Skriðuklaustur Visitor Centre, Iceland

Client: Icelandic government construction contracting agency
Project: BREEAM certification, Structural design, HVAC, plumbing, fire safety and acoustic design
Located in southeast Iceland’s 12,000 km² Vatnajokull National Park, which occupies some 12% of the country’s total landmass and is Europe’s largest facility of its kind, the Skriðuklaustur visitor centre serves both as a display and conference centre.
At approximately 740 m² in size, it is the first building in Iceland to have environmental and sustainable qualification approval, and was designed and approved according to the BREEAM (BRE Environmental Assessment Method) assessment process.
As part of the BREEAM assessment process, the objective of the design of the building was to minimize the life cycle cost (LCC), and the LCC of the building materials played a decisive role in their selection, along with high standards of endurance and low maintenance.
EFLA was commissioned to provide a range of services relating to the design of a critical range of systems used in the structure.
The building is one level with a basement. The foundation and slab on grade are cast-in-place concrete, but the structural system above is divided into two parts. The exterior walls and roof of the lower building are constructed of cast-in-place visual concrete with some timber cladding on the outside. The roof is an inverted structure with grass on top. The higher building has exterior timber walls and a roof of prefabricated sandwich panels.
The exterior walls and roof of the higher building have copper cladding.
Most of the building has natural ventilation but the toilets and intake rooms have mechanical ventilation. It also has a sanitary system, drainage system and a water sprinkler system for the grass roof.
EFLA scope:

• Consultation on environmental design and BREEAM assessment, in association with Mott MacDonald
• Environmental assessment of different building materials for use in external and internal walls, roofs, cladding and landscaping materials in accordance with BREEAM standards.
• Structural design
• Sanitary system design
• Heating system design
• Drainage system design
• Ventilation system design
• Water sprinkler system design
• Fire safety design
• Acoustic design