The cost of a new hotel and bathing lagoon in Þjórsárdalur runs to eight billion ISK. The facility is to be inside the mountain.
A subsidiary of Bláa lónið (Blue Lagoon) has carved a large notch into Rauðukambar in Þjórsárdalur, where a new hotel and bathing lagoon will be created. The cost of the construction runs to billions of ISK.
Rauðukambar, a subsidiary company of Bláa lónið (Blue Lagoon), is building a hotel, bathing lagoon and visitor centre in Þjórsárdalur.
The hotel will be embedded into Rauðukambar – the mountain after which the company is named.
Magnús Orri Schram, head of development at Bláa lónið, says the aim is for people to feel as if they are walking into the mountain.
This is one of the most expensive projects ever undertaken in Icelandic tourism, with the cost running to billions of ISK. Rauðukambar has the plot on a forty year lease.
After work began it emerged that in some places the distance to bedrock was greater than had been believed, and therefore more of the mountain was excavated than originally planned, but the material removed from the mountain will be used to cover the hotel building.
Magnús Orri says every effort is being made to minimise the disturbance caused by the construction.
But would it not simply have been easier to place the hotel in front of the mountain rather than inside it?
The aim with building into the mountain is to let nature and the man made element intermingle and create something unique.
A car park has been built at the mouth of the valley and a visitor centre will also be located there. Nearly ten kilometres of road have been laid from there to the hotel.
Magnús says the road will be open to all, but hotel and bathing lagoon guests will be transported up and down.
“We are controlling the traffic, we are controlling the load,” says Magnús Orri.
Rather than getting 200 cars up here, a coach runs every twenty minutes back and forth.
He says the facilities are not only for more affluent customers.
No, not at all. We are building a campsite by the visitor centre. We will build small cabins or huts for sleeping bag accommodation. We have Fjallaböðin open to everyone.
The construction works are controversial, as they are on a protected landscape conservation area. The then forsætisráðherra (Prime Minister), Katrín Jakobsdóttir, granted permission for the works, and they did not have to undergo an environmental assessment. An agreement has still not been reached on payments to the state for water utilisation.
Umhverfisstofnun (Environment Agency of Iceland) considered the project likely to have negative and irreversible effects on the natural environment and appearance of the area. The building would be clearly visible from Stöng, one of the main visitor sites in the valley, from parts of Þjórsárdalsvegur and from large areas of the lowlands of the conservation area.
The project will cause irreversible disturbance to Rauðukambar, which are colourful liparite mountains considered rare geological formations in Iceland,
states the agency’s letter.
Among the conditions for the permit was that it was forbidden to disturb or drive on the pseudocrater area south and east of Rauðukambar, but the company has been granted an exemption from the protection conditions to drill for cold water in the pseudocrater area.
What is a landscape conservation area?
The website of Stjórnarráðið (Government Offices of Iceland) says the following of landscape conservation areas:
[…defined as] landscape considered particularly valuable because of its aesthetic and/or cultural significance, considered distinctive or rare on a regional, national or global scale, or holding an important place in the nation’s consciousness. If the area is one where traditional land use is a prerequisite for preserving the characteristics of the landscape, such uses must be ensured into the future. Activity already practised in the area may continue, but care must be taken that it does not affect its characteristics and distinctive features.
Source: Ruv.is
