My projects across two semesters at Iceland's volcanic landscapes form an interconnected exploration of resilience—ecological at Laki Lava Field and cultural at Heimaey. Both located along Iceland’s dynamic Mid-Atlantic Ridge, these adjacent sites share geological and ecological contexts but emphasize distinct, complementary dimensions of resilience. At Laki (Semester 1), I proposed proactive ecological interventions such as underground refugia, geothermal nurseries, and soil factories, designed to accelerate landscape recovery following volcanic disturbances. At Heimaey (Semester 2), inspired by community narratives from the 1973 Eldfell eruption, I extended this ecological groundwork into a deeper cultural practice of multi-species solidarity. Through sensory-rich interventions grounded in Icelandic folklore, phenomenology, and the concept "Design with Ghosts," I fostered empathy and coexistence, embedding ecological resilience within cultural memory and everyday experience. Together, these projects demonstrate how landscape architecture can nurture both ecological restoration and profound cultural solidarity, shaping adaptive futures in volcanic territories.
Zeliang Lyu
Project description
Landscape laboratory
Locations: Laki Lava Field, South Iceland
Size: 63,500 (ha)
Intentions
Enhance ecological resilience in post-catastrophic lava landscapes.
Develop strategies for accelerated ecological recovery after volcanic eruptions.
Explore underground spaces as ecological refugia.
Reinforce Icelandic cultural identity through landscape interventions.
Death Guiding Life Expeditions
Pilot Projects 1: Underground Refugia and Soil Factory
Intention:
Develop underground areas into refugia to protect biodiversity during volcanic events.
Establish facilities to produce fertile soil using crushed rock, fungi, lichens, and harvested invasive lupine.
Strategy:
Mechanical rock crushing → biological weathering (moss, lichens) → fungi/bacterial soil cultivation → organic matter integration.
Future integration of spaces into public experiences such as caving tours.
Pilot Project 2: Barren Field Planting Experiment
Intention:
Manage invasive lupine to accelerate ecological succession.
Transform barren lava fields into diverse ecological habitats.
Strategy:
Sculpt landscapes using lava rocks and soil-casting methods.
Embed native plant seeds artistically in constructed soils.
Create soil-monitoring points and engage local communities in planting.
Eventually form multi-habitat biodiversity-rich landscapes that also serve as research and visitor sites.
Pilot Project 3: Geothermal Hot Springs & Plant Nursery
Intention:
Leverage geothermal resources for plant cultivation.
Promote vegetation resilience and aid ecological restoration through plant nurseries.
Strategy:
Winter: Establish geothermal-heated greenhouses inspired by traditional Icelandic turf houses.
Summer: Transition spaces into public wetlands and hot spring facilities, supporting both wildlife and tourism.
A Solidarity Experiment in Heimaey’s Lava Fields
Design with Ghosts advocates solidarity between humankind and non-humans as essential for resilience, inspired by Heimaey’s community response to the 1973 Eldfell eruption—residents who stayed, cooled lava, cleared tephra, and rebuilt their home. Grounded in Timothy Morton’s symbiotic real and Anna Tsing’s ecological entanglements, the project unfolds in three stages: Remember, honouring ecological memory through Icelandic burial rituals interwoven with biodiversity; Re-enact, transforming past human actions into ecological regeneration by reusing local waste; and Reconnect, cultivating empathy through immersive sensory paths inspired by selkie myths. This progressive journey—from memory, through action, to empathetic experience—moves beyond anthropocentric landscapes, embracing landscape ghosts as active design partners. Ultimately, these interventions form a Solidarity Landscape, where human livelihoods, biodiversity, and cultural identity continually haunt and co-construct each other, fostering meaningful coexistence and mutual resilience within shared ecologies.
Step 1- Seeking
Guided by Goethe’s phenomenology, Seeking begins with careful, unprejudiced observation—accurately describing what is happening in the landscape before moving on to interpretation and meaning. At three scales—territory, island, and site—I first document the physical and cultural traces etched by volcanic forces and human responses.
Inspired by Patrick Keiller’s Robinson in Ruins, I then adopt the huldufólk—the hidden people of Icelandic myth—as my wandering guide, weaving together reflections and concepts that emerge only through immersive, place-specific engagement.
This dual process of observation and interpretation allows me to move from “what is” to “why it matters,” laying the groundwork for design that is both deeply rooted and richly responsive.
Step 1- Seeking
Step 2- speculating
REMEMBER: Cemetery
Focusing on ecological memory and cultural resilience, the cemetery design reinterprets Icelandic burial rituals through ecological restoration:
Cairn-Style Lava Memorials: Engraved basalt cairns fostering tactile remembrance and habitats for moss and lichens.
Mycelial Burial Mounds: Turf-covered mounds enriched with fungi, linking human remains to tree roots and fungal networks for biodiversity.
Rain-Harvesting Lava Urns: Basalt urns collecting rainwater, facilitating reflective rituals and ecological renewal.
Subterranean Christian Vaults: Traditional graves integrated with volcanic soils, blending cultural heritage with ecological restoration.
Reflective Memory Ponds: Mirror-like ponds unifying past and present, providing wildlife habitats and regulating ecological cycles.
RE-ENACT: Material Reuse
Transforming past human actions into regenerative practices:
Seiðr Loop: Converts local waste (fish and community waste, tephra, lupine) into compost used for tree planting and habitat creation. It includes greenhouse worm-farms and windrow composting, repurposing industrial and community waste into fertile soil.
RECONNECT: Sensory Pathways
Selkie’s Skin Path: A sensory-rich barefoot trail tracing an ancient volcanic vent between land and sea. It unfolds in three segments:
Skin Memory Walk: A narrow boardwalk “grafted” onto the lava field, where visitors shed shoes to feel contrasting substrates underfoot.
Explorative Stairs: Cut-and-fill basalt steps carved into a slope, each riser revealing lava layers and framing distant island vistas.
Tidal Rock Pools & Floating Seal Platform: Stepping stones at the water’s edge for symbolic immersion—like a selkie’s shedding of skin—inviting pause, reflection, and a softened transformation through salt and stone.
“She often sat and looked at the sea.”
Inspired by this selkie folk tale, a narrow boardwalk is grafted onto the lava field to guide barefoot visitors, where “the body remembers the myth before the mind does.” Aligned to frame distant houses and islands—echoing the selkie’s belonging between Land and sea—the path weaves three volcanic substrates: smooth pāhoehoe, grainy tuff, and compact scoria. Each underfoot surface invites tactile exploration and, over time, the porous scoria softens with moss and lichen, gently transforming the tactile experience.
How can place-specific designs inform solidarity strategies at the island scales?
Awards
Skills & Experience
- Adobe Suites
- 3D Modeling/Rhino
- AutoCAD
- Lumion
- Qgis
Zeliang Lyu
