Harpa Concert Hall and Conference Centre

Harpa Concert Hall features a glass facade composed of twelve-sided geometric modules that shift in color with the changing Icelandic light. Designed by Olafur Eliasson and Henning Larsen Architects, the building opened in twenty eleven, just as Iceland emerged from a severe financial collapse. Construction actually halted when the banks failed, leaving a skeletal concrete shell exposed to the North Atlantic winds for months. Building it became a point of national contention, yet crews eventually finished the glass skin, mimicking the basalt columns found across Iceland.