Two architects in Iceland have proposed a way to turn lava from the country's volcanic eruptions into a building material, offering a new use for the vast lava fields that have formed near the fishing town of Grindavik, Sky News reported.
Since December 2023, nine volcanic eruptions have occurred near the coastal town of Grindavik, forcing residents to repeatedly evacuate their homes.
Idea Born After Holuhraun Eruption
Arnhildur Palmadottir, founder and owner of the Reykjavik-based firm s.ap arkitektar, said she and her son, Arnar Skarpheðinsson, came up with the idea in 2018, after the 2014-2015 eruption of the Holuhraun volcano, Iceland's largest eruption in more than 300 years.
Palmadottir said that during the Holuhraun eruption, which occurred near Vatnajokull, Iceland's largest glacier, a huge volume of material simply spread across the landscape. She said that when she and her son saw the figures, they thought it was essentially like molten concrete without the cement, and wondered why they should not make something out of it.
Rethinking a High-Emission Industry
Their proposal centres on using the destructive force of lava to transform the global construction industry, which relies heavily on concrete, steel and other materials that carry a high environmental cost.
They believe a single lava flow could contain enough material to lay the foundations of a city within weeks, without the climate impact linked to conventional construction. However, they do not expect the concept to become reality before roughly the year 2150.
Robots, Not Builders, Would Shape the Rock
The project's participants said human construction workers would not be able to work with lava directly because of its temperature. Instead, they envisage using a mix of methods and technologies, including 3D printing, controlled lava flows, cooling chambers and robots, to shape and mould the rock into the required forms.
Palmadottir said she pictured robots moving across lava fields, gathering molten lava and using it to build structures.
According to the architects, volcanic basalt rock resembles the building concrete used today. Skarpheðinsson said lava can vary widely in its physical and mechanical properties. In nature, he said, columnar basalt is highly crystallised and extremely strong, and could theoretically be used as a structural material.
Other Recent Scientific Findings
Separately, scientists have reported finding evidence of a giant escarpment that helped shape the rocks of the Grand Canyon, estimated to have formed roughly 800 to 750 million years ago as the supercontinent Rodinia began breaking apart.
Scientists have also developed a nanomaterial said to be capable of cooling homes without using electricity, combining a set of properties that its developers describe as ideal.
