DAY 5, the last one!

On our last day in Iceland we went to the Blue Lagoon, and we drove into the heart of a power plant.

In order to see the other part of the spectrum of bathing possibilities we’ve went to the well known SPA and HEALTH bath BLUE LAGOON. We wanted to see the commercialized version of our hot river.
But before the relaxing part, we drove along the coastline and had a closer look to Kefflaviks suburban areas (in fact untill now it’s just a zic-zag road in the middle nowere between the sea and the Highway, but you can imaging the developpment in Icelands urban planning), we visited a small harbour town witch was quite sleepy (with a creepy old ship in ist harbour), and we’ver been in a rather fishy smelling powerplant.
One of the best things in Iceland is: no one cares what you’re doing.
We were on top of the highest building in Iceland wich is still under construction and no one asked us anything! Or we drove into that powerplant with our car, no fences were in sight! It was incredible and frighting to feel the earth below us quacking! Again the powerplant wasn’t a part of the landscape it was mor like a parasite.

When we finally arrived at the BLUE LAGOON, we were shocked, the architecture was quite good, but it was really disgusting to see that huge amount of people in there and the commercialised environment. Nevertheless after a short discussion about our impressions of the whole BLUE LAGOON athmosphere, we decided to go inside. (weh ad to pay 50 CHF!!!!!).
The bathing experience was as supposed very niche, the white, milky water nourished our skin, the „free“ face maskes almost burned our skin and the sauna was full of swissmens (and women),.A necative point ist hat ste sandy ground of the basin is full of hair8!), witch was disgusting!
It was ok, but nothing in comparison to our hot river form the day before. What is interesting about the BLUE LAGOON ist hat this is one of a very few places where the mineralrich water is analised and cultivated for the sake fo human health.

The water fort he blue lagoon comes from a nearby powerplant, and it is waste water. We think it is a very interesting way to use the water who’s otherwise only used to gererate electricity or heat. This is a very sustainable project and maybe a rolemodel for other companies to make use of their wastewater (if it’s not too dirty). Ist also a model wich shows us that we should use ressources more than once even if they are abundant and renewable.

After getting back to our hotel, in order to prepare ourselfes for dinner and nightlife, we went to an indish restaurant. The food was delicious and the waitress spoke a language we are’t able to understand in the first moment: swiss-german. After dinner we enjoyed Reykjaviks well known nightlife at ist fullest!

Pure Nature, a trip out of the Town (DAY 4 and 5)

The last two days we’ve teamed up with Franziska, Marco and Fabian to also get a look at the surrounding nature of Reykjavik. Earlier that week, they’ve hired an SUV in order to get to very remote places. One of the most abundant things in Iceland are big big cars, called SUV, but what looks quite strange and unnecessairy in the city proves ist right of existence in the outback. We’ve seen winding roads up the hills, gravel roads and we had to cross several rivers. It was fun!
But we’ve never lost touch with our main question, so in these last two days we looked at the direct use of energy. We’ve seen some impressive thermal plants witch were like UFOs out in the landscepe and some small settlements. But the main thing on the first day was to cook on a volcano (his was the idea and the project of the other group), and to enjoy a spezial phenomenon, a bath in a hot river. So we went to Reykjatalen (smoking valley) where we could do both of our projects within a small distance. After a two hous of hiking with an abundance of mud (every surface was pure MUD because of the rising temperatures), we found the perfect nature-built kitchen and we cooked spahettis, sausages and we’ve tried (but failed) to make a cake. Due to the 80°C water temperature it was a slow cooking process. But witch the slight taste of sulfur everything seems to taste better. After proofing that the direct use of Icelands hot water energy, we did what Icelanders do best: we took a bath! The steaming hot river was just a five minute walk away and so we didn’t waste any time to get there, but getting out of the perfectly temperated water was a thing we weren’t able to imagine. So we made no effort to get out of the water untill sunset. I have to say that the river and the surrounding nature (most of it MOSS) were incredible. It was an experience i’m glad i’ve made it.
After changing into almost dry clothes and half frozen to death (due to the wind), we got on our way home. Everything was coverred into the pale light of the dawn and looked beautyfull!

DAY 3, Meeting with Mr. Eiriksson from T.ark

That day in order to prepare ourself for the interview with Mr. Eiriksson, we’ve scoped the city of Reykjavik with an eye on how the buildings are constructed. To be precise we looked at glazings, insulations, wall coverings and roofs and compared them to our (swiss) standart.

What we’ve seen shocked us quite a bit. But it expresses also the abundance of energy and how the people are dealing with that.
During our walk around we haven’t seen double glazing, or tripple glazing, almost no building was insulated and the allover state of them was quite bad. (maybe because of the financial crisis Iceland went through). With climatic conditions, a bit more extreme than Switzerland, they didn’t care about making their buildings fully suitable for their evironment. Why this is like it is, we’ve learned later that day in the interview.

This expresses the abundance quite well. it isn’t necessary to make the buildings sustainable. There are a few reasons why most of the Icelandic people aren’t conscient about the necessity of sustainable living, one is their isolated position on the globe another reason ist he expensive import of constroction materials an d the cheap energy prices. All this is connected with with an underlaying nationalism (the idea and the fact that there are just 310000 icelanders standing alone).
Beside our walk-around we’ve also enjoyed the cities amenities, the perfect espresso-machiatos at KAFFITARIN and a nice lunch at SOLAN. These two places are a perfect example of Icelands skill of adapting and translating foreign ideas and concepts. This is in fact one of Icelands most known Skills. With that as a background we can’t still understand why in energy.sustainability reasons Iceland is so conservative or let’s say blind.

Highlight of the day was the interview with Mr. Eiriksson from Reykjavik based architects T.atrk (www.tark.is). Mr. Eiriksson Studied in the United States at the university of Uirginia, ths is allso where he first came in touch with the concept of sustainabitity.
The interview covred every aspect of our main question (To read at the top of our blog).

Just at the very beginning Mr. Eiriksson spoke about Sustainability in Iceland and the climate as a part of it. We were told, that there isn‘t any sustainable design in architecture in Iceland. Due to this fact, architects are a minority, engineers build the houses. There is an abundance of green energy and water, but they don‘t have sources for concrete, glass, metal, wood or insulation. To show an example he spoke about a low energy house with triple glazing. For such a building they need to import the glass. The grey energy which is produced due to this extra amount of glass and the transport to iceland would be a bigger issue than not insulating the windows. That‘s the point, where it should be started. The question is about to find the optimum for houses in connection with insulation. It‘s about a moral question, to start saving energy and to get out of that guilt.

In Iceland there are only two points, where fresh, cool water isn‘t available as an unlimited source out of the ground. (In fact in Iceland water is an abundant resource, but most of it is hot water, so the problem about the water issue ist hat there is a very limited amount of cold water). One is around the airport of Kefflavik If they take too much water out of this reservoir, new water can‘t be replaced fast enough due to the characteristics of the stone.

As a starting point he sees an allready develloped hard- and software to make better economical shapes during a building process. So the software learns from experience. In the shipbuilding industry there is already such a drift to optimize ships from the start.
This leads to „thinking buildings“ used as a model to devellop architecture. It‘s also a good argument against why Iceland isn‘t producing green energy for the whole world. The main point of that way of thinking architecture is to be able to create buildigs witch fit perfectly into the local conditions. With parameters like the material prices, shippment taxes, availability, cost of the building process, availability of skilled professionals, local geological conditions, weather conditions, ammount of grey energy, etc. it is possible to balance out everv detail of a building. As mentioned for example to ship all the insulation materials witch is needed to get the icelandic buildings „sustainable“ (from our point of view), is nearly impossible because it is very expensive. (And because of the fact, that energy in Iceland is cheap, almost no one thinks about getting their houses sustainable.)
So as we know now, there is an ongoing effort to create a sustainable solution for Icelandic houses, although Mr. Eiriksson is one out of a very small think-tank we hope that they at least are able to get the Icelanders think about their situation, and that oit may be better to be a sustainable soceity even if energy is abundant.

As it has been told before, Mr. Eiriksson and his Think-tank are tinking about self-sustaining houses (very much like the abundance initiative). When for example solar panels are getting better, a single house produces more energy than it‘s using, so they can sell it to others. Big energy companies now control the grid between the houses, and the whole energy distribution system. If the number of self-sufficient houses now increases,, the energy production will be democratic ,and no longer monopolised. Wha then is needed is a system to distribute the energy globally from where it’s produced to where it is needed.

To concluse it is needed to optimize every building for its emissions in grey energy and to think about what are the most effective parameters to save energy. After that solar panels and other techniques like hot water pipes on the roof should be installed for a self-sustaining culture. At start it wouldn‘t be very effective, but in developing and optimizing all parts, there would be an abundance of energy allover the world. The main point is about to share the spare energy. Some countries should start earlier, others like Iceland join later, if it would be necessary to use other sources of gaining green energy.

Meeting with Halla Helgadottir from the Iceland Design Centre

Today we've had our first meeting in Reykjavik.
We were invited by Halla Helgadottir from the Icland Design Centre located in the heart of Reykjavik.
The Design Centre is quite a young and independent organisation. Operating since two years its main goal is, to bring the different art and design organisations together (Architecture, Interior Design, Graphic Design, Art, Jewellery, Fashion Design and Photography), and create a creative environment to strenghten the icelandic design landscape. "We're organising events to get design students together with strong business partners. It works like speed dating, it's like the real life, if you find the partner who is complementary to you, this relationship last lifelong!" says Halla Helgadottir. The Design Centre also organises an annual design expo called "Design March" which became quite a magnet for locals an international guests, wandering through the city of Reykjavik and get a closer look on icelandic Design. Up to now icelandic design barely existed, there were only some knitting women and DIY men who built their houses and furniture by themselves, today design is no longer a matter of tradition, it's a new way of looking at the things without neglecting their cultural heritage.

Asked about the abundance of energy in Iceland, and what she would trade it for even its very utopic, she had to think some moments and answered: "I don't know, we've got everything we want! I never want for example a tropical Beach in Iceland, i prefer to go there. There is no need to have it here, we have other benefits to have a comfortable and happy life."

Abundance of energy in her everyday life means, to have an hour-long shower whenever she wants, and didn't have to turn off the lights when leaving a room, without having a bad conscience. In fact, almost every Icelander seems to think and act like that. Being abroad for several years, Halla Helgadottir knows also the other side of abundance: scarcity.


OBSERVATION

As Icelanders are quite aware or their special situation in energy matters, there are some projects for the future using this abundance in a small scale. Here are two examples.
First there is an ongoing project to build greenhouses which can be rented by the people to grow vegetables also during wintertime. The basis for this project is the traditional Skolargarten a Schoolgarden were children learn to grow vegetables on their own. It's a concept of subsistence and abundance of energy.
The second Project is led by the Innovation Centre Iceland (ICI). It aims to get some kind of micro power plants run by local farmers using their existing hot water facilities and creeks to generate geothermal or hydro power. So this is kind of a guerilla project, to make the construction of new large-scale power plants superfluous. Up to now the ICI held three courses to get the Farmers in touch with the state-of-the-art technology and create connections between them and energy engineers. The courses were a great success.