Saturday, May 3, 2008

Students apartments

My project is designing a student oriented houses on the corner of Frakkastígur and Hverfisgata. The idea came while I was travelling in Morocco in the Easter-break. The houses are traditionally built in a square with a courtyard in the middle. There are also buildings called riad, but there lived the rich families back in the days. Riad is a 3-4 floor house with a courtyard in the middle and the courtyard had a fountain or something that could be a centre and a meeting place for the families that lived there.

I began to pick a spot on Frakkastígur and thought about how I could get the best out of it. The site that I mentioned at first was a perfect place for student oriented houses with the future location for the Icelandic academy of arts, just around the corner. I decided to tear down the existing house and the shed that belongs to it. After that a lot of space was available. First I drew four boxes that surround some kind of centre that evolved into something that began to look like houses. The roofs have a slight grade that all increases to the courtyard. The concept consists of four houses and then I joined them into two pair which is connected with stairways covered with glass. Three of the four units is a two floor building and each floor has a single studio apartment. The fourth unit, the one that is located in the back of the plot, is a three floor building and each floor has a one-room apartment that could be suitable for a couple. All the apartments have the same concept with a living room facing the courtyard through a big window. This is ment to enjoy the view of the courtyard from inside the apartments and to connect with the other people living in the complex. The sleeping rooms, bathrooms and kitchens are located in the outer walls of the buildings. The courtyard is intended to be a place where the residents can meet and hang out, relax and get to know each other. Benches made of concrete are located all around the courtyard along the building and also a circular bench around a big tree in the centre. Some of the walls are covered with climbing plants and the ground has also a bushes and vegetation. Part of the ground is paved with grass-stone and the rest is paved with rough, irregular stones that give the courtyard comfortable atmosphere. In front of the staircase there is a water feature that could for example collect the roof water. The main entrance to the courtyard is on Frakkastígur where it is possible to peek inside from the street and see the life in the garden. A secondary entrance is on Hverfisgata, but there it’s not possible to see into the courtyard. On the other hand it is possible to see the courtyard through the transparent stairway as you walk on by at Hverfisgata right before you cross the intersection of the streets. The facades facing the street, is inspired by the old house that stood on the spot before and the houses in the neighbourhood. These facades are clad with unpainted, corrugated iron which makes it blend in with the street scape despite the modern shape of the building. The windows gives is also related with the other houses in the street, square, regular and basic. The facades that face the courtyard are made out of glass and boarded with dark and cosy wood planks. The wood will also help creating a comfortable atmosphere in the courtyard.

The emphasis in the project has been on the courtyard as a midpoint for the small society of students living there, and also making the building blend in its surrounding but still in a modern way.









5 comments:

Andrew said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ása Bryndís said...

Miðjugarðurinn er svo notalegur, væri sko mjög til í að eiga íbúð þarna :) Skemmtilegt lagið á íbúðunum og hvernig þær opnast í garðinn. Virkilega flott!

Snorri Þór Tryggvason said...

mjög flott! sérstaklega myndir nr. 2, 5, og 7......raunverulegar en miðla um leið sterkri og notalegri tilfinningu. Vel gert!!

Elena Gilbert said...

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York House

Elena Gilbert said...

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