Bee Breeders Architecture Competitions has announced winners for the Iceland Northern Lights Rooms architecture competition tasked participants with envisioning a concept for a guest house that allowed visitors to directly observe the unusual and magnificent spectacle that is the Northern Lights. 

The winning proposals were chosen for their creative experimentation with a specific material and for their distinct interaction with the site and the sky.

The first place winners were Kamila Szatanowska and Paulina Rogalska from Poland, for their IN.VISIBLE project that featured a series of mirror-clad guest houses of varying sizes. Each house was moveable and distributed about the site so that, when lit at night, they performed like glowing lanterns.

Second prize went to Francois Bodlet from Belgium for his BLEIKUR project, which adapts the typical Icelandic corrugated metal panels and proposes a series of sail-shaped buildings made of metal and plywood. Third prize went to Catarina Oom De Sousa, Carla Romagosa Girós, and Eftalia Proios Torras from Spain. Their Northern Lights project involved a cube of transparent ETFE pillow membranes surrounding a compact core to create a semi-private, energy-efficient space.

Magdalena Pająk from Politechnika Śląska University in Poland has won the Student award, while the Green award goes to Chang Yuan Max Hsu and Hadeel Ayed Mohammad from the USA.

See the winning projects below with short jury comments:

1st prize: In-Visible by Kamila Szatanowska and Paulina Rogalska from Poland

Jury comments:

"In-Visible’ features a series of mirror-clad guest houses of varying sizes, movable and distributed about the site, and when lit at night perform like glowing lanterns. A peat-covered main house is comprised of common spaces and host bedrooms, with a central entry protected from the weather and accessed from below. In a series of impressive images and drawings, the submission illustrates well, via scale and materiality, the design’s care to minimize site disturbance. The jury found this submission to be buildable, innovative and well-suited for its location. The jury encourages the designer to further study the interior experience of and structural solution for the guest house modules: What is it like to observe the skies privately from one’s bed? Are there alternative structural solutions to the anchoring cables?"

Read interview with the 1st winners

2nd prize: Bleikur by Francois Bodlet from Belgium

Jury comments:

"A visitor to Iceland might notice the typical corrugated metal panels that clad many homes in Reykjavik and other towns. According to Dennis Jóhannesson’s A Guide to Icelandic Architecture, this style evolved during the early 20th century, as iron was imported from England, and as timber housing was banned following a series of fires in Reykjavik."

"This submission adapts this regional cladding type and proposes a series of sail-shaped buildings made of metal and plywood. The drawings are striking and convincing. Here, the metallic cladding is silver-pink, a finish which changes according to weather patterns and sky color. The submission offers realistic cost and feasibility projections, complete with an energy system proposal. The curved forms of the buildings offer interesting interior and exterior spaces for viewing the landscape and skies."

Read interview with the 2nd winners

3rd prize: Northern Lights by Catarina Oom de Sousa, Carla Romagosa Girós and Eftalia Proios Torras from Spain

Jury comments:

"The jury was impressed by the effectiveness of the guesthouse design in this proposal. The project description reads: “All modules contain an optimized central nucleus where the facilities and private spaces are enclosed, allowing the circulation spaces to open towards the landscape.” Set within a cube of transparent ETFE pillow membranes, a compact core is surrounded by an open space. The energy-efficient advantages of ETFE compared to glass include lightness, thermal insulation, and surfaces that are self-cleaning. The result here is a beautifully-designed, semi-private space that proved unlike any other proposal put forth. Given the high winds in the Icelandic environment, however, can such a light structure as proposed be feasibly attained?"

Read interview with the 3rd winners

BB Student Award: Marimo by Magdalena Pająk from Politechnika Śląska University in Poland

Read full interview with the BB Student Award winner

Green Prize: Of crater and hearth by Chang Yuan Max Hsu and Hadeel Ayed Mohammad from the USA

Read full interview with BB Green Award winners

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