The pictures and text materials of the work were provided by Jakob + MacFarlane (France), the winner of IAI highest award in 2016

Project location:Reykjavik,Iceland

Architects:Jakob+MacFarlane (lead), T.ark(associate)

Landscape architects:Landslag

Environmentalexperts: EFLA

Winner of the C40 Reinventing Citiescompetition, Living Landscape has been designed as an eco-systemicmethodology for growing cities. Seenas a prototype for Iceland’s futuredevelopments, it will create anewecosystem fabric, blurring the boundary between the urban and the natural.

Designed for a 9,000 m2 plot on theedge of a large brownfield in Reykjavík, Living Landscape is a new urban hub tobe constructed on a piece of long-neglected land. Thismixed-use, O-shaped building willcombine homes for students, seniors and families with workspaces, daycareand local production-based retail – allhoused inside Iceland’s largestwooden structure.

CITY & NATURE: Living Together

The idea of living with and aroundnature is key to our project. To compensate for years of pollution and heal theman-madedamage to what has once been a beautiful coastal landscape, we recreateIceland’s authentic natural landscapeover a former landfill.

We aim to enable a fully functioninglocal ecosystem composed of earth and rocks, water and plants, insects andbirds. Protected from freezing bygeothermal heat, this green oasis will develop its own microclimate and,hopefully, become a new generator oflife.

Occupying the courtyard of theO-shaped building, it will serve as communal space for the residents – who willenter the building and access theirapartments through this “courtyard park”.

Six floors above the ground-leveloasis, the building’stundra-like roofscape will function ascommunity garden / urbanfarm /rooftop promenade / meeting place…

Our project was strongly influencedby the country’s uniqueland- and waterscape – notably, by a series of islandslocated close to Reykjavík (withRichard Serra’sgeological sculpture áfangar built on one of them). A view of thesea, islands and mountains will openfrom the rooftop, thus turning our roofscape into an important connectinglink between the larger naturallandscape and the “indigenous landscape” recreated inthe courtyard.

CITY & NATURE: Working Together

According to the Reykjavík Masterplan20-30, the development of brownfieldsites for residential and mixed uses willbe a toppriority in the next decades. To create a precedent of a resilient, nearlyzero-carbon development, ourprojectrelies on nature-based solutions capable to outperform a more traditionalapproach. A few examples:

Mimicking the nearby wetlands, thecourtyard landscape will manage rainwater and purify polluted water througha system inspired by stratovolcanoes.The tundra landscape on the rooftop relates to the centuries-old techniqueused by Icelanders to insulate theirhomes. The pond and the mass of the earthen ground will contribute toreducing heatwaves, while woodconstruction and reimplemented flora will enhance carbon capture and storage.

Bigger picture, city scale:

– Creatinga new urban center where the country's most notorious landfill has been before;

- Restoringthe natural ecosystem as part of the process, and making this ecosystem,literally, part of the project;

– Thisproject was the tipping point in getting the vote for implementing the CityLine, an electric-powered public transportation system to connect centralReykjavik with its newly-developed areas.

Bigger picture, global scale:

– Offering an ecosystemic methodologyfor growing cities, LivingLandscape is seen as aprototype for Iceland’sfuture developments and for building urban ecosystems in other countries andclimates.

– Theclean construction blueprint developed for this project is adaptable to otherprojects in other regions of the world.