Hallgrímskirkja Church Reykjavík Iceland

It wasn’t until after we had driven around Iceland that I knew where the architect Guðjón Samúelsson got his inspiration for this church. He must have seen places like the Gerðuberg Cliffs where there are basalt columns. These columns are formed when lava cools and contracts after a volcanic eruption, causing the rock to crack into long, geometric columns, typically with a hexagonal pattern, due to a process called “columnar jointing”. It’s crazy to think that nature creates all these amazing phenomenon. Then we come along see this cool stuff and think, I’m going to make a building like that. And there you have it.