DOOMSDAY VILLAGE

As soon as the threat of climate change became apparent and visible to Icelanders the rich started to build ‘’doomsday houses’’. As time passed and the island grew more inhospitable the most fortunate inhabitants migrated to milder locations. The ones left behind struggling to get by found the ‘’doomsday houses’’ and eventually established communities around geothermal areas. In one such settlement the doomsday houses were positioned radially around a warm blue lagoon, each row of houses formed a sort of Testudo formation to protect the inhabitants from the cruel winter. During the summer when the weather would get better the shields between the houses would sink into the ground and the settlement would expand with temporary structures placed between the rows. The inhabitants harnessed energy from the geothermal activity in the area to power their greenhouses and they bathed in the warm lagoon, which became their town squre during the winter.