EXTENSION TO SUNDHÖLLIN Í REYKJAVÍK

We are very proud of our contribution to the competition for the extension of 

Sundhöllin í Reykjavík. Even though the jury did not agree with us on how to 

connect a new structure with the old building, and didn´t value our solution 

for overall access for everyone without the use of elevators, we still think 

that our new outdoor areas are among the sunniest of the proposals, and the

minimalism of the addition would have suited the original structure quite well. 

See the other entries and jury comments here:

http://reykjavik.is/sites/default/files/ymis_skjol/skjol_frettir/sundhollin_highres.pdf

Description of the project and some more drawings on:

http://www.zeroimpactstrategies.com/

DYRFJÖLL - STÓRURÐ

Victory in Iceland !  ZeroImpactStrategies wins the competition for Dyrfjöll/Stórurð. We are very proud :)
Check out Eiriks website for more: http://www.zeroimpactstrategies.com/

BYENS BESTE SOMMERKAKE ?

Da er vi i finalen i konkurransen om Fredrikstads beste sommerkake....
....og den vant så klart! heder og ære, kampbilletter, konsertbilletter og middag på by´n ! 
moro med konkurranser!!

NORGE´S FINESTE PEPPERKAKEHUS ?

Da er vi ihvertfall med i konkurransen....

GENERAL BIRTHE´S EPLEPAI

Måtte bare delta i kakekonkurransen om Elingaard Herregårds signaturkake for å få et kombinasjonsinnlegg her, og det ble en 2. plass gitt, ikke dårlig når en proff kokk tok første plass. Kaken sanket flest publikumsstemmer, sjekk Østfoldmuseenes omtale.

JEWELRY DESIGN 3rd PRIZE!

We participated in an open design competition arranged by the Iceland Design Center and jewelry designer Hendrikka Waage, our approach was to create asymmetry and capture the feeling of water...

We came in third of just about 120 entries !! Our bracelet design was considered the competitions best, suitable also as a concept for a ring design. We were quite satisfied with our presentation; obviously the jury liked it as well.

Present at the seremony in Reykjavik last friday were jury members Steinunn Sigurðardóttir, Icelands greatest fashion designer and Reykjavik City Artist of the year 2009, and Geoffroy Medinger,UK Brand director for Van Cleef & Arpels

Krissi from Krads received the prize on behalf of us.

See also extensive coverage from the prize seremony on icelandic TV here (in icelandic).

HATLEHOL CHURCH

In january we participated, in collaboration with KRADS Architecture, in the open architectural competition for a new church at Hatlehol in the Ålesund region in Norway. 123 proposals were submitted, with participants from several european countries.

Our proposal interprets the site and activates the stony ground to create intimate closed spaces, while the wooden rib structure reinterprets the forest of the church site to create flowing ancillary spaces together with the main church room.

While our proposal focused on interpreting and creating a sense of place with dissolved boundaries and subtle light variations, the winning entry (by danish architects Cornelius + Vöge) focused on creating an expressive space with pin-pointed visual and light effects, an altogether different strategy.

HAFNARFJÖRÐUR LIBRARY

HAFNARFJÖRÐUR LIBRARY (HAFNARFJÖRÐUR, ICELAND)

Last October we participated once again in an open competition in Iceland. Since the credit crunch had hit Iceland pretty hard, a large part of the icelandic architectural offices participated - 31 entries in all. The task was to design an addition to the existing library and reorganizing the existing interior.

Our proposal responds to a new municipal square with large buildings of up to 4-5 stories and at the same time to a small housing street of single family houses of 1-2 stories. It is a hybrid building which transforms and interprets the leftover space necessary to separate these very different public domains, exposing itself in the big scale towards the square while breaking up and lowers itself to fit the intimacy of the housing street. Even the materials selected try to merge the two identities of the site, choosing as the main cladding a bronze sinuscorrugated steel cladding - a subtly refined version of the traditional cladding used in older housing areas in Iceland.

The jury did not find our approach a viable one for the site, choosing to prize entries which all are percieved as signal objects and therefore blows the scale and intimacy of the housing street completely. 

STOFNUN ÁRNA MAGNÚSSONAR

CENTER FOR ICELANDIC STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF REYKJAVIK, AND ARNI MAGNUSSONS INSTITUTE (REYKJAVIK, ICELAND)

In june 2008 we submitted a proposal for a new university campus building in Reykjavík, gathering all Icelandic competence researching and educating in the historic Icelandic litterature and better facilities for displaying the original Saga manuscripts in one building. Needless to say, the building would be of national importance a grat many architectural offices took part. We collaborated with Geir, Jarl Ture and Espen (the rest of Griff Arkitektur), as well as brainstorming at the beginning with Odd and Adnan (from a-lab). The building is divided into three distinctive parts - Álfaborgin (the elf city);the rock you enter into where the national treasure is kept safe - jarðskorpan (the crust); the rouch icelandic landscape where you move freely on top, and "bókin" (the book); hovering over the violent landscape, elevated and contaiing and protecting the knowledge.  We got shortlisted in the evaluation, one of 5 potential contenders to the 1. prize. Among the jury comments were ".... The floor plans of the lower floors are skillfully done with beautiful horizontal and vertical spatial connections. The idea of the connection between the storage facilities and the exposition area is particularly interesting...,... the library and exhibition spaces are interestingly designed the overall appearance is exciting and positive, material choices are innovative"

MUDESA

MUSEUM OF DESIGN AND APPLIED ARTS (GARÐABÆR, ICELAND)

On the 9th of April 2008 we went to Garðabær to pick up the 3rd prize for our proposal for the new Museum of Design an Applied Arts (Mudesa). There were 35 competition entries.

Visiting the museum would be a unique spatial experience - the museum opens up towards the square with its spiralling shape and invites the visitors in, as well as exposes its contents outwards and contributes to a lively town center square. The strength of the proposal is the way it weaves outside and inside together, and the multistorey central exposition space which connects all levels of the building.

Among the jury comments were " Convincing solution. Ambitious proposal, effortless in its simplicitiy without being neutral....Internal spaces are intertwined in an amusing way with good visual connections....The proposal contains brilliant solutions and interesting spaces of varying size and shape."

The winning proposal was made by PK Arkitektar, one of the leading architectural offices in Iceland.

NATIONAL PARK CENTER

NATIONAL PARK CENTER (HELLISSANDUR, ICELAND)

We participated in the competition for a new national park center at Hellissandur on the Snæfellsnes peninsula on the west coast of Iceland in june 2006.

The building is designed to appear as a delicate foreign object landed in the rough lava landscape. Its shape creates a sheltered sloping courtyard opening up to the south and the Snæfellsjøkull glacier, away from the prevailing winds from the nearby coast. From this sheltered space you enter the building.

A compact shape with low volume and minimized facade surface was main strategies towards fulfilling sustainability required in the competition brief. In essence - architecture created by small, but effective adjustments to the site. Among the jury comments were "Clear concept and well working plan layout".

GOLF CLUB "KJÖLUR"

CLUBHOUSE FOR THE KJÖLUR GOLF CLUB (MOSFELLSBÆR, ICELAND)

Our first competition was a new clubhouse for the Kjölur Golf Club in Mosfellsbær, just outside Reykjavik. 12 proposals were submitted for evaluation in march 2006. The golf course is set in a sloping terrain towards the sea, and the club house site include a very characteristic pair of cliffs in the sloping fields.

Our project sits in the terrain and opens up for the entry to the golf course between the cliffs - the grassy fields becoming the roof of the building (with a putting green) and the cliff itself being reenterpreted as a basalt stone fasade, with glass cracks letting light into the inner spaces of the club house.