Living Landscape: Merging the City with Nature

In 2019, two projects of the parisian architectural studio Jakob + MacFarlane – “Odyssee Pleyel” in the suburbs of Paris and “Living Landscape” in Reykjavik – were among the 15 winners of the international competition “Reinventing Cities”, organized by the C40 Group – the Partnership of cities in the fight against climate change (Cities Climate Leadership Group). “Living Landscape” is a zero-carbon mixed-use building, with a positive impact on the environment and sheltering a local ecosystem. It will be the largest wooden building in Iceland. It will not emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, but, on the contrary, will have an exceptionally positive impact on the environment. 

Programmatic elements are organized around a rich eco-systemic landscape creating an “O”-shaped building. The center core is designed as a local ecosystem that will be home to indigenous plants, local rocks and topographic surfaces, contributing to a rich, shared ecosystem for the project, the city and the planet. 

The project is part of the future urbanized context of the Elliðaárvogur-Ártúnshöfði development district, which consists of moving a polluting industrial zone elsewhere in order to build a new neighborhood. The goal of this initial project is the new urban extension of Reykjavík toward the east, with a living ecosystem-based landscape typology serving as a precedent for future development projects. This ecosystem-based methodology implemented for growing cities has been designed by a team of local and international expert with the idea it can serve as an example to the global community.

 Materials provided by Jakob+MacFarlane and T.Ark

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