Welcome to Criceland

My diploma blog.

Student: Olafia Zoega, Bergen School of Architecture.

Place of diploma: Reykjavík city and the greater Reykjavík area, Iceland.

"Is a neighbourhood still a neighbourhood without the neighbours?

Iceland is now facing circumstances they have never faced before. Huge growth of the Icelandic banking sector with adventurous investments overseas resulted in national bankruptcy in the fall of 2008. This is one of the worst national bankrupcys in history. The country went from being one of the riches (allegedly) countries in the world to becoming dependant on support from the International Monetary Fund and other countries in a matter of days. The IMF loan was the first loan to a western nation since 1976.

When the country and it´s countrymen now try to stumble back on their feet it is hard to make sense of what has happened. It is one thing to be an Icelander living abroad as I am and another thing to be stuck in the middle of the turmoil. I was travelling over the border between Russia and Norway when I received the news. I had been in Russia for five days, totally oblivion to what had happened. Bankruptcy? Will my folks lose their jobs? What does a national bankruptcy mean?

It not only addresses the financial status of a nation. Iceland has been through bad times before. But that has usually been when the fisheries have failed or natural disaster has occurred. But this time it seemed to be our own fault. Something we made ourselves, something we could possibly have prevented.

This has sent the Icelanders soul-searching and in search for their true identity. How are we perceived by others? How do we perceive ourselves? What is “Icelandic” today? It was a vastly growing business “empire” that never really existed. Reykjavik was expanding outwards with great speed as contractors threw up neighbourhoods all over the place. But how do you live in a neighbourhood with hardly any neighbours? How do you come to terms with what has happened and who is to blame?"