Venice, Italy
CNN
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Erupting from fiery volcanoes, lava has historically been an uncontrollable force that destroys buildings and neighborhoods in its wake. But what if that force could instead be redirected and harnessed to create whole cities? An ambitious project from Icelandic firm s.ap arkitektar, presented at this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale (running until November 23), proposes just that.
Whereas lava naturally cools on the landscape to become volcanic rock such as basalt, “Lavaforming” — which envisions molten rock as a new form of building material — lays out strategies for cooling it in controlled ways so that it can set into walls, columns and other architectural…
