Katla Mariudottir // BA Architectural portfolio 2012 by Katla Maríudóttir

katla mar铆ud贸ttir

B.A Architecture Portfolio 2012

katla maríudóttir I’ve been called a romantic. Well I admit that I’m a naturedevotee. My senses would have to be very numb if I wasn’t, since I grew up in some of Icelands’s most beautiful and harsh landscapes, as well as some of the most important historical places. Only when I moved recently to Reykjaavík City, have I learned to live and appreciate the urban scapes. I love experiencing – through all my senses. Watching how rough textured concrete devours the sun rays, the smooth warm feeling of touching a worn wooden doorknob, the creaking stairs, the waving autumn colored leafes through the glass, the safe feeling of listening to the pounding rain hitting the roof, the games the light and the shadow play on the white ceiling, etc.

In my BA thesis I looked at our Icelandic buildingheritage: the turf houses - through a lense of the phenomenology. The turf houses were bubbles under the ground, they were a fine example of bleeding architecture with their blurred bounderies between inside and outside. They were a modest part of the landscape. The urban development here in Iceland however bears little resemblence of this marrying of manmade and natural surroundings. And with the modernist way of seperation and organization, the last elements of the turfhouses disappeared, namely: intimacy.

I am always on a lookout for seeds af a modern way of living beautifully, and building on our heritage, with the nature that gave birth to us and has fed us, a way that doesn’t harm our childrens possibility of a future. I believe in life-centered design rather than human-centered design. I believe that when designing one should aim for expanding the ego to the infinite, so that like cookies too tight on a plate: our egos merge to form a system or a body of thinking.

Projects

About Me

Final Project

Context and Weather

Houses in an Urban Setting

Stairs

Building a City

Various Other Projects

“Accepting the old / letting go of dreams”

Installation: “Intro: for Lilith” “Womb” “Survey on Leisure time” “Not so Distant Utopia -Recycling as Common Ground “Living Together” “Machine for Sensing”

“Split Hotel”

“Research: Authors and Their Work, Lava House” “Urban Infilll” “Digital design techniques” “Silver jewellery” “Rocking chair” “Thread” photography collaboration

final project

Year: 2010 Name of course: Lokaverkefni arkitektúr, BYG0626H Final Project: Museum of Contemporary Arts Teachers: Steinþór Kári Kárason Sigrún Birgisdóttir Steven Christer Tags: aging of materials // deigning with other buildings // urban // contemporary art // museum

aging of materials // deigning with other buildings // urban // contemporary art // museum

Project: <final project>

accepting the old / letting go of dreams

“Nowhere are ‘permanent’ formal principles less likely to survive intact, than in the crowded, solid city. ... The past, the present, and the future... overlap in a messy configuration. Architects can never get and keep control of all the factors in a city which exists in the dimensions of a patched-up, expendable and developing forms.”

Project: <accepting the old / letting go of dreams >

aging of materials // deigning with other buildings // urban // contemporary art // museum

(Lawrence Alloway)

Like people, buildings age with time and they show their story on their skin. Buildings are often designed to not to grow with time, but rather to resist it. Icelanders have, up to now been very keen on demolishing buildings, to build new ones. It seems as though building history is not something to respect or learn from. But the economic depression has forced us to think again. Does our already built environment not store wisdom from older generations? And if not, we must learn to read its language in order to build better. The underlying theme in the project is to make use of the existing building on site and not merely to extend to them, but build the new part and allow the old and the new to settle with respect. That calls for a good understanding of the closest environment.

The Art Center is a collage of the existing building on the plot; the former modernist Industrial Bank and the new part that will contain the exhibition spaces. The bank serves as a sceleton for the building and it houses the service: the art library, offices, café, the stairs and lifts. The new part is then freed to contain only the gallery spaces. The new part seems to lever on the bank , with one side holding onto the ground and the other is lifted. A way through the backyard therefore opens up while framing the view from the café to the pond. Lækjargata Art Center is a hub for education and discussion about contemporary art. The art is a part and parcel of the culture and as a reminder the new part of the building is made to fill up the existing gaps in the street facade.

Austurvöllur aging of materials // deigning with other buildings // urban // contemporary art // museum

Project: <accepting the old / letting go of dreams >

Private garden for inhabitants Outdoor extension to the café- and happening area

Læ

Existing trees

Tree garden, visible from street

Tjörnin

PASSAGEWAY AND PAUSE

Elevation Lækjargata

Elevation Vonarstræti

Project: <accepting the old / letting go of dreams >

aging of materials // deigning with other buildings // urban // contemporary art // museum

Project: <accepting the old / letting go of dreams >

aging of materials // deigning with other buildings // urban // contemporary art // museum

Project: <accepting the old / letting go of dreams >

aging of materials // deigning with other buildings // urban // contemporary art // museum

View from the backyard Project: <accepting the old / letting go of dreams >

Fourth floor Section a

View from Vonarstræti street Third floor

Section b

Second floor

View from Lækjargata street

First floor

Vonarstræti

Section b

Section a

Groundfloor

Lækjargata

Detail

Project: <accepting the old / letting go of dreams >

aging of materials // deigning with other buildings // urban // contemporary art // museum

The former bank opens up to all directions like a lighthouse, with its formal modernist facade and exposed structure. The gallery spaces on the other hand protect and envelope the art and provide shelter as to allow for a more introvert experience and allow the visitor to distance himself from the busy street. The difference can also be sensed through the different materials. The bankâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s white painted smooth concrete contrasts the more tactile rough concrete that is gradually coloured by moss and the rusty corten-steel.The different parts of the house are underlined with with their different materials and different behaviour form a collage, that respects the old

but still embraces the new. The gallery spaces have different textures and different lighting to be able to exhibit art pieces from various media. Spaces with different ceiling height embraces art in various scale. On the outside, the former bank is sleek bright white in stark contrast with the newer, rougher part: concrete and rusted corten steel. Concrete is extremely susceptible to weathering. It gradually darkens, and its outer finer layer washes off leaving the coarser material making the surface porous. Moss and other vegetation then easily roots in the pores gradually causing a greenish hue. With time, the firy rusted corten steel paints onto the concrete

context and weather

Year: 2008 Name of course: Context and Weather Teachers Olga Guðrún Sigfúsdóttir Jóhann Sigurðsson Sigrún Birgisdóttir Sigurður Harðarson Þráinn Hauksson Örn Þór Halldórsson Tags: designing with nature // weather studies // bathing

// tags

Project: <Context <context and Weather> weather>

for Lilith

Project: <Context and Weather>

designing with nature // weather studies // bathing

It is truly sad to think about the fact that here in Iceland, where gender equality is considered great we still have not reached the state of mutual respect and cooperation between the genders. Why is this so? Lilith has been forgotten – or the memory of her has changed. A story tells that in the beginning of times God created Adam and Lilith. Lilith was a confident woman who insisted on equality between woman and man. Adam was frustrated because of this and demanded a new wife, and so Lilith was cast into the underworld where she became a ruler of the shadows. God created Eve from Adams rib-bone since the curve in the bone would make the woman more manageable.

In the memory Lilith became dangerous: dark and mystical.

The picture shows a sculpture I made for Lilith, for the woman. The sculpture´s form is a The woman has not archtype for the church – except played a big role in the the tower turns downwards church – the epitome of or inwards since the lines are patriarchy. directed towards the middle – downwards towards the nature, The church has also always and even further down to the put itself above the nature, not underworlds. It is completely in connection to it, opposite of open and embraces the nature. Icelanders old beliefs that had The sculpture is situated on a everything to do with the nature. black sanded beach, between The modern times cleared the the lines that the tides form. mystique from the nature that The tides are a rhythm adjecent could now be measured and to the rhythm of the womans’ scarred with striation. The world .... elves are gone, the ghosts have hidden themselves, and the man This was an installation before lacks its connection with the digging into a design project, nature he is derived from. a bathing place, here in Iceland.

designing with nature // weather studies // bathing

womb

Project: <Context and Weather>

Women are raised to give. Our time, energy and creativity is sucked out to our surroundings, without us being able to do anything about it. But how deep does our well reach? There is a limit of how much we can give without renewing our sorces. Today we never have the opportunity of enjoying being alone. Our space is filled with the monotonous radio or TV, the humming traffic, the beeping facebook and mail.

We seldom allow us the time to halt and to dream, to sink into our own depths, down to our sorces. Do we even know hot to enjoy a little time alone with ourselves? Do we even remember how to daydream? The building takes its form from an unbroken egg, a womb, a skate egg, earth forms: a swollen form: the chaos before the cosmos: creation.

Project: <Context and Weather>

designing with nature // weather studies // bathing

welcomes the visitor. When out of the tunnel, a rusted steel pier cuts through the waves and draws the eye away towards the open sea – as to invert the ego to the exterior. Here, the pier is serves as the minds sword – the phallus. The pier brakes the wind creating a bit of a shelter for the small bathing pools and for splashing around in the sea. The pools have various temperatures and the cold sea refreshes and prepares one before going back home.

Away from the city, immerged in the nature the swollen forms provide shelter for women to cleanse and to bathe. This is a place of rebirth. The woman can safely visit and gives herself the time she needs to renew her energy sources – to feed the well within. The trip through the spa is a kind of pregnancy itself. The building is entirely made up of concrete and it has no openings to the surroundings, except the way in and the way out, thus it becomes a journey inwards into our nucleus.

The whole process gives the body and mind a feeling of equilibrium, a sense of fulfillment, a sense of a relief.

1. A tunnel takes a turn into the swollen ‘belly’ where sounds of the waves - whether soft and gentle or loud and energetic - effect the stay there. This is where you take your everyday uniform off and put on a bathingsuit and a rope ...

I chose this location for the project because it faces the open sea the wind there is untiring and embracing and the waves are ever hungry. Also because of the simplicity of axes the place has: sky, see, sand and rocks, nothing more, nothing less. The landscape is simple: the horizon – what a relief for the urban dweller.

2. Another tunnel leads downwards and inwards, to the hot steambath, into the red hot earthcore deep inside ... 3. After a while in the hot steam, a tunnel is followed out to the outside where the wind

2 3 1

designing with nature // weather studies // bathing

b on cti Se

Project: <Context and Weather>

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Section a

Section b

Section c

Project: <Context and Weather>

designing with nature // weather studies // bathing

Designing with the weather in Iceland is crucial. In this course we learned how to use a wind-simulator with the wind roses of the area, and redesign parts of the building as needed according to the wind research.

houses in an urban setting

Year: 2009 Name of course: Houses in an Urban Setting Teachers: Sigr煤n Birgisd贸ttir Hildigunnur Sverrisd贸ttir Tags: antisprawl // sharing // new ways of living // public vs private

Project: <surveProject: y on leisure < Houses - howinand anwhere Urban do Setting we spend > our time ?>

Zone 1 Zone 2 Zone 3

survey on leisure - how and where do we spend our time ?

Zone 4

ReykjavĂk is a relatively large city, it sprawls over a great amount of land. But it is very dispersed, and has very few clusters or cores that serve the neighborhood with services, food and recreation. Therefor habitants that live outside the city center have to travel a long way into the center for recreation. In a survey with over a hundred participants, I found out that there is a great difference how we spend our free time in relation to where we live. I devided ReykjavĂk city into four zones, from the city center and all the way to the cities furthest edges, which is roughly a half an hours drive from the center.

The survey examines how people spend their freetime, that is the time when they are not working or at school. In zone 1, the city center people read for more than an hour a day and watch television for around 44 min/day. This turns around further from the city center, in zone 4, where people read for 38 min/day and watch television for 89 min/day.

This fact hints the fact that where the city is denser people stay out of their homes for longer, cafĂŠs become an extension of the livingroom allowing for more interaction with other people.

Project: <Houses in an Urban Setting>

antisprawl // sharing // new ways of living // public vs private

We are the sum of all the groups that we feel we are part of

How do we define ourselves? Not by which family we belong to, like we used to do once. Rather, we are the sum of all the groups that we feel part of.

ReykjavĂk has never needed to think about densification like its neighboring cities. Up until now. So its sub-clusters may perform better as individual units, they have to become denser. But with increased density we have to be willing to share or even sacrifice. What are those things we are willing to share?

The individual stretches upwards where his shell is, on the second floor. The sharing spaces on the other hand are on groundlevel. They touch the earth that their rooted in, the society and the history.

Together, share, get to know each other, trust, ...

Project: <Houses in an Urban Setting>

“not so distant utopia” - recycling as common ground

urbanism // sustainable city centres // sharing the city //

Downtown Reykjavík seems to be the only sufficient city-core, if compared to the roughly seven cores in Reykjavík. Residents of the cores outside the Reykjavík downtown are are ready to drive great lengths for specific products or service in downtown Reykjavík (see more in the “Study of Leisure”.)

The gray circles represent centres in which are planned smaller and more sustainable centres. The black points represent elementary schools.

The centres are workshops, spread around the city, like seeds. They are spots where the threads connect, where neighbors meet, a backbone for the inhabitants. They help you root and connect to th network. They are positioned in walking distance from your home, and theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re connected with the elementary schools.

Through educating our children about recycling, about scarce resources, and how to respect old things, we will help them building the world of tomorrow.

Project: < Houses in an Urban Setting >

urbanism // sustainable city centres // sharing the city

// tags

Project: Project:< <Houses - recyclinginas ancommon Urban Setting> ground> We went on a study trip to St. Petersburg and compared these two cities: Reykjavík and St. Petersburg. What I found most interesting was the

difference of the space between the public and the private In Reykjavík we have a long fading from public to private, while St. Petersburg the difference is measured in centimetres. How? The stairway is a part of the street, so they´re not being cared for by anyone. Also, the difference in scale in these two cities is surreal, monuments and public buildings are meant to make the person feel small - maybe to show the power, to tell the people that resistance is futile.

living together

Project: < Houses in an Urban Setting >

// antisprawl // sharing // new ways of living // public vs private

Now is not the time to be shy on sharing. Increasing world population and scarce resources demand other ways of living. But how do we draw the boundaries in the new world of sharing? Which activities do we want to share, and which ones do we want to keep for ourselves?

The understanding and function of the modern family has changed, and therefor a calling has been made for a change in how we think about our dwellings. Nowadays we don’t define ourselves from our families. Icelanders’ don’t even bear the family name. We are the sum of the groups that we belong to. So instead of creating homes with the standard centre: the fire (later the kitchen), a apartment cluster was formed, with several centers. The centers are divided after its function, fire (kitchen and sitting room), water (showers, hot-tubs and steam-baths), light/air (media center: library, computers, tv/film equipment) and finally the fifth element, æther (here: the city/culture element. An open space for concerts and large gatherings. Above these centers the shells are situated. They are the shells of the inhabitants and they are more introvert than the gathering places.

antisprawl // sharing // new ways of living // public vs private

Project: <Houses in an Urban Setting>

Project: < Houses in an Urban Setting >

antisprawl // sharing // new ways of living // public vs private

stairs

Year: 2008 Name of course: Stairs Teachers: Hildigunnur Sverrisd贸ttir Sigr煤n Birgisd贸ttir Sigur冒ur Gunnarsson Tags: designing with nature // the smooth and the striated // rhythm // public space

designing with nature // the smooth and the striated // rhythm // public space

Project: <Stairs>

machine for sensing

designing with nature // the smooth and the striated // rhythm // public space

Experience is not only a hereand-now thing. It is a complex woven cobweb trembling in the wind. Glittering threads connect ojects: a led-colored stone, muskcolored branch, frosty shell. A feather from a bird that flew by is glued to the web along with the rosy glow from the evening sun.

A memory is intricately threaded into the pattern and it gives the place a different feeling from the last time you were there. Architecture often forgets this, it has up til now often planned buildings for the split moment it’s being photographed. Now all kinds of 4d modeling are emerging.

The stair project dealt with one of making some kind of passage around one of Icelands top tourist places, Öxarárfoss-waterfall in Þingvellir (Thingvalla). My project is a worm-like object that takes you around the area, and only gives you a selected few windows to the environment. That way, in stead of experiencing the place as a striated line,

... the experience becomes more of a matrix of smaller experiences/ segments ... and in the end when given the hole view you have formed almost a personal and more intimate relationship with parts of the bigger picture.

designing with nature // the smooth and the striated // rhythm // public space

Project: <Stairs> F

NA - Ăştlit langsum 1:200

D C B

Project: <Stairs>

designing with nature // the smooth and the striated // rhythm // public space

designing with nature // the smooth and the striated // rhythm // public space 125

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Project: <Stairs>

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Project: <Stairs>

designing with nature // the smooth and the striated // rhythm // public space

building a city

Year: 2008 Name of course: Building a city Collaboration: Baldur Helgi Snorrason Teachers: Ásmundur Hrafn Sturluson Steinþór Kári Kárason Stephen M Christer Tags: hotel // shaping the city while being shaped by it

// tags

split hotel

Project: Project: <Building <split hotel> a City> This was a collaboration between Baldur Helgi Snorrason and myself.

Project: Project: <Building <split hotel> a City>

hotel // shaping the city while being shaped by it

Project: <Building a City>

.................................................................................. Miðbærinn, 101, er punkturinn sem borgin óx út frá. Hann virkar vel sem sjálfstæð eining fyrir einstaklinginn. Ólíkt hinum þyrpingunum hafa flestar byggingarnar fleiri en eina fúnksjón (t.d. þjónusta og íbúðarhúsnæði).

Skipulag Reykjavíkur einkennist af miklum hraða í uppbyggingu. Þetta veldur dreifðum byggðakjörnum (e. clusters) þar sem jaðarinn þenst út án þess að miðpunkturinn þéttist. í stað þess að hafa eina þétta miðju skiptist hún niður í þyrpingar sem eru háðar innbyrðis.

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101 rvk .................................................................................

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0F Cellar

hotel // shaping the city while being shaped by it

Project: Project: <Building <split hotel> a City>

.............................................................................. Byggingablokkir í miðbænum eru yfirleitt stórar og samsettar úr litlum húsum, inni í miðju þeirra myndast því mikið rými - sem getur virkað óreiðukennt og illa nýtt - “fjárhúsaarkitektúr”

Skipulag Reykjavíkur miðast við byggingablokkir, frekar en að taka götur fyrir í heild. Göturnar einkennast því af því að vera ekki heilstæðar. Þær eru suðupottur af formum, skölum, stílbrigðum og efnisáferðum.

reitur blokkir ...............................................................................

Section b

Section a

5F Roof

various projects

Year: 2007-2012 Name of course: Various Teachers: Various / None Tags: Various

Project: <lava house>

lava house

// tags

One of the most important characteristics of designers is their ability to place themsleves in anotherÂ´s shoes. This course was to be-not a regular research paper-but rather a creative search for the features in the works of architects that have were influential on the design landscape. We were to create work of design based on those methods and ideology.

Year: 2007 Project: Research: Authors and their works Teacher: PĂŠtur Hrafn Ă rmannsson

Project: <Various Projects>

recognising architectural styles // designing with nature // residential

urban infill

3d modelling // building with older buildings

Project: < Various Projects >

Year: 2008 Project: Urban Infill Collaboration: Guðrún Jóna Arinbjarnardóttir Teacher: Pétur Hrafn Ármannsson

Project: <Various Projects>

digital techniques // 3d modelling

Silver ring in the making.

Office rocking chair, good for the ones with a sore back

Project: <Various Projects>

“Elve´s cup” silver ring

interests // silver jewellery // own designs

Short course where we made a chair. My chair was a rocking chair. 90° curve between back and legs is not good on the back, especially not for long periods of time.

Photos of “Alda” by Saga Sig, photographer, www.sagasig.com.

Project: <Various Projects>

“Alda” silver rings

// interests // silver jewellery // own designs

Project: <Various Projects>

Collaboration - “Threads“

set design // photography // collaboration

“Threads” was my sisters final project for her B.A. degree in Photography. I helped her find locations here in Iceland according to her concept, and made some of the settings. These two pictures are a part of the series. In the project Saga was working on the notion of the strong woman throughout the history of photography and fashion photography. Seldomly, the woman is pictured as a strong persononality, especially in fashion, and if she is strong, then she is often shown as the witch, the ugly trollwoman, the wrinkled old woman or the demon. Saga wanted to visualize another kind of a strong woman, a woman in touch with her mystique sides, with the nature she is born of, proud and intelligent.

Project: <Various Projects>

set design // photography // collaboration

The bed in this photographic series, represents the ship, as the bed is the ship that we sail through the seas of our subconcience. As a guide through the smooth planes of the subconcious sea, and since the dream knows no boundaries I allowed myself an international merging of the Polynesic nomadic maps and the indian dreamcatcher.

I made the dream map out of the roots of lyme grass - the sturdy grass that grows by the sea.