Olafur Thordarson
 
  objects architecture urban design art  
           
Reykjavík-Austurhöfn 2001

Tónlistarhús samkeppni - Hvernig stækka á miðbæ Reykjavíkur.

This proposal was created for the Reykjavík Music Hall competition, where a building was to be built on a no-mans land at the harbor. The idea was to counter the competition's anti-urban parameters and provide a new framework for an expanded downtown Reykjavík, with plenty of urban building lots for future business, public buildings and housing, with an urban waterfront. The new streets would be actual urban streets and connect directly into the existing downtown area by extending and stitching into existing street patterns and building scales. This would be on a partial new landfill which can be expanded east-bound in the future while still maintaining very direct links to the historic downtown. This proposal is for an enlargement of the midtown area of downtown Reykjavik as a real city-structure. It's here proposed as the priority, instead of proposing another singular floating sculptural entity in a windy city full of modernist urban mistakes. The music hall was to be incorporated into the city fabric across from Arnarhóll (green area) so as to be opened up for cultural events in the current downtown.

Unfortunately, due to the terrorist attack on 911 and our close proximity to WTC, the proposal was not submitted. It was, however exhibited in my exhibition in the Museum of Design and Applied Arts in Garðabær Iceland in 2002, along with my other design work.

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