Vatnsmyri Master plan

Second Place Winner with a parametric urban proposal.

Reykjavik City Council set forth a visionary ambition for an extension to the old city center in Reykjavik, Iceland. The international competition for this airport site ran from 2006-07. In 2007 the project was awarded the second price in the competition.

The site is the location of the old (national) city airport, approximately 800 meters from the city center.

The airport has put significant limit on any development in the city centre. Resulting in an urban sprawl into the surrounding countryside.

The need to combine the national and international travel as well as the inconvenience of having an airport smack in the centre of town. Lead to increasing calls to remove the airport for city centre development.

Visionary Proposal

The vision in this parametric urban proposal sets out to develop a clear local/global identity for a site that stands in strong relation with the existing region and future city.

Reykjavik. Turf City has been conceived from the traditional Icelandic turf houses. And the relationship with the landscape/ground, the space it produces and how these instances blur between each other.

The aim is to use these conditions as an architectural rule for generating a new urban condition. One that offers the desired spatiality of evolved European cities and the functionality of designed cities of the 20th century.

The design work uses early parametric methods looking at these cultural, ecological and environmental factors. Coupled with massing strategy and urban focal points.