MArch First Year Project by Wes J C Stone

STUDIO · DS11

REYKJAVIK · HALLMERKI WES · J · C · STONE W1729758

Iceland 1: 1.5 Million

Farm Location

West Iceland 1: 750,000

ARABLE LAND - SOIL EROSION

ICELAND

Extremely Severe Erosion

Severe Erosion

Considerable Erosion

Hight Temperature Field

Low Temperature Field

GEOTHERMAL FIELDS - BEDROCK

WEST · ICELAND

Geothermal Power Station

BINARIES · OPPOSED

Deforestation in Iceland began with the first settlers in the 5th century. Iceland’s natural resources were taken and large areas of land were given over to agriculture through the levelling of their historic forests. Cattle, sheep and pigs were the primary farming industries at the time as the animals were more hardy that crops and much more likely to survive the cold winters.

The mid-atlantic ridge, separating the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates, passes directly through the centre of Iceland. This means that the island is highly active with volcanoes, most notably Hekla, Eldgjá, Herðubreið, Eldfell and Eyjafjallajökull which erupted in 2010.

Today there are fewer than three hundred farms in Iceland, the majority of which offer ‘farm experiences’ where tourists can stay in the farmhouse and get a taste of what farming would be like on the island for a few days. Once the trees were cut the land became susceptible to frost heaving and wind erosion, preventing new plants from growing. It is estimated that around forty percent of Iceland was, at one time, forested however only 1.3% remain today. The Agricultural Research Institute in Reykjavik has identified three levels of erosion 1. Extremely Severe (Red) 2. Severe (Orange) 3. Considerable (Yellow) There is currently a large aforestation movement in Iceland with three million trees planted every year in an attempt to stabilize the erosion. The hope is that within the next hundred years Iceland will be able to grow new forests allowing industries to develop; producing biofuels and timber for construction. The trees are currently being grown in large greenhouses ready for planting in the national parks. New tree species are being introduced as they are hardier breeds and may survive the climate better before reintroducing the original Silver Birch, Juniper and Willows.

Although devastating on occasions, the natural environment has been the pull for many tourists and has boosted the local economy significantly. As well as the draw the environment has for the rest of the world; it is also harnessed in a number of ways to produce electricity and hot water. Reservoirs of water under the ground are heated by the tectonic activity. They are split in two distinct types, high temperature and low temperature fields. The low temperature fields are usually closer to the surface and provide less energy to the station. Reykjavik has almost reached the capacity of the low temperature fields around it, taking as much as they can without depleting the reserve. The use of geothermal energy places Iceland at the forefront of renewable energy innovation in the world. Started during the first world war when coal was rationed, farmers began to heat their houses from hot springs, this was then commercialised in the 1930 and fourteen bore holes were drilled to provide hot water to the first house. In 2000 the electrical, water and heating companies merged to provide combined hot water and electricity to Reykjavik using geothermal power to heat water and produce electricity. At present all homes have access to clean geothermal energy in the city and 54% of people living outside the city.

Bedrock <0.8m Years Bedrock 0.8 - 3.3m Years Bedrock 3.3 - 15m Years

Reykjavik 1: 25,000

Power Distribution Station

Reykjavik 1: 12,500

GEOTHERMAL DISTRICT HEATING - GREEN SPACE

REYKJAVIK BINARIES · OPPOSED

750MW of energy is provided to Iceland through geothermals. Geothermal power plants work by boring holes into heated pockets of water under the ground. The water is heated by the Eurasian and North American tectonic plates pulling apart, reaching temperatures of 380 °C at depths of over 2km. The hot water is pumped up into the power plant where the steam emitted from the boiling water turns a turbine to produce clean electricity. The left over water is then passed through a heat converter to warm clean water to heat the houses of Reykjavik. Excess hot water from heating Reykjavik’s homes is dumped into the ocean. Where this water is released, a beach has been created where people can swim in the water all year round. This beach has become the primary outdoor social space for the local people as the parks in the city are largely open spaces that are susceptible to wind and biting temperatures in winter. Rather than dumping the water however, some farmers have offered to take it to heat green houses on the outskirts of the city. An agricultural revolution has begun with hydroponics at its core. I will be looking to use the geothermal network with hydroponic growing to create a greenhouse that can present a solution to the food crisis currently experienced by the people of Iceland.

Existing Green Space

Existing Water

Book Shop

Historic Green Space

Historic Forest

CULTURAL CENTRES - FORESTS

CENTRAL · REYKJAVIK BINARIES · OPPOSED

Famously, only water can get Icelandic people to talk and only books can get them to leave their houses. Swimming pools are the centres of culture in Reykjavik where people go after work to meet with their friends and talk about big and small things. The other places they go are book shops where they can read both foreign and native publications. Highlighting these spots on the map gives a clear indication that the cultural centre of Reykjavik is on the North side of the peninsular. It important to highlight just how much deforestation has occurred in Iceland. The historic forests shown on the map above are taken from nineteenth century hand drawn maps. All of the maps drawn before that time were of such a small village that the forests were not visible. The original Norse drawings implied that the whole of this region was perhaps a forest. This would make sense as the area is provided with temperate winds coming from the gulf stream. The diagram below shows district one of Reykjavik with the original forest showing between the buildings, The four native species of tree; the juniper, rowan, silver birch and willow tree have mature heights of between ten and twenty meters. I have shown these heights as a new datum indicated with the red plane hovering above the city. In honour of the ancient forest and with an eye towards densifying the city, could this become a new datum for a contemporary Reykjavik?

Sauna

Swimming Pool

Geothermal Pool

Iceland

REYKJAVIK

THE · GROWING · LIBRARY / VAXANDI · BOKASAFN BINARIES · OPPOSED

The growing library will investigate ideas of cultural and technological identity in Reykjavik. The Icelandic people are treading the knifes edge, on one side is the economic ruin of the 2008 financial crash, and on the other is the soul sucking commercialisation of their tourist industry. With over 2.35 million visitors to Reykjavik (population 130 thousand) locals can be outnumbered by up to eighteen to one, making it difficult for the Icelandic people to hold onto their culture and heritage. They can not however, simply refuse tourism as the industry contributes over thirty percent to the country’s economy. How then do these people express their rich history and vision for the future? At pivotal moments in Iceland’s past, the people have looked back to their mythologised history, creating an identity for their future. This has not been done with the respectful and gentle touch required to bring the true message of these allegories back to life but has instead been an excuse to create new public holidays that are indiscernible from the over commercialised contemporary holidays of Christmas day, thanks giving or new years eve. An example of a reinvented cultural tradition is Thorrablót; the midwinter festival. Originally a celebration where subsistence farmers would come together and share in their remaining food during the harsh Icelandic

winters, Thorrablót was recreated after Iceland became independent from Denmark in 1918. This incarnation is not the sombre, self reflecting of a people living on the edge, surviving through co-operation and solidarity; but instead a festival of excess and drinking.

Sustainable Food

Oral Tradition

The Growing Library Hydroponics

were well educated, a cohesive society and more interested in personal honour through good deeds than by waging wars.

My proposal will bring together two aspects of Icelandic culture, one from their past and one for their future. From the past I want to bring the sagas into the fore, expanding and developing the rich oral tradition of storytelling; and for the future I will look at the opportunities for indoor growing through hydroponics and greenhouse technologies.

It was thought that the sagas were an oral tradition however, although the sagas were read aloud, recent research has found that they were in fact written on vellum from their inception. These stories were then written and rewritten until the thirteenth century when they were compiled into the sagas that we know now. Over one thousand eight hundred pages of the original sagas were returned to Iceland from Denmark after they became independent however they are not currently on public display. The closest the people of Iceland can get to the historic documents are printed translations and the waxworks in the Sagas Museum.

Reading Reykjavik has the highest publishing rate of any city in the world with over 1155 books published annually. One in ten Icelanders will publish a book in their lifetime. This long-standing literary tradition dates back to the 13th-century sagas, which represent a beginning of Icelandic national identity. These intricate stories tell of complex socio-political events during the first settlement of Iceland in the 9th to 11th centuries. Although allegorical in nature, they are filled with nuance and the characters are often presented with a dichotomy. When compared with the tales of King Arthur, written at the same time, the sagas tell us that the people of Iceland

Growing Before the first settlers arrived in Iceland, the island was covered with forests of juniper, silver birch, rowan and willow trees. The forests were quickly cut for timber and the land made arable for sheep and goats to graze. Without the cover of the trees, wind erosion has diminish the top soil so that only 0.7% of Iceland’s surface in now arable.

Library

Iceland is dependent on foreign trade for food with imports costing over half a billion pounds a year. The problem arises from the lack of farm land in the country after the majority of farmers abandoned their farms in the inter war period to move to the cities. There is also a law stating that no foreign imports can be sold at a lower price than home grown food which raises that price of many fruits and vegetables. This has a negative effect on the people of Iceland and prices some tourists out of visiting. Now that the district heating system has been completed and there is an abundance of hot water, some small shops and homes have invested in heated green houses and hydroponics. This technology allows people to grow species that would otherwise die in the wilds of Iceland, and slacken their dependency on foreign trade. I am interested in creating a market where food can be grown in artificial greenhouses using hydroponics technologies and then sold both raw and cooked to the local community. With classes on how to prepare food in traditional ways and open markets, I hope to engage the public’s interest in where their food comes from and how they can help to develop a food industry in Iceland. The space will comprise of kitchens, growing centres, seating areas and open foyers for weekly markets.

THE · GROWING · LIBRARY

GROWING · LIBRARY · HALL 1:50 ·

SECTION

DS11

CITY · UP · CLOSE WES · J · C · STONE W1729758

1. The Growing Library, New Miรฐborg Town Centre Wes J C Stone

5 3

2. Paper Mill Derin Fadina 3. Crispr Research Facility Gavin Yau 4. Painting Studios Esther Medina Llamas

6 7

5. Forge and Workshops Josh Smith 6. Secular Crematorium Ross Ridges 7. Mountain Experience Centre Anthony Seynor 8. Spa Raluca Rimboaca

Sagas Museum