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Attractions : Hekla Center

Unique architecture in a generous surrounding

Heklacenter. When the owners of Leirubakki first got the idea to built a museum at Leirubakki, they sat together with EON-architects, Hlédís Sveinsdóttir and Gunnar Bergmann Stefánsson, and the geologist Ara Trausta Gudmundsson, to make their idea real.

The architecture of the building is unique
The halls of an old farm are part of the design of the building, and, naturally, most materials of the building come right from the neighbourhood. Lava stones were used both inside and outside. The neighbourhood to the volcano emphasizes this great symphony of nature and architecture. The building is fitted into the lava-fields and the ground, and icelandic lavastones were used for the facing. When you come first to the Hekla-centre, you stand in front of four metres high lava-walls, in which the windows are fitted and hidden in the lava.     www.heklacentre.is

It is a great experience to walk into the exhibitionpart oh the building, because it is just as if you walked under the surface of the earth, right und the lava-fields. The shape of the building shows visitors through the exhibition, which tells Heklas history in different ways, runs back in the centuries and explains the backgounds of erruptions. Visitors experience an erruption in a very special way, and modern computertechnic plays a big part in that. The climax of the exhibition is Hekla herself, shining in all her might, on the middle of the visitors way through the show. Footage of an erruption are shown on a big screen in a specially designed room, where you can feel the vibrations of the erruption in the ground.

There is a very pictouresque view from the eating/conference hall, and you can also go up to the viewpoint, where very comfortable sofas can be found, and from where you can step out on an outside viewpoint.

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