In collaboration with a fellow IIT adjunct faculty member, Lauren designed a site-specific intervention in response to a call for proposals. Located in Northern Iceland near lake Mývatn, the competition 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. 

The proposed intervention, Cloudscape Codex, responds to the site through the celebration of geological material. White powder-coated rebar creates an ethereal mesh by encasing and suspending the local stone 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 for the proposed cafe & visitor’s center. 

The floating path mitigates damage caused by frequent foot traffic and protects the precious landscape by elevating visitors off 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. At the point directly above the fissure, the gabion walls are excavated from the Skýgrind leaving just the mesh and the path between the observer and the void of the fractured earth. The viewing platform allows observers an opportunity to safely and directly engage with the natural wonder from a new and exciting vantage point.

Collaborator: Jeffrey Wigen (Co-Designer)

Programs/Interfaces used: Adobe CS, Rhinoceros, Grasshopper.