NATIONAL PURIST ROUTES: INDUSTRIAL
ExPANSION AND MOVING ICELANDIC LANDSCAPES
giSLunn HALDAnArDottir AnD MAtHiAS keMPton
Advisor: Peter Hemmersam
As the poles melt and the ice retreats, resources are exposed
and shipping routes revealed. The Arctic regions have joined
the global map of resources. The discourse concerning these
new frontiers of industrialisation is increasingly being framed
as a polarisation of extraction versus preservation. Is there a
third way? Can we view landscape as an active instrument to
enrich culture, rather than a passive product of the culture?
Iceland provides a case in point. Following the 2008 finan-
cial meltdown, the IMF described Iceland’s key challenge as
the ability to “increase value retained from use of its hydro
and geothermal resources.” 74% of Iceland’s electricity is
consumed by the energy intensive production of aluminum.
This use of natural resources attracts much needed foreign
capital, but also raises the following questions: How many
and who does it benefit? Should it be part of a larger national
project? Can one get more out of it?
Only 2 % of the global geothermal energy potential has
been utilised, and Iceland regards knowledge and technology
on these resources as an export article.
National Purist Routes
sees Iceland as an Arctic test lab where the research is ex-
panded to include social and cultural potentials. It explores
the intersecting fields of hydro and thermal energy, tourism
and natural landscapes. It proposes a network of hydrogen
filling stations for rental cars. The stations are developed as
destinations across Iceland, suggesting possible symbiotic en-
ergies between the expanding energy and tourism industries.
The project received the Statsbygg Student Award for Out-
standing Architecture in 2012.
Meltdown
Jökulsárlón, or “Glacier Lagoon“ is located
below the Vatnajökull glacier and is a
well known site for tourists. Here the
production of fuel becomes an attraction
in itself, as melted ice runs down into the
electrolyser and is turned into pure glacial
hydrogen.
