VHR

Project was designed for the Volcano Horsemen Retreat competition in Iceland. The site is located in the crater of a volcano that has been dormant for centuries. The volcano itself is a place of myths and legends. Iceland is a country rich in folklore and ancient traditions. All these elements, combined with modern architecture, are reflected in the project Raddir (Icelandic for “voices”). It is a complex made up of several structures forming a unified presence in nature. The stables are divided into three blocks to simplify maintenance or allow for phased construction. The main block includes a lounge area, a restaurant, a children’s playground, and a store.

In the howling wind of the valley, nothing could be heard. Only for a second, I thought I heard voices singing like the wind, so I paid it no mind. The horses walked one after another, as if they could hear those voices and were following them. We had been riding for many hours, and the tiredness was evident in both the riders and the horses. Landscapes with waterfalls changed to scorched earth, and it seemed as endless.
Turn after turn, the shapeless road began to take form, and stones started to emerge from beneath the black sand, outlining our path. Suddenly, I felt my horse become more confident, as if something unseen filled it with energy, as if it had returned home. This place was unfamiliar to me. The buildings resembled stones that had grown out of the ground. It felt as everything here — at this place in the crater — had emerged naturally and had always been here, creating an oasis where once everything had boiled in fire. Stalactite arches hung weightlessly above us, connecting the scattered structures. Everything here reminded me of a mythical city, the city of horses.
We stopped at a watering hole. From that moment, everything slowed down and grew quiet. An immense harmony seemed to saturate everything around us. Even nature itself seemed to have changed its laws. Here, in the crater, the worlds divided. The horses were led to the stables while the riders moved further ahead.
The moment we entered, the warm air and the smell of delicious food enveloped me. Remember that feeling of returning home after a long absence, back to your roots? For a second, it felt as though this was exactly what the wind had been singing about with its voices.
The crater’s walls formed a natural shelter from the wind, so I decided to have dinner on the terrace, watching as colorful tongues of the northern lights began to dance in the sky. After dinner, I spent some time in the observatory by the fire, gazing both at the flames and the aurora outside the window. At that moment, my horizon was the rim of the crater. Beyond it, I neither could nor wanted to see anything. It felt as the surrounding world did not exist, and across that desolation of volcanic sand, I had been brought here by a creature that had been listening to the wind and its voices for countless centuries. Tomorrow, at the watering hole, we will meet again and continue our journey.