykjavik
124,847
+5
1
2
Grímsvötn
2011
58
2
Kopavogur
35,966
+13,4
2
Main road
3
Eyjafjallajökull
2010
2
3
Hafnarfjörður
29,409
+9,7
3
4
Hekla
2000
24
4
Akureyri
18,542
+4,8
4
Road
5
Krafla
1984
12
5
Reykjanesbær
17,555
+24
5
6
Vestmannaeyjar
1973
4
6
Garðabær
12,912
+13,1
6
Ferry
7
Kverkfjöll
1968
6
7
Mosfellsbaer
10,225
+18,2
7
8
Askja
1961
10
8
Selfoss
7,564
+16,2
8
9
Esjufjöll
1927
1
9
Akranes
7,249
+9,6
9
10
Eldey
1926
6
10
Seltjarnarnes
4,575
+5,9
1
11
Katla
1918
21
11
Vestmannaeyjar
4,284
+1,5
1
12
Loki-Fögrufjöll
1910
1
12
Grindavík
3,319
+16,2
1
13
Þórðarhyrna
1903
4
13
Ísafjörður
2,625
0
14
Öraefajökull
1727
2
14
Álftanes
2,586
+8,1
15
Torfajökull
1477
3
15
Sauðárkrókur
2,574
16
Reykjanes
1211
2
16
Hveragerði
2,564
+12,1
17
Krísuvík
1188
5
17
Egilsstaðir
2,464
+7
18
Brennisteinsfjöll
1000
4
18
Húsavík
2,323
+4,3
19
Ljósufjöll
960
1
19
Borgarnes
1,962
+11,5
20
Langjökull
955
2
20
Sandgerði
1,753
+13,4
21
Höfn
1,677
-0,8
Airport International flight City Glaciers Waterfall
8
Volcanoes 1
0
1
9
The heat
The continuous split between the North American and European continental plates has since the birth if Iceland pacified old volcanoes and created new ones. The Icelandic landscape is clearly marked by these powerful geothermal conditions. On the surface there are marks of the tension, fields of lava, and craters – all indications of the activity happening underneath the surface. In the last 500 years 1/3 of the global lava output came from the Icelandic volcanoes.4 A total of 20 volcanoes have erupted in a total of 194 times since the first Norsemen settled in 874.
10
Bárðarbunga
2014 26 N // 64o63’ W // 17o53’
Grímsvötn
2012 58 N // 64o42’ W // 17o33’
Eyjafjallajökull
2010 2
Hekla
2000 24 N // 63o99’ W // 19o67’
Krafla
1984 12 N // 65o73’ W // 16o78’
N // 63o63’ W // 19o62’
Vestmannaeyjar 1973 4
N // 63o43’ W // 20o25’
Kverkfjöll
1968 6
N // 64o65’ W // 16o72’
Askja
1961 10 N // 65o03’ W // 16o75’
Esjufjöll
1927 1
N // 64o27’ W // 16o65’
Eldey
1926 6
N // 63o42’ W // 23o10’
Katla
1918 21 N // 63o63’ W // 19o06’
Loki-Fögrufjöll
1910 1
N // 64o48’ W // 17o80’
Þórðarhyrna
1903 4
N // 64o16’ W // 17o37’
Öraefajökull
1727 2
N // 64o00’ W // 16o65’
Torfajökull
1477 3
N // 63o93’ W // 19o18’
Reykjanes
1211 2
N // 63o89’ W // 22o52’
Krísuvík
1188 5
N // 63o93’ W // 22o10’
Brennisteinsfjöll 1000 4
N // 63o92’ W // 21o83’
Ljósufjöll
960 1
N // 64o86’ W // 22o20’
Langjökull
955 2
N // 64o75’ W // 19o98’
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The water All around Iceland you can feel the energy of the water present. A looming storm that suddenly occurs. A crack of the mythical glaciers and a roar of the powerful rivers and waterfalls. Water gets frozen into giant glaciers, that over thousands of years creep slowly and with prudence from the high altitude of the central highland towards the shore. Running water is guided into huge and powerful rivers which swifts in more imaginative ways through the landscape and down tall waterfalls rushing into huge calm lakes and river deltas.
12
Glaciers
km2 height
1
Vatnajökull
8300
2109
2
Langjökull
953
1360
3
Hofsjökull
925
1765
4
Mýrdalsjökull
595
1493
5
Drangajökull
160
925
6
Eyjafallajökull
78
1666
7
Tungnafellsjökull
48
1535
8
Þórisjökull
32
1350
9
Eiríksjökull
22
1672
10
Þrándarjökull
22
1236
11
Tindfjallajökull
19
1462
12
Torfajökull
15
1190
13
Snæfellsjökull
11
1446
Waterfall
height m3/s
1
Glymur
190
127
2
Dynjandi
146
xxx
3
Hengifoss
129
85
4
Háifoss
121
212
5
Seljalandsfoss
65
59
6
Skogafoss
62
509
7
Dettifoss
44
16140
8
Gullfoss
32
7135
9
Hrauneyjarfoss
29
9000
10
Hjalparfoss
13
339
13
Human movement Icelanders lived for a long time entirely in smaller isolated settlements. People lived a humble life as farmers or fishermen, a life that depended on the mercy of the hostile and dynamic climate they had settled in. The modest attitude affected their way of life and their building culture in the past and present. Traveling between the smaller settlements and cities was mainly done by horseback or boat in the poor country. The traveling time eventually declined, with the growing infrastructural network of paved roads, that was finally completed into one big closed loop of roads in 1974, when the last bit was built across the everchanging Vatnajokull delta. The Icelandic people has come to terms with this landscape in motion. Different public institutions are constantly trying to monitor the glaciers, volcanoes, rivers and weather to predict the displacement of materials in order to protect its citizens.
For this reason, the Road Administration always has a stock pile of materials to rebuild 100-300 meter of road at any time. A humble attitude towards the mighty nature, where a manmade object has its limits and the natural behavior of decay and devastation has been accepted.
Cities
pop.
%
1
Reykjavik
124,847
+5
2
Kopavogur
35,966
+13,4
3
Hafnarfjörður s9,409
+9,7
4
Akureyri
18,542
+4,8
5
Reykjanesbær 17,555
+24
6
Garðabær
+13,1
7
Mosfellsbaer 10,225
+18,2
8
Selfoss
7,564
+16,2
9
Akranes
7,249
+9,6
10
Seltjarnarnes 4,575
+5,9
11
Vestmannaeyjar4,284
+1,5
12
Grindavík
3,319
+16,2
12,912
13
Ísafjörður
2,625
0
When the government has roads build they are aware of the natural forces, the motions and movements of the glaciers and its connections to Iceland.
14
Álftanes
2,586
+8,1
15
Sauðárkrókur 2,574
0
16
Hveragerði
+12,1
17
Egilsstaðir
18
Húsavík
2,323
+4,3
“we know when we build a bridge it will not last”5
19
Borgarnes
1,962
+11,5
20
Sandgerði
1,753
+13,4
21
Höfn
1,677
-0,8
14
2,564 2,464
+7
15
16
17
Vatnajökull’s movement On the southeast of Iceland is the 8300 km2 Vatnajökull.6 The glacier slowly shifts between expanding and contracting, freezing and melting, effecting the delta tremendous. As the glacier retreats, hills of sediment are left behind. The piles of information work as an anchor point in the borderland between the glacier and the delta The melting water from the glacier rushes by the hills and develops powerful rivers, that each year cuts new and imaginative routes through the plains, crossing through and overlapping the pervious years’ rivers, leveling out the hilly moraine into the vast black plain. The annual change from settlement to sediment and rapid storms, changes land from fertile to barren and barren to fertile. Out in the open insects and animals constantly adapt to the changing environment. Along the edge of the delta, where the climate is the calmest, people has settled. You would not think the extremely barren and hostile place could or would support human life, but even in this remote area traces of human activity are leading back to the first settlers of Iceland. The sagas describe the lives of the first Icelanders in the area. Old maps and pictures show people’s eager to document and understand the landscape and its inhabitants. The placement of houses, fields and roads reveal where people have read the landscape to be most habitable. 18
1 A view to a kill
1985
2 Tomb raider
2001
3 Batman begins
2005
4 Faust
2011
5 Game of thrones
2012
6 The secret life of walter mitty
2013
7 Dilwale
2015
1 Skaftafell
Njáls saga
1
2 Svinafell
Droplaugar saga
1
Njáls saga 15 3 Hnappavellir
Flómanna saga
1
Njáls saga 1 4 Ingélfhöfði
Njáls saga
4
5 Breiðá
Njáls saga
2
6 Kálfafell
Njáls saga
2
7 Borgarhöfn
Njáls saga
2
8 Hornafjörður
Njáls saga
6
9 Bjarnanes
Njáls saga
2
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The fire
Sólarlag
Sólarupprás
The claiming of land was originally made by lighting a bonfire during sunrise, running out across the land the entire day, and then lighting another fire during sunset; the area covered between the bonfires, was then rightfully yours.7 Established boundaries and anchor points in an otherwise infinite landscape and was determent by the physical capabilities of the human body. The setting of fire was an indication and a sign of human activity. As more fires were lit it became signs of the settler’s eagerness to pursuit a better life, in the many small settlements they established around Iceland. 20
�Alone now, we starts to notice more�
21
15
The glaicer Everything in nature is working toward an equilibrium a form of balance or harmony. The glacier is the result of one of these large equilibriums. If more snow falls tan melts in one area it starts to accumulate. Over years new layers of snow will increase the weight of accumulated snow, slowly squishing the lowest snow into densely packed crystal-clear glacier ice. It eventually becomes so heavy that it begins to creep down the mountain or plateau it was resting on, creating a glacier. As the glacier creeps downward into a warmer climate evaporation increases, and the natural equilibrium is found once again as the accumulation and evaporation reaches balance. This equilibrium of the glacier is a slow but relatively fast indicator of the earth climate changes in the future. The scientific interests in glaciers and their movements are many, because they have collected and obtained information over centuries that can be used to understand the past, present and future climate.
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The thousands of scientists that use the glaciers to peek into the future have estimated that the dynamic change in nature will force up to 200 mio. people to move in the next three decades due to droughts and rising sea levels. 8
This emphasizes the importance of onsite research and the need to rethink architecture to responded to the dynamic need of the scientist and the near future.
udalu r Mö ð r ftafje Ska
“tradition says that long ago the glaciers were much smaller than they are today, and that there were once a route passing across the highland of the Vatnajökull glacier connecting the farm at Skaftafell with the farm Mödrudalur 170 km north.”10
ll
Due to global warming the Vatnajökull glacier has since it peaked in 1890, been contracting in an accelerating pace and scientists estimate that the glacier has lost 60 km3 of glacier ice in this period.9 Shrinking into the size it had in the warm period when the island was first settled.
When and if this route will emerge again is uncertain. At the moment it is predicted that Vatnajökull, may contract between 15 and 35 km from its current position at the Skaftafell outlet over the next 150 years, and that it might be completely melted in 200 years.11
m/
35 k
150
15 km /
s
year
s
150 year
23
The supernatural glacier People has for a millennium lived on all the inhabitable continents at the feet of glaciers. The dependence of the giant glacier’s ability to store and give water has made glaciers religious anchor points for the people in the valleys. The life-giving ice and water have been understood as super-natural, as the source of life, which should be respected and treasured. A strong bond has been created between the glacier and the people depending on it; A relationship that is revealed in rituals, prayer and celebration of glaciers around the world. The Karakoram mountain range in the western part of the Himalaya is largely covered by glaciers. For a long time the villagers have identified the glaciers which their life depends upon with human characteristics. The female glaciers are perceived as the divine mothers of live. 12 In Peru the mountains and glaciers are believed to have natural powers and are spoken of as living gods. The ice is harvested with great difficulty, because it is believed to bring luck, have medical effects, and the lands irrigated with its holy water are to be very fertile.
24
On Iceland are tails of the magical troll people, Huldufólk. They live as part of the ferocious and figurative Icelandic landscape, inside the cracks of the mountains and glaciers. The mind must wander in the long dimly lit winter nights, allowing a vivid imagination to fill the gap between the known and unknown with magical creatures that occur as part of the rough and beautiful environment surrounding them. The Icelandic landscape was therefore to be respected and not disturbed. When this respect to the dangerous landscape is not kept the consequences can unfortunately be fatal. Many have been allured by the glacier’s beauty and their own rashness and eagerness to explore it. While walking through the labyrinthic surface of the glacier large cracks can trap you to a sudden death of hypothermia.
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The imaginative glaciologist Etymonoly: from latin glaciës (ice) logy (study of)13 Humans dependent on glacier water for survival and the glacier’s supernatural and immense present, has sparked peoples curiosity to reveal it’s hidden secrets captured by the glacier’s ice. This knowledge has not been easy to reveal. Heavy equipment has been dragged onto long and enduring expeditions in remote mountains. Here the mind has wandered off and fantasized of the being, creation and future of these vast creeping landscapes, while precise data meticulously has been noted and catalogued.
”…there is no protection against the large quantities of snow falling, and that form the most superficial layers of a glacier…[]. It’s a common knowledge that a glacier is composed by many different layers lying horizontally, as the snow when falling and accumulating becomes hard and crystallizes...[].”14 The first description of a glacier is from the Greek geographer Strabo 63 B.C. - 23 A.D.
26
This common knowledge was later lost, and to fill the gap between known and unknown a more imaginary interpretation of the glacier evolved. In Inferno, Dante describes the ninth circle of the underworld like a glacier; A frozen wasteland with an underlying river, Cocytus, where demons, damned souls and Satan himself lived, trapped in the ice. The imagination and fascination never disappeared from glaciology. The Father of modern glaciology, Louis Agassiz, was on vacation in Switzerland visiting a friend, and the two went up to an Alpine glacier to look around. There they wondered how large stones, that didn’t appear in the normal geology were found in this area. They imagined the valleys being full of ice and the struggle of the earth whose climate was pulsating between a warm age and an ice age.14 In the nearness of these landscapes a tension emerges between the supernatural and agile imaginative and the prudence reasoning of the schematic science, a tension that has elevated science to new heights many times.
5
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Sample
The imaginative glaciologist 27
The tools & depiction The field work of a glaciologist, biologist and geologist was a very physically demanding work. In 1853 all geologists of the Austrian Geological Survey were required to carry a list of heavy equipment during field explorations. Equipment the Austrian geologist Marcus Vinzenz Lipold carried while mapping the area surrounding the Großglockner (3.797m) in only one day. A task that demanded him hiking a height difference of 2.700m and a linear distance of 28 kilometers.15 Today digital tools are used to depict the glacier and its surroundings, making the research more precise and less strenuous. Many kilometers above the glacier are satellites providing images for measurements of distance, mass and movement. This gives a larger and more precise picture of the glaciers and the landscape underneath them, sending a huge amount of data around the world, to scientists who in collaboration analyses it; to push the scientific understanding closer to resemble reality.
“But even though the science of the day presumably affords our best estimate of the truth of things, it is still an imperfect estimate” 16 Just like the tools of natural science have changed over time, so has the depicting methods.
28
Today the depiction is purely scientific. Showing the data collected about the glacier and its surroundings, in the most precise objective manner possible. In graphs and equations, that allows the scientist to place an even finer mathematical system over the natural phenomena. Even though the science may have evolved in terms of mathematical precision, the graphs and equations have not been able to show the meeting between the scientists and nature and the endurance and effort it takes to collect the data. In this regard the scientists have written themselves out of the tales of their field in the aim of objectivity. Whereas in the early depiction the scientists were heroically shown as brave explorers, right up close to the mighty glaciers in the vast and supernatural landscape. In these depictions science is still connected to a storytelling of the mysteries. The modern digital tool has in many ways surpassed the human body. The digital tool can be positioned in places where human can’t survive, it can obtain larger amount of more precise information than man can and share it at any time with anybody and with greater precision. But it does not have the capability of human fantasy and wonder, that is sparked by the scientist’s nearness to roaring nature on the long strenuous fieldtrips, a nearness which has the capability revolutionizing science.
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I Anagogical model The first concept model was thought of as a tool, that explores and highlights the tension between the boundary of the tangible and intangible. We have always tried to grasp the delightful mysterious process in nature, through stories, religion, art and science letting ideas and fantasies fill the gaps of the unknown.
30
Scientists have for centuries looked for traces and patterns with the precision of Vulcan and developed an even finer system to explain the process behind the playful natural phenomena they experience. A system that would be constant throughout the universe and describe our reality as precise as possible. In the model a light, addable and adaptable system is acting as both a tool of measuring the movement of the context and as the rigid system that meets an organic mass establishing a close contact.
The study trip It was from the beginning of the thesis project important for me to understand and experience the landscape and building culture of Iceland and through interviews with scientists get a closer understanding of the importance of onsite research and how it is conducted. I wanted to not only to experience Iceland from a distance, but to get closer and feel the immense present of this powerful nature, like the scientists on an expedition. A meeting that would develop the project enormously and question my previous understanding of time and scale.
In solitude I was struck by the immense beauty Icelandic landscape possesses, a beauty that later would reveal its true side. Its harshness and hostility. Settling in Iceland is not romantic, it is a battle for surviving.
“Anyone who has been lost on a mountainside in the mist or rain will appreciate the fear it can evoke” 17 The fear of nature might give a moment of awareness of our own present.
”Alone now, we starts to notice more” 17
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Traces of motion Everything in Iceland bear witness of tensions and forces that both creates and erodes. Many of the movements that have affected Iceland are themselves not visible to the naked eye, due to their slow nature. Through the traces we can imagine the power behind the movement. The speed of the motion behind many of these traces is difficult to determine. The cracks in the mountains does leave a powerful impression and it reveals the inner forces and movements on Iceland, but there is often no way of telling if the motion was fast or slow. The traces of motion rarely keep the information of time but only distance and direction. It is the same with the glacier, a motion and direction is revealed in the traces of tension on its surface. The retreat of the glacier may also be detected in the debris in front of the glacier, but the speed in which this happens is not shown. The timely layer is only documented through stories, monitoring and photos and is often unknown to the visitor. Another sign of movement is more present; up to 135 times a year, the glacier creates powerful and sudden extremely hostile dust storms.18
’The horizon disappears, as the grey storm surround the car. I was completely isolated as a static noise filled the car.’
”The measuring should happen in the context of a unity which binds life’s experiences together with the things they measure.” Heidegger for architects p. 83 33
Traces of scale Ever since the first settlers ran over the huge plains with fires to claim land, human interaction with this landscape has been done through systems that allow people to scale down the vast landscape to get a grasp of it. A finer grid is placed upon it, a grid that is relatable, and boundaries or anchor points are added in an otherwise endless landscape. ’The road is often the only visible manmade object, placed between the vertical mountains and the horizontal plains. It’s hard not to exceed the speed limit in this vastness. The car does not move according to the horizon and the near context is a replica of the one you just passed. The only rhythm is the 50-meter posts by the side of the road, straight lines of poles holding animal fences and lines of huge pylons caring the powerline over long distances.’
280 M
50 M
With rigid monotonous systems of repetitive rhythms and straight lines, the landscape is subdivided into relatable distances and with boundaries and anchor points the dwellings in the landscape are suddenly graspable. 5M
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The site On the southeast of Iceland, between the tall black mountains of Hafrafell and Skaftafell in-between which the part of the vast Vatnajökull called Skatfafell slowly creeping down towards the immense dark moraine plains. The research station is located at the foot of the retreating glacier.
Looking the other way towards the plain the fauna and animal life emerge over the years – a prove that even this hostile climate can sustain life.
Motion - and traces of motion is everywhere in this context. A context that both physically and emotionally moves you.
On their short stays to witness these nature phenomena, the tourists only get a superficial picture of the nature processes they are witnessing. They may see traces from the glaciers annual cycle, its abrupt carving of ice, and its steady retreat.
From the bottom of the glacier, is a long view up through the valley in which the glacier is now creeping along. A view that will change in the future as the glacier contracts. Between the glacier and the flat plains are low moraine banks that stretch parallel with the glacier front, only disconnected by streams of melting water that floats from the glacier towards the plains. On the collection of debris is the station point located – a meeting point between the glacier and the plains. From the research station and towards the glacier is the virgin soil and rock recently revealed by the glacier, a place of plants that animals have not yet had the chance to inhabit, an area of huge biological interest.
This remote part of Iceland is very scarcely populated but heavily visited by tourists.
A snapshot that doesn’t tell the story of the speed in which these processes occur. They lack a system to understand these natural processes. Without a steady beat like the polls at the side of the road or the knowledge of the scientist working at the glacier front, the glacier’s stories of past and future are never shared with the majority of people visiting them. The knowledge of the scientists could passionately be shared with the public, and the help of the many visitors could be used by the scientists.
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3 Typologies I chose to investigate and visit 3 building typologies on my study trip to Iceland, to understand how an Icelandic people has met, understood and inhabited this foreign landscape. The traditional Icelandic turf house, the prefabricated wooden house, and the concrete house. Even though Iceland was settled for more than a thousand years ago, the oldest remaining building is from the 18th hundred. Only archaeological ruins and written descriptions give an indication of what the houses of the legendary heroes of the Sagas were like.19 Ruins that tells stories of the opportunities people have seen in the unforgiving landscape and the sacrifices taken to inhabit it. The isolation has kept both the Icelandic language and building culture strongly tied to the culture of the island’s first Viking settlers. The turf house was the dominant building typology up until the 1800, then trading with the rest of Europa developed and new building typologies like wooden houses and later concrete houses became available.
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The turf house The first Viking settler came to Iceland around 870 AD, mainly from Norway, where the dominate building typology was turf houses made from soil, wood and stone. The earliest turf houses were single room houses with a fireplace in the main center aisle. Excavations of many ruins of abandoned turf houses, show that from the 14th to 17th centuries the turf house developed into more complex clusters of smaller rooms organized around a corridor. Each of the added rooms had its own turf house structure. The turf house reflects a harsh context with scars resources. The building is not dug into the ground, but rather covered with the ground. It’s heavy turf walls minimize the use of the precious wood, while its soft and curvy forms guide the cold wind around the compact building. In the summer large parts of the house were used as living spaces, but the long and cold winter was spent deep inside the turf house, all in the same room to keep warm, so that even body heat was not wasted. The transitory nature of the material meant that each building in the turf house cluster had to be rebuild regularly, each twenty-five to fifty years during the short Icelandic summer.
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874 first settlement
1100 sturlinga era
The turf house has a unique and refined natural architecture. As a whole the house underwent gradual changes in course of its lifetime. Expanding when times were good and contracting in hard times, thereby efficiently adapting to the inhabitant’s needs in the harsh context.
1400 Tunnel house
1800 The gableturf house
The protected introvert cluster, with its strong connection to the ground was a large inspiration, explored in drawings and models throughout this project.
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The wooden house With the development of trade, a new typology started to emerge in the prosperous capital, and other smaller trading harbors, where the transportation of wood was easiest. Already from the 1870, prefabricated wood houses were sailed from Norway to Iceland and soon after corrugated steel faรงades from England came. The prefabricated wooden frame, and the innovative steel faรงade, proved to have many practical advantages. The steel faรงade was easy to transport overseas, making it less expensive, waterproof and more fire resistance than the tarred wooden facade.19 The strong repetition of the module, and the idea of an independent transportable system of the Icelandic wooden house were inspirations developed in the upperpart and lighter element of this research station.
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4
4
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The concrete house Iceland was for a long time one of Europe’s least advanced countries. Almost all Icelanders lived in remote rural areas. The largely rural population lived primarily of primitive agriculture and fishing. Then the industrialization finally came to Iceland and drastically change the Icelandic society and created large migration to the cities. At the same time concrete was introduced to Iceland as the first material that was long lasting and could be built from local material. The durability of the concrete has left many concrete ruins scattered around Iceland. Like building cadavers where doors, windows, floors and roof have vanished, and only the concrete skull remains to tell a story from the past. The durability of materials can add layers of human activity and timearea. The story telling imbedded in ruins became a way to understand the glacier and its movements during the project.
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II Anagogical model The research was captured in a second anagogical model. Through my investigations of the scientist, Iceland and its building culture I came to understand the landscape of Iceland to shift from being sediment to settlement, from up in the air to settled and heavy, and the need of shelter from the roaring elements essential to survive. The performative model consists of a heavy protective base, and a light frame structure. The tool and base are two individual structures that depend on each other to sustain life. The base anchors the research station firmly to the ground. The frame structure works as a tool giving life to the base by opening and closing it according to the weather and reconnect the base to the hostile surroundings. If the tool is removed, the base will die, be left as a ruin and through the ruin leave a statement of a life that used to be.
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e yti
Hö
fu ðið í
Bl
gj
a
Program
VII
Mö ðru da lur
L eg
VI
Through the research phase with anagogical models and the hypothetical dairy (appendix), principals for the building program of the research station developed.
V
The research station as an anchor point
IV
The scientist and visitor need a man-made reference point, an anchor point, from which they individually and collectively can contemplate and understand nature.
11.03.2019 Sunrise // 7:34 AM Sunset // 6:48 PM Day lenght 11 H 14M 16.03.2019 Sunrise // 7:17 AM Sunset // 7:03 PM Day lenght 11 H 47 M
W
September March
II
E
October February I
November January
fjell
December
afta
“a horizon for man”” a place between earth and sky”20
July May
August April
Sk
Grounded to the earth and in relation to the cosmic horizon
Juni
III
The anchor point
”Fire and water have always been the focus for the place people gather. These elements are opposed in character and by their very nature social” Fjeld 1983 : 50
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Th VI I
ba lo eg I
VI II
IX
II
II I
IV
V
VI
l .60
1227 z //
.42
MH
1575 z //
MH
The mystical & enlightened I
The research station is developed into two individual structures that depend on each other to sustain life.
II
III
IV
V
VI
VII
VII
VI
V
IV
A heavy base and a light rigid frame structure. The introvert base anchors the research station firmly to the ground. The powerful nature wedges together with imaginative ideas into the heavy and grounded base where the scientist dwells. In the softly lined room, the scientist’s knowledge is questioned and evolved by the nearness of nature. The scalable and systematic frame structure orientates outwards, letting in light and the presence of the glacier, mountains and horizon. The structure work as a tool, that while attached to the base gives it life by opening and, to the sometime hostile nature, closing.
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II
I
Basalt // 3,011 ρ
The mystical & enlightened
”Fire and water have always been the focus for the place people gather. These elements are opposed in character and by their very nature social” 48
The local
“A place to be”
Fjeld 1983 : 50
VII
f d
Scientia potentia est
The mind & body of the scientist
e
c a
b
During onsite research the scientist is in close contact with nature and a strong bond gets established. Back in the research station these connections are developed, through both the mind and the body of the scientist. Through physical and rough work with samples and equipment in the base, to the thoughtful and delicate analyzes and theoretical discussions in the tool.
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Embodied wisdom II
I
The nearness to nature is also strengthened by storytelling. After a long day in the freezing cold the scientists are gathered in the base around sources of heat. Myths and facts are shared by the fire or in the dimly lit sauna, sheltered from the cold.
The mind & body of the scientist
As the tools open to nature the scientific knowledge can be found in the nearness of the research station and passionately be shared amongst the scientists and to curious visitors of the station.
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The dynamic of the research station. The dynamic behavior of the nature questions the way we build and understand architecture as static. The faรงade facing the glacier needs to both fit the human body and the forces of the sometimes hostile glacier. The outer faรงade is made of large and robust elements operated by machines to open and close according to the changing climate, while the inner facades is lined with a softer and human scale. Together can the double faรงade change the station from completely sealed of in harsh weather to open and exposed when its calm. The retreat of the glacier also changes how a foundation is understood. As the glacier contract, and the vital nearness to the glacier diminish, the heavy base will be left behind. Adding a manmade layer to the many natural layer found in the valley. A new base will be constructed near the new position of the retreating glaciers front, and the tool will be disassembling and assembled again at the new base. Once again reconnecting the scientist to the nearness of the glacier, a testament of time and human persistence and curiosity to revile the glacier secrets and through them predict the future. 50
560 m
2065 N // 64o08’ W // 16o95’
2050
7.5
5.0
km
km
2035
2.5
km
100 m
2019
N // 64o W // 16o85’ Skaftárhreppur 68 km // 48 min
Hofn 133 km // 1 t. 42 min
1:20.000 51
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References 1 Oxford Dictionaries | English. (2019). movement | Definition of movement in English by Oxford Dictionaries. [online] Available at: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/movement [Accessed 2 Jun. 2019]. 2 Calvino, I. and Brock, G. (1985). Six memos for the next millennium. 10th ed. p.37 and 53. 3 Encylopædia Britannica | English. (2019). Iceland by Encylopædia Britannica. [online] Available at: https://www.britannica. com/place/Iceland [Accessed 2 Jun. 2019]. 4 Waugh, David (2002). Geography: An Integrated Approach. p. 16.
United Nations University. [online] Available at: https://unu.edu/media-relations/media-coverage/climate-migrants-might-reach-one-billion-by-2050. html [Accessed 2 Jun. 2019]. 9 Björnsson, H. (2015). Changes in the southeast Vatnajökull ice cap, Iceland, between 1890 and 2010. p.574 10 Icelandictimes (2019). The Troll-wives of Skaftafell Available at: https://icelandictimes.com/troll-wives-skaftafell/ [Accessed 2 Jun. 2019]. 11 Vatnajokulsthjodgardur (2005). Modelling studies Available at: https://www. vatnajokulsthjodgardur.is/en/areas/ melting-glaciers/glaciological-research/ modelling-studies [Accessed 2 Jun. 2019].
5 Matthíasson, Pétur. Public relations manager. Icdeland Road Administration, interview with smudge studio, Reykjavík, Iceland, May 5, 2012. 6 Fraedrich, W. and, Heidari, N. (2019). Iceland from the West to the south. p.76. [online]
12 TEDx Talks (2017). Glaciers, Gender, and Science: We Need More Stories of Ice. | M Jackson | TEDxMiddlebury Available at: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=e4R5-y0Dc1s&t=662s [Accessed 2 Jun. 2019].
7 Pyne, S. (2001). Iceland’s Relationship with Norway c.870 – c.1100: Memory, History and Identity. p.37
13 Oxford Dictionaries | English. (2019). Glaciology | Definition of movement in English by Oxford Dictionaries. [online] Available at: https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/us/glaciology [Accessed 2 Jun. 2019].
8 Unu.edu. (2019). Climate Migrants Might Reach One Billion by 2050 -
14 cryology and co (2010). The discovery of the ruins of ice Available at: http://
rockglacier.blogspot.com/2010/12/ discovery-of-ruins-of-ice.html [Accessed 2 Jun. 2019]. 15 cryology and co (2010). The hard life of being geologist -An introduction Available at: http://rockglacier.blogspot. com/2010/12/discovery-of-ruins-of-ice. html [Accessed 2 Jun. 2019]. 16 Rescher, N. (2005). Reason and Reality 1st ed. P. 122. 17 Sharr, A. (2007). Heidegger for Architects p.7 and 8 18 Olafusson, H. (2014). Snow-Dust Storm p.1 19 Cachola, P. (2011). Iceland and Architecture? p.11 and p.17 20 Tyrrell, R. (2018). Three paradigms of phenomenological architecture. p. 158
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Bibliografi Sharr, A. (2007). Heidegger for architects Cachola, P. (2011). Iceland And Architectur? Tyrrell, R. (2018). AALTO UTZON FEHN Three paradigms of phenomenological architecture Venturi, R. (1977). 2nd. ed. Complexity and contradiction in Architecture Kirkeby, P. (2001). Rejsen Til FÌrøerne Corner, J. (1996). Taking Measures across the american landscape Olaf Fjeld, P. (2009). Sverre Fehn the pattern of thoughts Calvino, I. and Brock, G. (1985). Six memos for the next millennium. 10th Norberg-Schulz, C. (1996). Nightlands
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Extract from a hypothetical dairy I read as a child a book about S. A. Andrée, Knut Frænkel and Nils Strindnerg, the three explorer that set out to be the first to fly to the northpole in a hot air balloon. The book was made of pieces from the tree men diary, telling a story about the eagerness to explore, the adventure of the voyage, and their catastrophic attempts to survive, after the hot air balloon had to land after only half to the distention. The “extract from at hypothetical dairy” was to me like the dairy from the Air balloon expedition, a way for me to get into the minds of the scientists when they are on onsite expeditions and though that the building program of research station. The Extract from a hypothetical dairy is based on information from interviews with glaciologist Nicolaj Krog Larsen associate professor at Aarhus university department of geoscience and Finnur Pálsson Research associate and project leader in glaciology at the Institute of Earth sciences in Reykavik. The dairy is also based on information I received from Gunnar Karl Sigurðsson, my guide on a hike in and on the Vatnajökull glacier, and my own experiences in Iceland.
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The preparation After three years of studying my passion of glaciology. I am finally going to see a glacier with my own eyes, to experience the it’s presents that I until this point only has been able to learn about, from a distance through books and data. For weeks have I with my teachers and fellow students from both my university and universities from other countries prepared for the excursion to the research station near the Vatnajökull glacier. Together with geologists and biologists am I going to investigate the new land that has been revealed by the glacier’s contractions in the last six months. The preparation has been meticulous, with long lectures with the newest knowledge and detailed stories from students that have been doing the same monitoring just six months earlier. It has been three years of studies and a lifetime of waiting to see the majestic glacier. Tomorrow my fellow students and I are flying to Iceland, to experience the nearness of the glacier and to create data that will gain to the common knowledge of our fields.
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Through the landscape I I spend last night going through the long packing list again and again. I was looking out of the window at the soft hills and lakes appearing in the landscape, as I sat in the train on my way to the airport. A similar type of landscape, my colleagues from Northern Germany, Poland, Holland, Belgium and large part of Great Britain would see on their way to their respective airport. I am in a few days going to study the very natural process that thousands of years ago shaped these landscapes. And what better way to understanding the glacier process of distributing sediment throughout its movements than to study it in real time?
Through the landscape II I met with my colleges outside Keflavik airport. Conversations of expectations and excitement soon flourished in the packed car, but silence soon came over us as our jaws dropped. A vast hostile landscape occurred as we drove over the mountains surrounding the Reykjavik plains.
All sense of scale disappeared, the horizon was so distant that we didn’t move according to it, and the fauna close to the road was so barren and homogenous, that it seemed like we didn’t move according to it either. The speeds driven in the intense morning traffic in Reykjavik now seemed surprisingly slow. I soon found an inner peace on this remote and isolated road and started to notice the small traces of movement from the natural process of creation that has happened over thousands of years. My colleagues and I all have an extensive knowledge of geology and the natural process that has shaped this landscape. The knowledge that was learned from a distance and through computer screens was suddenly elevated to a new level by the nearness of a landscape that cannot only be read about and interpreted through data but needs to be psychically explored to be fully understood. As the darkness dawned upon us, a glacier appeared in the horizon as a heavy white cloud crawling between the black mountains towards the plains. Their majestic present was not questioned or diminished by the darkness, the tall mountains or the vast plains.
In front of the glacier was a little light, a sign of human activity in this huge landscape, a light only allowed to be turned on by the mercy of the glacier. The research station came closer as we slowly drove through the rough moraine landscape on the gravel road. Small rocks and gravel were crackling under the car as we passed the former research station, left behind by the glacier, now working as a measurement of the glacier contraction and humans persistence to kept extracting knowledge from the glacier to further understand the climate of the future. The landscape was hidden in the dark but strong glacier wind kept reminding us of the enormous natural forces surrounding us as we entered the research station.
The morning The heavy gabion wall is protecting us from the cold and harsh weather outside. The stonewall is lined in the inside with wood, giving warmth and comfort, something you come to miss in this kind of landscape. I was imagining how the howling wind was trying to push the station on its side, as I was lying protected in the womb like alcove, imbedded into the wooden lining.
Window appears where the lining pushes through the gabion wall, guiding the morning sun in and connects me to the stunning landscape. On the other side of the large sliding door could I hear my colleges. I passed thought the hallway on my way to the kitchen. Between the heavy individual structures that together make up the base, are opening where the landscape wedges into. From the upper floor, extend a lighter stair and herbariums downwards, that greeted me up. It exhibited samples from previous exhibition that has been left behind, an indication of nature’s diversity even in the barren landscape. I greeted my colleges, some of which I have never seen before, but under these circumstances seemed close. Over coffee, breakfast and the washing of dishes were these social bonds stretched. The station is both used as a hiding place for the elements rowing, to calibrate yourself and your tools and to analyses data from the expedition. I could feel my colleges eagerness to share their personal experience of meeting the glacier. It made me smile thinking about how the connection with a bigger comic phenomenon has moved people.
From the other end of the station where the laboratories and offices are could voice be heard. Discussions of philosophy, theory and methods that with passion may elevate the science to new heights. In the lab. and offices is my colleges working long into the night to measuring and analyzing the sample and data taken on expedition to gain as much and precise data as possible. Analyses that will be shared with the scientific world and used to make last moment altering on tomorrows exhibitions. The nearness and passion for natural science really flourish in this remote hub at the feet of the massive glacier.
The glacier My expedition team meet for a briefed of the assignment of the day. What data we were aiming for, what kind of equipment is needed, our individual assignment on the fieldtrip, the latest weather report taken on the research station and the risks involved in going onto the glacier. I could feel the determination when people walk back and forward between the storage, workshop and garage, packing the snow scooters and specialized off road car, and doing the last check on the most
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vital equipment. Fuel and water was taken from large tanks just before the heavy gate was open and bright light overwhelmed the garage.
and I quickly realized how small and vulnerable I was. You truly were only alive on the mercy of the godly glacier.
In noticed, on the short walk to the glacier front, how the landscape became notice more barren compared to the landscape behind us where the former research station were placed a few kilometers back.
The glaciers beauty is unquestionable, and the mesmerizing desire to explore the supernatural phenomena is connecting with a deadly danger.
We sat up systems to investigate movement of the white blue glacier in the foreign landscape of black mountains or debris. The biologists were looking for how quickly life emerge after the glacier has contracted and plants and animals were carefully taken to be further analyzed at the station. The group of geologists were looking for traces of the rapid geological process happening in the area by looking into the layers of information hiding in the rocks. I Couldn’t stop feeling proud, as the team of glaciologist and I were fitting out spiked shoes, of the human eagerness to exploration, a curiosity that has and will push the science to new dimensions. The spiked shoes bide into the glacier as we walked up the glacier edge. On the vast eary semi-transparent glacier were all scale lost,
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The surface is scared by the huge inner tension reviled in crack, that runs long the surface. Some opening up alluring you to peek into them, a curiosity that can kill you, if you aren’t careful. The wind was strong as we dragged the heavy equipment over the scared surface. It was hard psychical labour to drill into the ice, to extract samples of the thousand-year-old ice.
high, then we enter the sauna after a warm shower. In the small and dimly light room were the experience shared over the crackling fire. After a while did a silence appears as we looked into the flames contemplating over what we had experienced.
The White out The wind was howling deeper and angrier than the many previous mornings. A dense snowstorm had completely paralyzed the station. The context was gone, and in the middle of this eternal whiteness where we trapped isolated from the world.
Over the next couple of weeks are we going to overlay the glacier with our system of drilling point and gps systems, to deeper understand the movement of the glacier and its content.
The atmosphere had change in the kitchen and around the fireplace, we all knew that we were only here at the mercy of the glacier, and this fact was very apparent today. While the element kept trying to lift and destroy the station did people gather in small groups and conversation that only could occur in this extreme kind of isolating started.
I was dead tired as we walked down the glacier back to the research station. My hands were lump from the exposure to the freezing wind. The sun sets as we entered the garage. We dried, cleaned and calibrated the equipment before putting it back in place. The mood was
This glacier wind is still angrily warning us of its power, as I lay in my bed. There wasn’t a group of people I rather would be trap with than this. Being isolated with a group that share so many passions and interest is in its one way a blessing.
Back at the office I think everyone that has experienced the forced and scale of such a nature is changes after it. The meeting with the earth’s comic power and time, made me small and mortal. It has elevated the way I see the world and my profession by building a bridge between the human time and scale and a cosmic world, a world we rarely notice in our daily life’s. The long days of demanding onsite work has added a layers of meaning to my work, a strong nearness to the glacier and an even bigger admiration for the glaciologists who in the past has sacrificed so much to extract the knowledge we today use to understand the future and the past.
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