We wanted to integrate the new community center into the surrounding landscape as much as possible and to provide an open viewing platform for local residents and visitors. After a careful study of the site, we decided to locate the community center in the center of the site, on a hillside with three elevated sides and one side with an open view facing the lake, so as to minimize the reclamation of the natural environment and best embed the site. Due to the undulation of the site around the building, it naturally separates people who come to the community center for different purposes. The roof of the building flows with the undulation of the surrounding terrain, thus providing different possibilities for people to enter the inner courtyard of the building, as well as providing a viewing platform facing the lake. The first floor provides parking and an entrance to the inner courtyard for people who come here to dispose of their garbage and exchange second-hand goods. On the second level, the entrance to the inner courtyard is flush with the terrain and serves as an entrance to the main event space for visitors or local residents coming to the event. People with different purposes are connected outside the building by the building’s inner courtyard, and inside the building by the shared greenhouse space, the greenhouse connects the recycling, resource processing, greenhouse, and activity center in turn.
The greenhouse and the resouse processing are the important part of the building as a receptacle for processed waste (soil), a link between the secondary resource disposal system and the event center for academic and other exchange activities. We inserted the greenhouse as a separate element, like a pure block of ice, into the original building circle, conceptually signifying the indispensable importance of Iceland and the Arctic Circle as a whole in the global ecosystem. Architecturally it serves as a medium to connect the most different functions in the building and provides an opportunity for different people to communicate and share space.
