Where ideas take shape: creating extraordinary events at Harpa

In Reykjavík, Harpa Concert Hall and Conference Centre brings together architecture, culture and the Icelandic landscape. Harpa is itself a landmark of creative collaboration. Designed by Henning Larsen Architects and Batteríið Architects, with its distinctive glass façade developed in collaboration with artist Olafur Eliasson, the building draws inspiration from Icelandic basalt formations and the ever-changing Nordic lights.

This makes Harpa a natural fit for events centred on design, architecture, innovation and the future, and because of that Harpa’s team works closely with organisers to transform ideas into memorable experiences, helping shape everything from spatial planning and technical solutions to lighting, staging and the audience journey.

One example is the annual DesignTalks conference, at the heart of DesignMarch, Iceland’s annual festival of design and architecture. Harpa has hosted the event for more than a decade, with its spaces transformed each year around a new theme, visual identity and programme.

While the theme of the event changes every year, DesignTalks repeatedly explores questions around creativity, society, sustainability and the future, bringing together designers, architects and thinkers from Iceland and around the world.

DesignTalks is a strong example of what is possible when an event is allowed to become more than just its programme. Each edition is allowed to create its own atmosphere and identity, using Harpa’s spaces, technical possibilities and architecture in different ways each year. It reflects the kind of collaboration that Harpa aims to offer every organiser: the flexibility to shape an event around a creative idea, rather than forcing that idea into a fixed format.

For international event organisers, the opportunity is simple: bring the idea, the audience and the ambition. Harpa brings the spaces, expertise and people to help turn that vision into an experience.

Because the events people remember are rarely the ones that simply filled a room.

They are the ones that could only have happened there.