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.
