Residential - by Björg

The trend toward densification of neighborhoods in the planning policies of cities throughout the world means that issues of privacy and retreat will become increasingly acute.  The puplic space, the street, driven be motorized vehicle has already made the ideal of permeability in the interface between the house and the street. So the questions is how the forms that residential development might take in the cities.

To work with distance from ones immediate surroundings, while living in their midst, one must distance oneself and become completely isolated from them.  At the same time/place where you experience your privacy, you desire a connection to the environment and time.  Daylight begets time and connects us to the environment.  It is our lifeline in space.  

Privacy is made more pronounced when contrasted with the environment.  A space which one can step into, becoming exposed.  A moment in time and space reinforcing privacy via publicity.

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2.floor

3.floor

4.floor

siteplan

The Music School - Final

The main goal of my extension was to keep the entire school on one plot and keep it connected. The school itself is for children from ages 5 - 15 so it's always full of life and I wanted to the new building to reflect that. While the outer walls walls are relatively restricted and angled, the inside spaces are transparent, playful and bright. One of my main inspiration was music itself, because no matter how playful or happy a piece is, it's always under a very strict rhythm. I hope the building demonstrates that, albeit subtly.



I didn't want to copy the style of the old French Hospital, but intead make a whole new form based on the old building. I.e., I extended angles and lines from the French Hospital and its surrounding to create the forms in my new extension. It's mainly apparent in the ground plans, so to make the connection stronger in actuality, I made some references to the old building with material choices. The wood has the same terra cotta red as the wood in the Hospital and the music hall's stone wall is made of the same stone as the base in the old building, although stacked in a more delicate way.



In these plans it's more prominent how the schools actually connect. There is a glass building between them with a glass bridge that connects the upper floors. It's a nice place for kids to wait for their parents to pick them up, or wait for teachers. I also put a pavilion there to make this more of a square. This can be used as a venue for all sorts of musical events or simply for kids to play around.



I realized that I didn't want the extension to be basically halls with practice rooms to each side, but rather make a star diagram, i.e. with an open space in the middle and have entrances to each rooms go from there. So I placed an enclosed atrium in the middle, where children can wait while being picked up to class or make their homework. I chose to have it closed off with a glass ceiling, because although it sounds very nice to be under a clear sky, Icelandic weather simply doesn't allow it. The school is open during winter and the atrium would be full of snow and rain most of the time, so I think it would be much more useful to keep it closed off.



Here one can see better how the middle atrium connects to other classrooms and the music hall itself. The music hall is made to be multifunctional, both to have concerts or simply practices for the band or kammer groups. It can also open up into the atrium if it needs more space or simply for a more open event.



The moss wall behind the concert hall is also prominent in this section. If one sits there and faces north, the window opens up to the moss wall behind. This is also another entrance into the school and probably more handy if people are coming to see a concert or simply if kids are coming from that direction. Here the windows on the music hall is also apparent, but they were put there as a reference to musical rhythm.



These last two pictures show well the inside spaces. I put bright and fun colours inside, because this is first and foremost a children's building. The classrooms are open and transparent. Here one can also see how the upper floor connects to the atrium, but there's just a metre high glass wall so people can look down in the atrium.

Apartments and daycare - Final review

On my lot, witch is located between Grettisgata 26 and Frakkastígur 15, I decided to make a kind of a new concept, in Iceland at least. There will be 3 apartments for day care parents and a common working space for their daycare. This allows the day care parents to get some privacy in their home, instead of having the children in their apartment like most of them do today. There will be about 15 children with 3 day care parents, witch creates more security and opportunity to do more stimulating work with the children.
The main concept of my project is to have a really great, colorful, fun and stimulating daycare, where the architecture is utilized to the full in creating a really interesting spaces for the children. Secondly, I wanted the apartments to be very simple, calm and relaxing. I started to look for some inspiring photos, and found a lot that helped me, witch you can see example of in my first blog.
I wanted to create a definite contrast between the apartments and the daycare, so I really went to the extreme with the daycare. I chose some really bright colors, and irregular forms in all openings to make it really adventurous. I chose currigated iron for the daycare to connect it a tiny bit to the houses in the neighbourhood, but mostly to underline the rippled or irregular look I was going for, and make it more different from the apartments witch are made of white painted concrete.
I decide to have the daycare by Frakkastígur, in front of the apartments, to interact with all the new things happening in Frakkastígur and the apartments in the back were it is more quet and private. The daycare calls for attention with some really interesting openings towards Frakkastígur. There are fun and colorful openings, These openings connect the activities in the daycare to the cultural life in Frakkastígur. The garden is situated savely behind the daycare and is surrounded by the building which create a great shelter. There are also a lot of vegetation and flowers. From the garden lies a ramp to the roof witch the children can walk up, and play on the roof. In the garden are a lot of holes and small hills with tubes that lie through them and the children can crawl in, hide themselves and play with as they like. There is sand in some holes, and a lot of simple toys that don’t mess with the architecture.

I litterally connected the carden to the interior of the daycare by letting the bumps and holes flow into the house through a big glass vall, which includes a sliding door. On the inside, the small hills create small rooms underneath the hills, and on them are some holes which the children can crawl into. With that, some interesting spaces are created, witch can be used for different things. In one I imagine a kind of a soothing mood, kind of like underwater, with a fishtank, which could be used as a napping room.

The daycare and the apartments are separated, but there is a big wall that kind of connects them together. The holes in the wall symbolize the change from the “crazy” daycare to the simple quet apartments.

Site plan

View from Frakkastígur

View from the garden into the daycare

Plan - 2nd floor

Plan - 1st floor

Section through the daycare

Section through the daycare and the apartments

Here and on the next pictures you can clearly see the difference
beetween the daycare and the apartments.

Landscraping - Röðull & Snorri

Ever since we started working on this project we saw a golden opportunity to connect Frakkastígur again with the element that it was originally derived from. The first actual house on Frakkastígur was the french hospital which served the purpose of servicing french sailors in Iceland.

The location is in our minds an ideal spot to connect Frakkastígur to the sea, as well as connecting the street to other parts of the city via. the footpath that runs along the shore by Sæbraut. This footpath goes all around Reykjavík and is used quite a lot by the inhabitants of the city. With the arrival of a new concert hall just a few hundred meters away there is an even bigger reason to create a sort of an "urban pause" close by. A place where people can meet up, with friends or family and take part in various activities within the space provided.

The area may be regarded as a series of clusters rather than one single element. We wanted to provide interesting and stimulating spaces where people can enjoy the scenery, have a nice cup of coffee, participate in sport events, attend concerts or just take a little time to escape the everyday urban life.

It is in our human nature to search out the new, the exciting. Something that will release us from the bonds of the ordinary. We wanted to create challenging and exciting spaces that challenge people to perceive their environment in a new and fresh way, if only for a little while. Light is very important to our project, and is used in different ways for each cluster.

The main clusters are as follows. A green space with ponds and playgrounds right next to the Skuggi-towers. A tunnel that lies under Sæbraut and connects Frakkastígur to the area by the sea. A large dome that can house concerts, lectures, sport activities, markets and gatherings of just about any sort. A multi-level café which also houses a kind of an underwater safari, where you can look straight into the sea and witness the amazing array of life that can be found underwater.

In the tunnel we wanted to create something more than just a plain concrete tunnel. We wanted to make it an adventurous place to visit by intertwining different light elements that come together to create a cozy, yet exciting environment. At an intersection within the tunnel there is enough space for concerts or even a market, surrounded by benches where people can sit down. We also wanted to make the tunnel "readable" from above by extending the light-cairns up onto the surface. We envisage that this will also grab the attention of anyone that walks or drives through the area.The ceiling of the dome is covered in holes of various shapes and sizes that break up the light and scatter it´s rays throughout the center of the dome. The dome is open on five sides, but each opening serves a different function. One opens up to the sea and creates a small alcove within the dome. The second one is linked to an outdoor recreation area and playground on the western side of the area. The third one provides access to the platform surrounding the Sun Voyager. The fourth one is situated by a kayak harbor and a large wooden deck surrounding the café. The fifth one provides access to the café itself.

The café is on three levels, resembling an iceberg with only one level above sea level. By venturing down to the second and third level one catches a glimpse into the sea itself, which will surely be a powerful visual experience. On the second level, one can access an underwater tunnel under the kayak harbor that connects again to the aforementioned intersection within the tunnel.

There is also a kayak harbor behind the "peninsula" that the cafe sits on. The peninsula provides shelter for the kayakers in is meant as a training ground before venturing out to the open sea. The tunnel beneath the harbor has a glass ceiling so that people can watch the kayakers getting ready from beneath.

Food court, restaurant, shops, art gallery and more