Location: Mývatn, Iceland

Design Team: SP(R)INT STUDIO + Nissen Richards Studio

Area: 400 m²

Year: 2025

Photography: Claudio Parada Nunes

Design Features: The Gígur Visitor Centre stands within the Mývatn nature reserve in northern Iceland. SP(R)INT STUDIO and Nissen Richards Studio jointly designed its interior, permanent exhibition and graphic identity. Set within a 400 m² existing building glazed on all sides, the exhibition avoids crowding out the landscape. Instead, views of the lake, lava fields, craters and sky become part of the visitor narrative and an introduction to the northern reaches of Vatnajökull National Park.

Mývatn literally means 'Midge Lake'. These tiny insects sustain fish and birdlife, linking wetland ecology, volcanic terrain and local culture. Rather than separating subjects into isolated disciplines, the exhibition weaves flora, fauna, geology, folklore and cultural memory into one journey. Maps, illustrations, specimens, sound, film and tactile interactives translate complex natural processes for a broad audience.

Low bespoke timber tables occupy the centre of the room. Exhibits rise from them like fragments of terrain, while the horizontal view remains open to the landscape beyond. Stained greens and blues echo Iceland's summer vegetation and water, and timber provides a warm, continuous datum within the transparent envelope. Along the perimeter, visitors can look outward while listening to stories, music and poetry: interpretation becomes a tool for seeing, rather than a substitute for nature.

The experience is designed across ages. Children encounter drawings and activities at their own height, robust mechanical interactives, and small 'troll tunnels' made only for them. A dedicated audiovisual room presents documentary footage, while underwater film, recorded stories and excerpts from Hvell extend the exhibition into ecological scales that cannot be seen directly. The welcome area, cafe and shop continue the same timber language, keeping arrival, rest and interpretation visually connected.

Gígur resists turning an expansive landscape into a closed explanation. Low-level displays, transparent boundaries and multisensory storytelling establish a measured form of interpretation: knowledge opens the view, while changing light, weather and seasons complete the exhibition. For travellers arriving at Mývatn, the centre is both a point of departure and a lesson in how to look at the land.

Design Team: Founded in Paris in 2011 and now based principally in Reykjavik, SP(R)INT STUDIO is led by French-Icelandic architect and urban planner Karl Kvaran and Iranian architect and researcher Sahar Ghaderi. Its name abbreviates Space (Re)Interpretation, reflecting a practice that brings art, archaeology, ecology, sociology and technology into architecture, urbanism and spatial analysis.

The studio operates as both a design practice and a research laboratory, maintaining a close relationship between architecture, landscape and human perception. Cross-cultural enquiry, environmental responsibility and collaboration with specialists are central to its work, particularly where heritage must be interpreted for contemporary audiences.

Nissen Richards Studio was founded in London in 2010 by Pippa Nissen and Jim Richards. The multidisciplinary practice works across architecture, exhibition and interpretation design, graphics, theatre, film, animation and wayfinding. Its distinctive storyboarding process allows space, objects and narrative to be developed as a single visitor experience.

The studio has worked with institutions including the British Museum, National Portrait Gallery, The Courtauld, the National Gallery of Norway and MUNCH. Its cultural work includes RIBA National Award-winning projects at Sutton Hoo and The Courtauld Gallery. At Gígur, the two practices combine local knowledge of Iceland's landscape with an established expertise in interpretation and exhibition-making.