Auditoriums & Art Center

On a delicate site in downtown Reykjavík we were supposed to design an auditorium in association with a music school. The school is located in an old hospital house at the site which we could not dismantle. So instead of making a large single volume, covering the whole program, we decided to split the project into separate volumes whom are all connected underground. That gave us the opportunity to create different kind of exterior platforms and squares serving the volumes all around them. Therefor you can enter every volume from the outside, creating a lot of active urban areas for the people of the city.

We added art facilities f.e. gallery and studios which makes the area more of an art center, not just a music center. Even though the program is really big the structures are rather humble to its context unlike the new built skyscrapers in the neighborhood. Furthermore, to enhance that humbleness, or what some might call romance, we held two other buildings - an old electricity house and a classroom shed.

By connecting that shed to the main foyer, it becomes the projects identity - the heart of the site. The shed is both a café and a ticket sale serving every unit or volume that spreads around the plot.

Status: Academic Project
2nd year, IAA
Colleagues: Manuel Falkenhan