EYECATCHING DESIGN
The architects of the new house at Vegamótastígur are Margrét Harðardóttir and Steve Christer at Studio Granda. Their design has caught the eye of design and architecture journalists and it has been featured in several publications including Architectural Review (May 2008, .pdf) and Forum AID (August 2008) but also on Designboom.com.
'It is not common for projects still in the design phase to be revealed like this in the media', Steven commented in the local newspaper Morgunblaðið (September 2008, .pdf). He told that this had been in many ways a very challenging task. At first their design included a simple modern building with the old house to be removed from the site and reconstructed elsewhere, a rather common practise in Reykjavík. 'But in some way this was unsatisfactory, there was a lack of purpose in the whole project', Steve remarked. After a brainstorming session the idea of moving the old house on top of the new building was born. 'It is not an easy task and the lot is narrow. This has to be executed in a way it doesn´t become a silly joke but an interesting and critical comment on city planning.'
In particular Steve wants to emphazise that the design allows the old and the new to blend in a seamless way. The new part is clad in a sheath of finely seamed flat copper with an-situ concrete attic that doubles as the foundation for the historic hamlet. Copper is used again for the old part in corrugated form replacing the vernacular iron, offset with the judicious use of glass in handrails and canopies.
