Hlöduberg Artist Studio

The rural site is subject to extreme weather/temperatures. Our brief was to conceive a design that would house an artist studio and a home for the owners.

We wanted to keep as much of the existing concrete structure as possible to preserve the barn’s unique character and make use of the fit-for-purpose elements. The quality of the existing concrete has been retained externally, with unique lichen growth and local pebble aggregate creating the illusion that the barn is growing from the earth.

A lean-to addition, which was missing its roof and in a complete state of ruin, has been left untouched and forms a sheltered courtyard. With no existing floor slab, we had to stabilise the original structure and line the barn floor with a reinforced concrete raft.

On the ground floor within the original concrete structure, we made openings only where necessary because the walls are not reinforced and opening further would compromise the structure. We added two new openings to get more light into the kitchen and an entrance to the studio, to get in large artworks.

The ground floor was conceived as a workspace containing an artist studio, kitchen and dining space. For interior surfaces, we used an exposed concrete floor and stained birch plywood on the walls and fixed furniture. On the first floor, we maintained a palette inspired by local vernacular interiors.

The house is also well insulated according to Icelandic regulations, all glazing is triple glazed and the heating is in the floors. The source for heating is a ground source heatpump. The house is connected to the main electric network which is from renewable sources.

Annual CO2 data was not provided