Hasta La Ideas

Many dream of opening a restaurant, or starting their own culinary-centric company, but few have the experience or knowledge to do so. This was not the case for Kjartan Gíslason, a chef-turned-chocolatier and co-owner of Omnom…

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White ceramic tiles contrast with sections of chipboard inside this Reykjavik fashion boutique by local design office HAF Studio (+ slideshow).

Icelandic designers Hafsteinn Júlíusson and Karitas Sveinsdóttir of HAF Studio fitted out the four-storey shop interior for Danish clothing label SUIT. Located on a popular shopping street, the store sells a range of mens’ and women’s clothing.

Designer Hafsteinn Júlíusson said the glossy white tiles were chosen to create a contrast with the oriented strand board – a kind of engineered wood that was used for walls and joinery throughout the boutique.

“We wanted to add a bit of an unexpected twist,” Júlíusson told Dezeen. “We think these tiles enhance the refined roughness that we were aiming for.”

The tiles create geometric grids across parts of the wooden walls, but also extend down to cover sections of the concrete floor.

“More known for serving slaughterhouses or swimming pools, the tiles give a good contrast against the warm wood and the raw concrete,” added Júlíusson.

On the ground floor, strips of fluorescent lighting spell out the word ‘suit’, next to a tiled serving counter with low-hanging black pendant lamps, also designed by the studio.

Shelving units are mounted to the walls to display folded clothes, while other garments are piled up on benches or hung from orange clothing racks.

Cheeky phrases are printed onto the walls of the shop to help visitors find their way around – the words “Do you fit in?” highlight the entrance to the fitting rooms.

Photography is by Gunnar Sverrisson.

Here’s a short description from HAF Studio:

SUIT

The clothing brand SUIT opened downtown Reykjavík recently. The store was designed by HAF Studio which is an Icelandic interdisciplinary design studio run by designers Karitas Sveinsdóttir and Hafsteinn Júlíusson.

The design intention behind the new store was to tie the brand’s raw and rough character together with clever and elaborate detailing. With this in mind, the HAF team created a space that offers a unique customer experience beyond that of the conventional clothing store environment.

The raw concrete floors and walls meet a warm OSB wood cladding where white glossy ceramic tiles give the store a refined finish. Finally orange and black fluorescent details create contrasts and highlights together with crisp lighting.

Client: GK Clothing
Collaborators: Ása Ninna Pétursdóttir & Guðmundur Hallgrímsson
Year: 2013

The post Reykjavik boutique by HAF Studio
mixes chipboard with ceramic tiles appeared first on Dezeen.

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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.

Photography is by Rafael Pinho.

Here’s some more information from the architects:

B25, Reykjavík, Iceland

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.

The post Volcanic stone wall hides doorway
into B25 house by PK Arkitektar appeared first on Dezeen.

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