Yanran Zhang

Drangajökull: Echos of Lives

Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (ESALA)

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Project description

We are losing glaciers.
Though we cannot stop their disappearance, we can still remember them—through the land they shaped and the stories with them.

Drangajökull, the northernmost glacier in Iceland and the one at the lowest elevation, is unique for its interaction with the sea, and layered settlement stories on both sides of it. Its rapid retreat is expected to end around 2090 - a timespan that echoes a human lifetime.

This program is focused on the past, present, and future of Drangajökull. With glaciers retreating, this territory will become a national park shaped by two routes that connect the fjord, glacier, and the open sea. These routes serve as living memorials: commemorating the trace of the glacier and the settlement stories around Drangajökull, responding to the dynamic margins from sea to glacier to sea, inviting lives back to this landscape.

The project is composed of three Chapters: Living on shore, Step with Drangajökull and Dynamic Margins on Old Settlement, reflecting the story of disappearing glacier and the echoes of lives.

Territory: Drangajökull

Drangajökull's Future

After the main body of glacier has retreated, the two sides of Drangajökull will be connected and become a national park.

Dynamic Drangajökull: Model and Animation

An animation shows the glacier retreating process using model and the dynamic landscape of Drangajökull.

Chapter 1 Living on Shore

Shipwreck as Shelter

During 900 - 1900, more than 1000 ships sank in Ísafjörður.

After being eroded by seawater, shipwreck will be like the coral stucture, and become shelter for marine lives. Using floating buoy to mark the position, shipwrecks also become the museum under the sea.

Growing Headland

Memorial of Ísafjörður

The memorial will celebrate the movements of sediment from galcier to sea by showing the growth of the headland, and also mark the changing of tide and sea level by the small slope of the platform.

With the skyline of the opposite fjords as the background, people can see the shipwreck's positions - the museum on the sea from the platform, and also observe the world under the sea when they go down to the underwater theatre.