Harpa Reykjavik Concert Hall and Conference Center by Sarah Ackerman licensed under the terms of CC BY 2.0
This week’s crazy building is the Harpa Concert Hall in Reykjavik, Iceland.
Completed in 2011, Harpa is the home of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. It was also meant to include a hotel, apartments, shops, restaurants and other facilities, but those plans were abandoned during Iceland’s financial crisis.
This unusually angled structure seems to burst out in all directions. Its facade consists of a honeycomb-like structure, a lattice-work of interlocking hexagons. Here and there, certain window panels gleam in different colors to create a distinctive, shimmering effect.
The locals have two theories about the strange exterior. One is that the gleaming panels represent fish scales, recalling the city’s economic roots as a fishing village. The other is the interlocking hexagons are made to resemble columnar basalt rock formations that are a hallmark of Iceland’s geography.
Whatever the reason, it makes for a building unlike any other.
