Company wants to control power of lava to build cities

By Dean Murray

A company wants to control lava to build cities.

The system - called Lavaforming - would work by channelling volcanic flows to be cooled and turned into building materials.

The concept is the brainchild of Arnhildur Pálmadóttir and her Iceland-based design firm s.ap architects.

They have conducted materials tests to shape lava in a lab setting, including re-melting and pouring it into molds.

A statement says: "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."

The concept is being showcased in Iceland’s presentation in its national pavilion at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia.

Arnhildur Pálmadóttir said: "In our story, placed in 2150, we have harnessed the lava flow, just as we did with geothermal energy 200 years earlier in Iceland.

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"A lava flow can contain enough building material for the foundations of an entire city to rise in a matter of weeks without harmful mining and non-renewable energy generation.

"The main goal of Lavaforming is to show that architecture can be the force that rethinks and shapes a new future with sustainability, innovation, and creative thinking.

"Lavaforming is exploring a building material that has never been used before. The theme is both a proposal and a metaphor - architecture is in a paradigm shift, many of our current methods have been deemed obsolete or harmful in the long term. In our current predicament - we need to be bold, think in new ways, look at challenges and find the right resources."

Logi Einarsson, Iceland’s Minister of Culture, Innovation and Higher Education, said: "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.

"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."

New tests, presented at La Biennale di Venezia, have examined the properties of lava as it is cooled in controlled conditions. This investigation centres on how basalt can function as a mono-material in construction, and how entire structures could be created exclusively of basalt lava.

A statement adds: "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?"