This is the diploma architecture project by London-based Ben Ridley who is a recent graduate.

The project is titled ‘Thingvellir Architecture of Myth’. It is a proposed building in Iceland that redefines the traditional relationship between landscape and architecture.

‘This large and multi-faceted building manipulates the threshold between the synthetic and the natural, employing shifts in composition of landscape and architecture to provide a heightened sensory awareness of the Icelandic landscape. Sited at Thingvellir, a World Heritage Site and therefore designated as ‘belonging to all people’, the building has equally important political and social provisions; as a weekend retreat for migrant workers originating from warmer climes who currently suffer under the unusual climatic conditions in the north of Iceland, and as a reconstruction of the parliamentary function of the historic site.

Physical and psychological comfort is provided by a series of mythically inspired design devices, each of which encourages the development of the important psychological notions of belonging, comfort and attachment to landscape via the traditional Icelandic activity of inventing myth.’

For further information visit: www.architectureforlondon.co.uk.