Regenerative Design In Myvatn, North Iceland
A Project By: Atelier Architecture
At the meeting of volcanic terrain and polar stillness emerges Inner Retreat, a quiet trace shaped by the folds of the Myvatn landscape. Rather than imposing its form, the architecture interprets the natural flow of the slopes, lava fields and geothermal veins, allowing the ground to guide the design.
Shaped by ice, wind, and streams, the forms rise softly from the mountain slopes following the terrain’s gestures. Each volume aligns with natural paths of light, movement and heat. Walls grow from rock; roofs follow ridgelines, geothermal heating ducts surface from underground chambers, corten shelters arise from boulders. Materials reflect ice, moss and basalt. This is not an object in nature, but a place embedded within it.
Inner Retreat invites pause and reconnection, drawing global travellers that seek adventure, rest, and recalibration. Skiing, climbing, walking, paragliding, mountain biking, thermal bathing, and rejuvenation become moments of action and reflection where the boundary between human experience and landscape blur. To experience nature fully we must build not over it, but from within it.
SUSTAINABILITY STATEMENT
The site is at the base of a mountain slope, 2km from the Krafla Geothermal Power Plant in Myvatn.
Iceland’s forest cover is extremely low, estimated at around 0.5-1.5% of its total land area compared to 25-40% pre-Viking settlement. This coupled with water diversion for the local power plant have left the site slopes dry, sparse in vegetation and eroded.
The project establishes a regenerative landscape where energy production, ecological renewal and architecture operate as one system. Land regeneration begins with a new hydro network that reconnects seasonal channels and directs flow from a reservoir high on the slope. As the water travels downhill, hydro units generate clean electricity while stabilising the ground and improving soil absorption. This irrigation initiates long term reforestation, gradually bringing back moss, reeds, birch and woodland to a landscape that has been depleted over time, while integration of aquaculture in the reservoir supports a circular on-site food economy.
Geothermal resources strengthen this cycle. High temperature ground heat provides a constant source of energy for buildings, outdoor pools and sheltered ski areas, reducing reliance on imported systems and ensuring year-round resilience.
Material strategies reinforce these sustainable aims. Basalt from on-site excavations is reused to form protective clusters around the shelters, and timber recovered from existing buildings returns as cladding, reducing embodied carbon. The corten steel is sourced from local recycled shipping containers.
The remaining construction relies on regional supply, including, reed thatch from Myvatn, timber from local sawmills and sustainably managed forests, bio-based basalt/seashell fibre used in insulation boards, floor tiles and plaster embedding the project within its immediate economy.
Together, these systems create a site that produces its own energy, restores its ecology and supports
its local community, allowing the architecture to grow from the land while helping to heal it.
