Iceland Smokehouse

Buildner invites architects and designers to imagine a smokehouse for a working family farm in the Lake Mývatn area of northern Iceland. The Iceland Smokehouse competition explores how a small building can give architectural expression to a long-established food tradition. Rooted in knowledge passed between generations, the project brings together a practical craft and a creative question: how can architecture communicate the patience, care and gradual transformation at the heart of smoking fish?

The competition encourages participants to approach architecture as a language through which this tradition can be experienced and understood. The movement of smoke, the rhythm of tending it and the relationship between food, farming and landscape offer starting points for interpretation. Contemporary and experimental ideas are welcome, alongside thoughtful engagement with Icelandic building traditions and local materials. Participants are invited to discover an architectural vocabulary that expresses the character of the craft and honours the people who sustain it.

The task is to design a compact smokehouse suited to year-round use and the family’s existing scale of production. The current smoking chamber, approximately 9 m², provides a reference, with only a modest enlargement envisaged. Proposals should explain their relationship to the existing farm buildings, including facilities already used for preparing and packing fish. Participants may explore an independent structure or an intervention incorporating existing spaces. Opportunities for observation, storytelling, tasting or small-scale sales may also be considered, provided they remain proportionate and keep visitors separate from unpackaged food.

The expected results are imaginative proposals supported by a credible understanding of the working process. Designs should respond sensitively to the surrounding landscape and Icelandic climate, with practical consideration of construction, hygiene, durability, maintenance and cost. The family’s interest in developing a new smokehouse gives the competition the potential to inform a future built project. Participants are encouraged to create architecture whose identity grows from the activity within it, giving this living tradition a memorable presence and inviting new generations to appreciate its cultural value.

PRIZES

All winners of Iceland Smokehouse will automatically qualify for the annual Buildner Medal 2027, where they will compete alongside selected winners of other Buildner competitions for a share of the €50,000 prize fund.

COMPETITION SCHEDULE

Early Bird Registration: OCTOBER 28 – JANUARY 27
Advance Registration: JANUARY 27 – APRIL 1
Last Minute Registration: APRIL 2 – JULY 22

Final registration deadline: JULY 22, 2027
Closing date for submission: SEPTEMBER 6, 2027 (11:59 London Time)
Announcement of the winners: OCTOBER 19, 2027


More: https://architecturecompetitions.com/smokehouse