VENICE.- Iceland Design and Architecture opened Lavaforming, Iceland’s presentation in its national pavilion at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia. Curated by Arnhildur Pálmadóttir and created by her team at s.ap architects, Lavaforming presents a speculative future where controlled lava flows build cities, and shares tangible experiments to demonstrate the enormous potential of this renewable material that has traditionally been viewed as a threat.

s.ap architects, which also includes Arnar Skarphéðinsson, architect and co-creator of Lavaforming; Björg Skarphéðinsdóttir, designer; and Sukanya Mukherjee, architect, has conducted groundbreaking materials tests to shape lava in a lab setting, including re-melting and pouring it into molds. The results are smooth, glass-like, black bricks and columns—highly durable basic building blocks for renewable infrastructure that offer a path forward for sustainable architecture in volcanically active regions such as Iceland. In 2024, Pálmadóttir won the prestigious Nordic Council Environment Prize for her focus on environmentally conscious architectural practices.

New tests, which are being presented in the Pavilion, have examined the properties of lava as it is cooled in controlled conditions. This most recent investigation centers on how basalt can function as a mono-material in construction, and how entire structures could be created exclusively of basalt lava. Experimental results obtained by the team offer a promising path forward for what conditions are needed to melt basalt and produce material strong enough to be used as a building material. The Lavaforming project asks: what would natural architecture on earth look like, free from harmful mining and non-renewable energy extraction?

“As nations across the globe adapt to changing weather patterns in a warming world, it is essential that we involve architects, artists, and designers in conversations about solutions,” said Iceland’s Minister of Culture, Innovation and Higher Education, Logi Einarsson. “Projects like Lavaforming allow us to explore groundbreaking ideas for designing with, rather than against, nature, which have enormous potential to be scaled and adopted widely. This project is an excellent example of the forward-thinking solutions being piloted by Iceland’s creative community to address the challenges of our time.”

A multidisciplinary team—comprised of writer Andri Snær Magnason and musician, designer, and technologist Jack Armitage —joins s.ap architects in creating an animated, short, speculative film that imagines a city infrastructure made entirely of shaped lava. The film will present the perspective of six characters reflecting on the world-changing benefits of this innovative building technology, which has changed building practices and transformed our climate change concerns.

“Lava presents an enormous opportunity as a sustainable building material,” said Arnhildur Pálmadóttir, curator, architect, founder, and creative director of Lavaforming. “Our experiments demonstrate how we could one day create structures, and even entire cities, with lava. In our short film, we take the next step, imagining the year 2150 and a city made of lava. The project probes questions such as, ‘What does that city look like? How has this building material transformed human’s relationship to nature and the built environment? How has the paradigm for building shifted?”

“Lavaforming is an exploration of materiality and ownership,” said Arnar Skarphéðinsson, co-creator of Lavaforming. “We believe that the architecture profession today serves financial interest above all, and this limits its ability to positively affect society. People cannot afford a home and are simultaneously uninspired by their urban surroundings; problems that are not due to a lack of creativity from architects, but rather the system and norms under which they operate. The goal of this project is to offer a positive vision for our future that is unhampered by our current system. Lavaforming immerses visitors in our future vision where a local threat is transformed into a resource that addresses a global emergency.”

This is the first time Iceland has participated in the International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia with an open call. The Icelandic Pavilion is commissioned by Iceland Design and Architecture, which facilitates and promotes design of all kinds as a vital aspect of the future Icelandic society, economy, and culture, with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Business Affairs in Iceland.