The central element of the park, which characterizes it from a functional point of view, is the open-air amphitheatre which, as in the historic “green theatres” of Italian gardens, is characterized by a scenographic vegetable backdrop: an orchard of cherry trees punctuated by regular planting.

The central entrance to the park is characterized by a tree-lined square, equipped with seats shaded by vegetation arranged in regular rows; from the square you can admire and cross an area characterized by the sowing of a flowery lawn in yellow and pink tones, which becomes a temporary natural installation to visualize the future intervention.

The entire park is illuminated along the circular ring and along the two main internal travel axes with a system of high poles, to ensure usability even in the evening or in conjunction with specific events.

The entrances are located along Via della Costituzione, and include a central pedestrian entrance and two driveways at the ring route, functional to maintenance vehicles.

The paths inside the park ideally continue the agricultural plot of the context and are distinguished, on the basis of their size, between main and secondary ones. Rows of native species shade the paths, completing the design.

The furnishing elements have been selected for the durability of the materials, the low maintenance and a recognizable design: seats and tables in prefabricated concrete, suitably treated with stain-resistant, oil- resistant and anti-degradation resins; all furnishings guarantee durability, resistance to vandalism and low maintenance requirements.

Text provided by the architects.

Spruce House replaces an existing 1960s infill which was in poor structural and material condition. With no salvageable aspects of the previous building, ao-ft set out to design a home that minimized its carbon footprint through all aspects of its construction. Investigating several building methods led ao-ft to design the main structure in CLT for its environmental performance credentials and its beauty as an exposed internal finish. The custom-milled prefabricated panels sequester and store 37 tonnes of carbon dioxide, and were assembled on site in just five days. Leaving the panels exposed inside reduces the need for other building materials like plaster or paint, also ensuring the home features as little plastic as possible.

To create a new strong bond between interior and exterior living spaces, ao-ft designed the ground floor to feel embedded within the garden; the resulting floorplan echoes that of a traditional Victorian terrace house. On entry, visitors step down half a meter from street level into an open-plan, sunken living space bordered by cast concrete window seats and ground-to-ceiling glazing. ao-ft’s design decision to lower the foundation 50cm down into the plot places occupants level with the garden beds when inside, dually creating a generous sense of volume of the ground floor. Custom built-in joinery conceived as a piece of furniture conceals a media unit and under-stair WC, and links to a long stainless-steel kitchen and sunken dining space.

ao-ft has continued the use of light, verticality, and layering to create a subtle, understated interior. Raw structural materials – timber, stainless steel, polished concrete, white perforated steel – are deliberately arranged to transfer light and catch shadows, creating ever-changing texture and pattern throughout the house.

Drawing on past experience in industrial design, ao-ft designed the staircase to be a kit-parts that could be assembled and disassembled. The 24 individual interlocking treads act as the spine of the house and allow light and air from the large overhead skylight to pass through the perforations. The 5mm steel was laser cut and robotically folded to millimeter precision before being craned in and measure tested, removed, and powder coated off-site before final installation.

Two bedrooms and a family bathroom occupy the first floor, with the third main bedroom and ensuite bathroom located on the second story. The bedrooms benefit from openable solid Spruce panels which when open, transform both the interiors with natural light and views and the exterior facade with playful configurations.

ao-ft’s commitment to design is apparent throughout; full-height CLT doors with inlaid handles and spring-loaded door catches lay flush when open, a complex yet satisfying design detail that further conveys the commitment to continuous sightlines and space within Spruce House.

Spruce House also features a standalone design studio at the rear of the long 12-meter-deep garden. The space is constructed using traditional timber framing with larch glulam beams on the outside, and spruce on the inside. The studio features clerestory windows and exposed overhead rafters and opens onto a second smaller rear garden to offer natural cross ventilation through the space. A peaceful and carefully cultivated garden links the house and studio, designed to reintroduce pollinating plants and increase biodiversity.

Spruce House and Studio mark an important milestone for ao-ft; not only is it the office’s first completed project, but it is also the realization of technical capability, rigorous research, and intense passion for functional and highly detailed design. Spruce House and Studio sets an exciting precedent for infill sites across the United Kingdom and demonstrates the benefits of sustainable, flexible construction in creating buildings that enliven their context and make comfortable places for people to enjoy for many years to come.

Text provided by the architects.

The brief was to create a space that could act as both a home and a working artist’s studio for the clients, artist Gudrun Kristjansdottir, who has exhibited work across the globe over the past twenty years, and her husband Ævar Kristjánsson, a well-known Icelandic broadcaster. Finding the right balance between workspace and family home was key. The space needed to be neutral enough to exhibit artwork but also a welcoming family home and a place to entertain guests. The client’s work focuses on nature, using natural elements and forms to transform them into an abstract whole. For her, converting the barn was a similar process. The renovation has been conceived and built as a piece of art. Incorporating the natural environment surrounding the house was also important to the client, who considers it a ‘living kitchen’ filled with edible seaweed, medicinal herbs and fish.

Studio Bua were determined 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 main part of the existing structure was built from thick and sturdy mass concrete with a corrugated steel roof. 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. The beautifully ruined, foundation-free perimeter walls have been retained, enclosing a new walled garden where flowers, vegetables and herbs can be grown.

With no existing floor slab, the first step was to stabilise the original structure and line the barn floor with a reinforced concrete raft. The local landscape has been incorporated into the design where possible, with pebbles and volcanic sand from the beach used to fill holes in the existing structure and cover the mastic surrounding the windows. A lightweight, two-storey timber structure was inserted into the existing space. The new timber volume is clad in corrugated industrial Aluzinc, which embodies the lightness of the inserted volume. Aluzinc is one of the few materials able to withstand the site’s harsh environment and extreme weather. The corrugation references local building tradition and reflects the colour of the sky and surrounding meadow, changing with the seasons and weather. The cladding, roofing, flashing and downpipes were all locally produced.

The ground-floor has been conceived as a robust workspace containing an artist’s studio, kitchen and dining space. The small but efficient plan accommodates a double-height space at each end. To avoid compromising the unreinforced existing structure, only two new openings have been added to the ground floor. One allows light to enter the kitchen and the other acts as a separate entrance to the studio to accommodate large artworks. The existing and new openings have been diamond cut to give a smoothness that contrasts the rough external finishes and reveals, in section, the colour and texture of the irregular aggregate. Light was integral to the scheme, especially in the double-height studio which looks out onto the fjord. A roof light gives north light and ventilation in the studio while large windows provide daylight to the home. A key challenge was to frame and capture views from the expansive landscape and relate them to the scale of the domestic interior. LED lighting has been used throughout to ensure that areas with less natural light are well-lit and all the spaces stay bright during the dark winter, with special attention given to the task lighting in the artist’s studio. Despite the extreme conditions, the house is very efficient and sustainable. A ground source heat pump was installed, along with low-temperature underfloor heating and triple glazing on all the windows.

Simplicity is at the heart of the modern interior design scheme. The detailed but calm interior has been kept neutral to ensure that it does not distract from the artwork on display. The material palette was inspired by the colours found in the surrounding nature. The neighbouring meadows turn from yellow after winter, to green in spring, and purple in late summer. There is a sophistication and control in the interior that contrasts vastly with the wild outdoors. The floors on the ground floor use polished concrete, while stained birch plywood has been used for the walls. Other bespoke fixed furniture has been built from hand-stained plywood. Studio Bua worked in collaboration with the client, who has previous artistic experience with staining, to experiment with various pigments and stains before settling on which to use. The kitchen uses a combination of bespoke steel and hand-stained plywood. At the bottom of the staircase, concrete was cast in-situ with stones from the local beach. To achieve a minimal aesthetic and minimise clutter, Studio Bua designed a storage space for the studio and plenty of wardrobes and other storage solutions throughout the house.

The first-floor is a domestic sphere containing the private areas of the house. For these, a subdued material palette inspired by local vernacular interiors has been maintained. Walls and floors are lined in white-stained pine boards. A plywood staircase leads from the ground floor dining space to a mezzanine sitting room that overlooks a double-height space. A new opening has been added for daylight and stunning views out onto the beach and the fjord beyond. The large existing opening on the end facade, which was originally used to get hay into the barn, has been fully glazed. At the top of the staircase, a hallway leading to the private bedrooms and bathroom opens onto a view of the studio from above, offering a different perspective to the emerging artworks below. A pair of picture windows, placed on the axis of the first-floor hallway, frame views along the coast and towards the mountains. A bespoke stained-plywood wardrobe was built in the master bedroom. The bathroom uses a palette of sky-blue and earthy red with chequered pale grey and white porcelain tiles.

Windows throughout the house use robust plywood internal reveals which double as display shelves and a bench in the sitting room. The first-floor handrails and the fin balustrades in the double-height spaces are cut from the same plywood, making use of offcuts from the interior wall panelling. Given the remote location, and for economic and environmental reasons, waste has been minimised where possible. All interior room doors were reclaimed from the Reykjavik city recycling centre. A woollen curtain from the clients’ previous 1960s family business inventory has been used as a room-partition in the atelier. Outside seating and patio table legs have been created from the concrete that was discarded when new openings created.

Text provided by the architects.

While on the lower level, almost at street level, more intimate relationships with the outside are established through patios, on the upper level the two volumes open frontally to the landscape and the sea horizon. Also at the top level more introverted relationships are generated between the volumes and the rocky substrate that surrounds them. Thus, the glass nexus, which connects the two bodies and contains the vertical communication, acts as a screen against the wind and generates an exterior space sheltered from the prevailing wind but visually permeable towards the sea. This in turn is capable of receiving correct sunlight during the winter months, as it is also oriented to the south.
From a tectonic point of view, concrete is the predominant material both outside and inside, given that its stony nature establishes an intense dialogue with the rocky substratum of the place. Likewise, its resistance to inclement weather (strong winds and marine environment) make it one of the most durable options, with little maintenance and, therefore, more sustainable.

Also outside, “pòrfit” gravel from the emptying of the excavation has been used to finish the roofs and the interstitial patios between the intervention and the bedrock.

To compensate for the intrinsic qualities of concrete, oak wood has been chosen to materialize the exterior carpentry, some cladding, custom-made furniture, etc., providing the whole with warmth and harmony.

Text provided by the architects.

For us, good architecture plays a variety of experiences against underlying order so as to produce harmony. The new library is based upon a logical latticework of interrelated elements. A regular grid of brick chimneys supports the floors and book stacks and carries warm air up to ventilate the building. Between each set of four chimneys, there is a roof lantern bringing light down into the spaces below: air rising and light falling.

This regular array produces a natural hierarchy with narrow zones for circulation and wide zones for reading rooms. The delineation of load-bearing brick vertical structure, supporting spanning engineered timber horizontal structure is used to reinforce the organizational scheme. This creates an underlying pattern of warp and weft that we hope can be understood intuitively by people using the building.

The materiality and form of the new library are derived both from its context and from the College’s brief to make a highly durable and sustainable building. The older college buildings are of load-bearing brick, with timber floors and gabled pitched roof structures. Brick chimneys animate the skyline and stone tracery picks out the fenestration. We tried to make the new building from this set of architectural elements. We used timber instead of stone for our window tracery, which will weather over time to become a silvery grey like the stone.

We worked carefully with our builders to find a variety of bricks that would match the tapestry-like quality of the older College buildings. At the same time, this is a modern building that employs innovative passive ventilation strategies to minimize energy in use and engineered timber structure to reduce carbon embodied in its construction.

Text provided by the architect.

Accessibility

In a place of so much heritage value, but in a natural environment with irregular topography, we proposed a path accompanied by a railing to help the movement of people with disabilities so that this environment of identity importance can be participated in by all residents independently. of their mobility.

What the hell about the rumors

“What the hell are you rumors?” This phrase is engraved on the support railing for the disabled and marks the end of the path, based on Eduardo Pondal’s poem “Os Pinos” and the origin of the Galician anthem. The complete phrase: Que din os rumurosos na costa verdecente?, which means: What do the Galician people say?

Text provided by the architect.

The latter comparison, surprising at first, is easily explained: Johan Sundberg’s annual skiing holidays inspired him to study vernacular architecture in a similar climate outside his native Sweden. Cast building corners, apart from being a leisure time project for the client, freed the structure from diagonal stabilising elements. In the daytime, light shines through the gaps between the wooden planks of the façade, accentuating its clear, calm structure. Direct sunlight and sharp shadows are replaced by uniform, reflected light. The façade is structured like the scales of an animal, to protect the indoors from rain and wind. After dusk, the building becomes a cuttingedge light sculpture, floating amidst darkened trees and grasses. The light evokes the golden line appearing during sunrise or sunset above the sea, multiplied into a ghostlike image of the house, lit by a fire.

Text provided by the architect.

The cottage forms an extension of these freestanding roof structures and a fifth, floa- ting roof is added. The new building incorporates the „genius loci“. A floating platform, which is inserted under the roof, forms the main space of the cottage and a threshing floor is created. This platform is completely glazed and the boundary between inside and outside becomes blurred. The interior space expands to the exterior space and a garden house is created. Analogies to the classics of modernism, the „Glass House“
by Phillip Johnson and the „Farnsworth House“ by Mies van der Rohe emerge. The occupant becomes an observer of nature and the environment becomes the main pro- tagonist of the interior. A staging of nature; slightly elevated from a kind of pedestal, the resident observes the surroundings, the constant interplay of cloud formations, the seasons and the grazing of sheep in front of the cottage determine the atmosphere and character of the cottage and the surroundings become a scenery, a backdrop.
The complete beauty of nature opens up to the user.

The visitor enters the cottage through a terrace, which is located in front of the cottage in the east. This serves as an outdoor area in summer and is an extension of the interior. From here, through the large sliding door (2.4m x 3.4m), one enters the main room. In its proportions (4 x 10m, 4.1m clear height) based on the barns of classic longhouses, the cottage seeks here the dialogue between, on the one hand, rural, typical local typologies and classical modernism.

The main room is subtly divided into 3 areas by an inserted wall element, without dividing the space in its entirety. The southern area, which gets sun all day long, is the dining area with its generous free-standing table. The northern area, where the sun shines from 5 o‘clock in the evening, is the living area. In the central area, the furniture element integrates the wet area and visually separates it from the main room. In front of the set wall unit, the kitchen floats as a free, mirrored volume.

Two wooden cubes are inserted into this fully glazed platform, which accommodate the sleeping berths. These closed volumes form a retreat in contrast to the open main space and convey a sense of security. The cubes can be opened to the main space through generous sliding doors, allowing flexible uses of the sleeping berths (daybed, couch) in conjunction with the main space.

The border between integration and segregation, between landscape and architecture, between rural and modern, between open and modern and the careful balancing
of these elements determines the design and let the cottage together with the lush nature become a unique place.

Text provided by the architect.