Volcano Visitor Center Centru di Visitatori by Haisheng Xu

Volcano Visitor Center Centru di Visitatori by Haisheng Xu is a highly esteemed winner of the very prestigious 2026 A' Design Award di Bronzu in Disignu d'Architettura Competition Category.

BronzuArchitettura· 2026

Volcano Visitor Center Centru di Visitatori

by Haisheng Xu

Client: Studio 0

A' Design Award di Bronzu Winner in Architettura Category

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Verified Award Winner

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View at A' Design Award Press Release Award Badge

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The Design

About Volcano Visitor Center Centru di Visitatori

U Centru di Visitatori di u Vulcanu hè un centru di visitatori in Islanda chì presenta infurmazioni geologiche, storiche è culturali nantu à i vulcani islandesi. L'edifiziu copre 7.300 pedi quadrati è hè inseritu in u terrenu vulcanicu, unendu spazii sutterranei cù una cuperta scultata. A paletta di materiali hè semplice, custituita di calcestru, metallu è vetru, cù un tettu verde cuncipitu per sustene e piante lucali. Strumenti di cuncezzione parametrica anu datu forma à a curva mantenendu una geometria raziunale. A circulazione guida i visitatori à sperimentà l'orizonte, a terra è a natura.

The Recognition

About the A' Design Award di Bronzu

Volcano Visitor Center Centru di Visitatori hè un vincitore di u premiu A' Design Award di Bronzu, una ricunniscenza assai prestigiosa attribuita à i disegni eccellenti chì si distinguenu per a creatività, l'ingegnu è l'acutezza. I vincitori di Bronzu sò artefatti largamente abili è sorprendentemente creativi chì autenticanu a vasta sperienza, l'imaginazione è l'ingegnosità di i so disegnatori. Si aspetta chì Volcano Visitor Center Centru di Visitatori sia un oggettu assai apprezzatu, ammiratu è caru, rimarchevulemente prufessiunale è innuvatore. Stu disegnu vincitore di u premiu A' Design Award di Bronzu incorpora e migliori pratiche di l'arte, di a scienza, di u disegnu è di a tecnulugia è hè eccellente per l'attinzione à i detaglii. Volcano Visitor Center Centru di Visitatori suddisfa splendidamente i bisogni, tocca i disideri, incanta i sentimenti è chjama a curiusità.

Behind the Design

Press Kit

Credits, team members and technical details provided by the designer.

Unique Properties: Embedded within the volcanic terrain, the project dissolves the boundary between building and landscape, offering a continuous journey of light, earth, and horizon. By uniting subterranean shelter with sculpted roofscape, it transforms architecture into an environmental mediator that preserves the site while intensifying experience, inviting visitors to inhabit nature not as observers, but as participants in its elemental presence.
Dimensions & Packaging: 7,300 square feet.
Tags: Sustainability, Landscape Architecture, Mobius,Parametric, Curvilinear
Production Technology: The building is intended to use local materials and minimize its impact on the existing landscape. The material palette is kept simple, consisting of concrete, metal, and glass, with a green roof designed to support local plants. Parametric design tools were used to create a dynamic form responding to the organic landscape while maintaining rational geometry and production control. View and lighting analyses were also used to verify the design outcomes.
Design Challenge: The creative challenge was to create a manmade form that responds to the existing landscape and site language without simply mimicking nature. The design philosophy explores how humans, while adapting to nature, interpret and reshape the surrounding environment to achieve a new balance that can sustain human life in a sustainable and long-lasting way.
Research: The research focused on two main aspects. The first examined how volcanic activities have shaped Iceland’s landscape and human activities. It was particularly inspiring to understand how volcanoes and the hidden underground world provide fertile soil and geothermal heat for life, while many human activities and habitats are partially or fully embedded underground. The second aspect studied the geometries and forms generated by volcanic activities.
Inspiration: Iceland’s settlement history is shaped by volcanic forces and the landscapes and energy they generate. The vast horizontal terrain fosters a close relationship between human life and the earth. Inspired by volcanic forms and the mystery of the underground, the design reinforces this connection by integrating surface and subterranean space. It invites visitors to reflect on nature as they experience the expansive horizon.
Project Duration: 2025, Iceland
Operation Flow: The design serves as a tourist center introducing geological, historical, and cultural information about Icelandic volcanoes, showing how volcanic activities have shaped Iceland’s environmental and social landscapes. The concept originates from volcanic terrain, particularly exploring the interface between the ground surface and the underground. Around this interface, the building's circulation guides visitors to experience the horizon, the land, and nature.
Team Members: Haisheng Xu