The Iceland Trekking Cabin provokes consideration of architecture’s rudiments. This includes most specifically provision for enclosure, place, and social collectivity. These three issues form the conceptual framework and challenge of the brief. The project requires entrants to imagine a versatile architecture for sheltering travelers in a vast, dynamic landscape defined by topographic contrast and ecological variation; associated with cultural folklore, wonder and imagination. As a structure for nomads and backpackers, the project is culturally precedented, although urbanely by the hostel. Within the context of fjords, lava fields, glaciers, and mountains, and accompanied by the respective trekking ethos, leaving only footprints, the nearest architectural paradigm is perhaps that of a tent. Continue reading
