Introduction
Buildner is excited to announce the results of the Iceland Volcano Coffee Shop Competition! This event is part of Buildner’s Iceland Competition Series - past events have included the Iceland Greenhouse Restaurant competition, Iceland Cave Tower competition, Iceland Volcano Museum competition, among others.
For this event, Buildner, partnered with Landeigendur Voga, was calling for architects and designers to submit designs for a coffee shop that would be located at the base of the Hverfjall volcano in northern Iceland. The proposed facilities would include a new visitor centre and exhibition room to provide visitors with information about the volcano’s history. The competition brief called for submissions balancing practical ideas with creative design that is sustainable, unique, and in keeping with the region’s extraordinary landscape.
Buildner worked with an excellent international jury: Marshall Blecher, co-founder of MAST, a maritime architecture studio based in Copenhagen; Borghildur Indriðadóttir, an artist that lives and works in Reykjavík, Iceland; Marta Frazão, Filipe Rodrigues, and Inês Vicente, partners at Atelier Data, a Lisbon-based architecture office; Sigrún Sumarliðadóttir, co-founder and Principal of Studio Bua, an architectural practice with offices in London and Oslo, whose portfolio includes the renovation of an Icelandic farmhouse and cultural centre; Yu-Ying Tsai, a lead architect at Shanghai-based ZJJZ Atelier; and Magic Kwan and Kenrick Wong who run OOA - Orient Occident Atelier, a Cambodian architectural studio.
Buildner and its jury team thank all the participants for their submissions!
We sincerely thank our jury panel
for their time and expertise
Marta Frazão
Partners at Atelier Data
Portugal
Filipe Rodrigues
Partners at Atelier Data
Portugal
Inês Vicente
Partners at Atelier Data
Portugal
Sigrún Sumarliðadóttir
Studio BUA
UK
Yu-Ying Tsai
architect at ZJJZ Atelier
China
Kenrick Wong
Orient Occident Atelier
Hong Kong
Borghildur Indriðadóttir
Teiknistofan Óðinstorgi
Iceland
Marshall Blecher
Founder at Studio Marshall Blecher & Co-founder at MAST
Denmark
1st Prize Winner +
Client Favorite
Client Favorite
The Underhill experience
We decided to participate in architecture competitions because we wanted to expand our horizons, think outside of the box and fight creative burnout. We perceive competitions as a way of expressing and presenting our own ideas.
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Poland
Jury feedback summary
The Underhill Experience cuts a dramatic slice through the landscape, creating a fissure that at once frames the volcano and puts visitors in direct relationship with the site’s geology. This proposal of landform architecture successfully blends landscape with building. According to the jurors: “The beautiful divide and the connection to nature is very fitting. This proposal takes a radical approach yet resolves it to a very high level. The interesting cut and shape recalls the geographical conditions of the tuff ring volcanic feature. The project’s interior ceiling feature, however, is dominant and generic and not well-related to the larger concept of the crack or fissure.” The jury commends the submission for strong visuals and excellent presentations of easy-to-read plan and renderings.
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Troll’s Tongue Observation Platform
2nd Prize Winner +
ARCHHIVE STUDENT AWARD
ARCHHIVE STUDENT AWARD
Volcano Visitors Centre
Competition is a fantastic way to challenge ourselves, it spark our imagination and also gives a unique chance to test our ideas.
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Jury feedback summary
The project proposes a strong rectangular block that corresponds with its landscape in material while contrasting from it in the regularity of its form. The block is accessed through a fluid cavity that functions as a circulation route and extends to the landscape as a series of equally fluid pathways. The jury writes: “The proposal profoundly extends the relationship between the building and the site, expressing a great understanding of circulation and spatial quality. As the surrounding panorama should be kept as much as possible, the design demands such a discrete approach. After being overwhelmed by the landscape, visitors meet an indoor space where they are welcomed with warmth while not forgetting the outdoor experience: Visitors follow the lava-like paths into a solid rock where the indoor environment is a warm continuation of the place. It is a structural element where the visitor center is an adventure that has an artistic touch recalling the sculptural forms of Richard Serra.”
3rd Prize Winner
Vestige
It is a way to challenge ourselves by competing with people from all over the world, whether they are students or professionals. Apart from learning new working methods that allow us to develop better as students and future architects. The competitions help us to explore architecture from a much freer perspective. Outside the academic guidelines, we find in these competitions an escape from how pigeonholed architecture can become in the classroom and we can dare to fly the imagination, to work on new ideas and to put it simply: to dare.
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Jury feedback summary
Vestige is a rectangular form embedded within the base of the volcano. Its landscaped rooftop carries the same stone as its surroundings, allowing the building to appear to both blend with and emerge from the volcano. The jury writes: “This represents quite a brave approach to the competition by offering a modest design as viewed from the exterior. The traditional framing of the scenery from the interior is successful, but the concept of merging the massing into the volcano’s landscape could be more emphasized. The proposal demonstrates an interesting interpretation of the ground conditions.”
AAPPAREL SUSTAINABILITY AWARD
Catalyst
Architectural competitions are opportunities for us to test new ways of representation and design. As young architects, it also allows us to forge a work methodology and to sharpen our architectural discourse. Moreover, the competition subjects allow us to push concepts quite far, and to re-use the best of them in our work.
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France
Honorable mentions
Shortlisted projects
Hverfjall Squared Coffee
School City Association (Escola da Cidade)
+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
Brazil Milestone towards the Apex
ICELAND VOLCANO COFFEE SHOP
Hverfjall Center
Hverfjall golden ratio
Hverfjall Kaffihús
Hæðirnar ("The Hills")
The line of silence
Volcano Visitors Centre
MEGALITH
COFFEE ON PATH
Resting Place
ORBIS COFFEE SHOP
Wayfinder
FLOW
We are Magma
Vision Roastery
Iceland Volcano Coffee Shop
THE HVERFJALL COFFEE SHOP
Catalyst
Lava-Java
Volcano Coffee Shop
The Path
The Floor is Lava
The Hverfjall Cafe
Coffee Shop under the Hverfjall Volcano
Genista
eldfjallakaffi
The warmth of Hverfjall
Ashes
Hverfjall Coffeeshop: Landscape as picture frames
HVERFJALL’S COFFEE SHOP
The Wander's Break
Vestige
Volcano Coffee Dome
BREW
The Hut
The Underhill experience
THREE CANOPIES
Leiðarljós (Beacon) Coffee Shop & Visitors Centre
