Competition: Dezeen has teamed up with publishers Arvinius + Orfeus to give readers the chance to win five monographs of work by Icelandic architect Pálmar Kristmundsson.
Pálmar Kristmundsson Arkitekt follows the career of Pálmar Kristmundsson, who set up the Iceland-based architecture and design studio PK Arkitektar in 1986.
Published by Arvinius + Orfeus, the 240-page book includes a text by the architect himself along with sections by Daniel Golling, Julie Cirelli and Gert Wingårdh.
B20 by PK Arkitektar
The writing is accompanied by images including photographs, drawings, plans and sections.
B20 by PK ArkitektarTurninn by PK Arkitektar
Competition closes 1 May 2014. Five winners will be selected at random and notified by email. Winners’ names will be published in a future edition of our Dezeen Mail newsletter and at the top of this page. Dezeen competitions are international and entries are accepted from readers in any country.
L’agence d’architecture islandaise PK Arkitektar a construit la maison B25 en Islande, à Reykjavík. La particularité de cette maison est qu’un mur de la façade a été fait en pierres volcaniques rouges qui cachent la porte d’entrée dans un creux. Cette bâtisse minimaliste est à découvrir dans la suite en photos.
A wall clad in slabs of red volcanic stone conceals the entrance to this otherwise minimal white house in a suburb of Reykjavík, Iceland, by local office PK Arkitektar (+ slideshow).
The private home was designed by PK Arkitektar with a simple and solid facade that restricts views of the interior from the street, providing privacy in a busy suburban neighbourhood.
“The house was conceived to be viewed from the street as a singular solid mass, and its entrance is hidden from the street,” the architects pointed out.
A recessed surface of red rhyolite stone is framed by a white wall that forms the front of the building and shelters a doorway incorporated into the stone surface.
A vertical glass section interrupts the front facade and permits views through the central circulation spaces of the home.
This glazed void helps to separate the private spaces from shared areas inside the house and allows daylight to permeate both floors of the property.
The facade at the northeast corner is separated from the glazed wall and floats above the ground, creating a small gap that lets light reach all the way to the basement level.
From the entrance at the level of the adjacent road, the site slopes down towards a sheltered garden and the home’s lower storey is partly submerged in the slope.
The rear of the house is more open, with both levels featuring expansive windows that look out onto the garden.
“The sloping plot allows for the basement to be hidden and provides magnificent views of the surrounding nature of the Alftanes peninsula,” the architects added.
Staircases on either side of the building descend to the basement level and a door on one facade is set into a
Sliding doors lead from the kitchen to a large balcony for outdoor dining that ends in a staircase connecting this space with the garden below.
Gravel surfaces surrounding the house reference the barren landscape of the local countryside, with a lawn containing a single tree at the rear providing the only area of greenery.
This private residence is located in a compact suburban neighbourhood and the plot slopes down from street level towards its southwest corner.
The house was conceived to be viewed from the street as a singular solid mass and its entrance is hidden from the street. By contrast, the rear aspect, with private outdoor areas, has a sense of openness and permeability. The monolithic mass conceals a recess, which hides the front door.
The front volume is lightened by an incision, which represents the interior boundary between private and public areas. A light well behind the front façade permits daylight into both floors in the northeast part of the house. The sloping plot allows for the basement to be hidden and provides magnificent views of the surrounding nature of the Alftanes peninsula.
Red Rhyolite is employed here as cladding on the recessed surfaces of the otherwise white monolith. The front yard is a minimal desert of gravel and stone, greenery being restricted to a patch at the rear where a single tree stands. In stark contrast with the green walls and lush gardens common to Arnarnes, the arid treatment of the front yard applied here is more in line with the country’s nature and landscapes.
Panoramic views of the dramatic Icelandic landscape are offered from this holiday home near Reykjavik by local studio PK Arkitektar (+ slideshow).
PK Arkitektar designed Árborg House for a mossy hill high above the glacial valley of the Hvita river, a two-hour drive from the Icelandic capital.
The single-storey house is clad in concrete, which is textured with vertical lines and contains gravel from the river below as an aggregate.
Moss that was removed to make way for the structure has been reinstalled on the roof.
The house is entered through a long corridor that leads from the back, past the garage.
Guest bedrooms are accessed along another corridor that runs adjacent to the entrance passage.
A linear volume positioned perpendicular to these rooms is glazed entirely across the longest facade, facing the valley and mountains to the west.
Kitchen, dining and living spaces as well as the master suite are arranged along this section, connected along the glass wall so the view is uninterrupted.
Internal surfaces are covered throughout with smooth concrete and teak boards, which conceal cupboards and drawers in the kitchen.
The wood continues out onto the terrace, where it is intended to weather and blend in with the landscape.
“Doors and terraces are clad with teak boards that will gradually weather to a colour grade to match the seasonal moss and the broken concrete surface,” said the architects.
Projecting out from the terrace, an infinity pool containing a circular hot tub has pebbles from the riverbed covering its floor.
This vacation house is located on the banks of the Hvita river, a two-hour drive East of Reykjavik. The site is a moss-covered hill with a view over a quiet bend in the glacier-formed river. In the spring, the river carries the icebergs from the glacier towards the sea some 100km away.
The approach to the vacation house is from the top of the hill. The building is organised as a sequence of events: from the entrance porch through the closed courtyard into the living space and out onto the terrace at the end.
Living, dining, kitchen, and master bedroom are all arranged in one continuous room. This enables panoramic views of the river and the distant mountains to the west.
The exterior is a broken surface of light grey fair-faced concrete. The gravel from the riverbed is blended into the concrete, and is revealed in the broken surface. It harmonises the outside walls with the moss of the surrounding landscape.
Leftover moss from the footprint of the house covers the roof. It was kept aside and regularly nursed during the building process, before being reinstalled on the roof.
Site plan
Doors and terraces are clad with teak boards that will gradually weather to a colour grade to match the seasonal moss and the broken concrete surface. Fair-faced concrete walls through out the entire interior are matched with untreated teak boards on floors and ceilings.
Floor plan
Selected pebbles from the nearby riverbed cover the bottom of the infinity pool. The pool projects out in front of the terrace, and serves as a railing which otherwise would have interrupted the view of the river.
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