The International Educational & Research Centre in the north of Iceland is a collaborative project with Brinkworth and The Reykjavik Academy.

The brief was to design a facility for academic connoisseurs of Icelandic literature and landscape with a service centre for the National Park Vatnajokull glacier. The site is on the boundary between the habited and non-inhabited territory, between 'culture and nature'. It is a distinct visible line from where rich farmed grassland becomes a frightful wilderness of lava fields, volcanoes and glaciers, with beautiful rivers and waterfalls that flow from one through to the other.

The facility needed to accommodate up to 5 scholars and 30 students visiting from around the world at any one time, sleeping, eating and studying, and a seasonal ‘hip hotel’.

Icelandic literature is inherently rooted in the landscape, and the designers wanted to set the building into the ground so that the library, reading rooms and lecture studios firmly identified a relationship with the surrounding landscape at eye level.

The building's two main elevations are set exactly east and west on the true north axis, 400m above sea level, to minimise the building's visual impact from the approach road and nearby farm to the north. Similar to the ESO hotel in Chile for astronomers, the plan is logical and economical. A great two-storey spine wall,on the exact north-south axis is created from local volcanic aggregates to give a natural hue and fashioned in a texture reminiscent of the rock form of the local waterfall 'Aldeyjar foss', arguably Iceland's most beautiful.

Fifteen cellular bedroom blocks run parallel to the wall on the axis and float over the library and reading rooms. In the bedrooms one can quietly study sleep and dream above the land with clear views to some of Iceland's most incredible natural landmarks. The square block at the south of the wall houses kitchens and lecture studios at the lower level, with a raked auditorium at first floor. Full-height windows allow the Massive Vatnajokull Glacier to the south to be the permanent quiet host and backdrop to any lecture or event in the lounge bar. The development of the building will need great care as the desire is to not contaminate the night sky with artificial light and to take advantage of the vastness of the remoteness to study the sky from a 360-degree aspect from the roof.

The building needs to be reassuringly ecological and economic. Harnessed geothermal water will provide heat and hot water, There is an existing hydroelectrical dam providing electricity to the nearby farm which will be up-graded to service the centre. Together with simple and durable building materials the objective is to achieve low capital and maintenance costs for the future academic tourist to enjoy.