Churchyard Offices and Staff Housing in Gufunes Cemetary
LOCATION
Reykjavik, Iceland
TYPE
Cultural ›
Residential ›
The building for the Churchyard Offices and Staff Housing in Gufunes Cemetary is the first building of several in Reykjavik's main cemetry complex. The phases yet to come include a church, chapel and a crematorium.
The project approch is based on the site's premises, working in different scales, looking at the space between the stones with the aim of translating it to architectural spaces.
The upper floor includes a reception and offices, while the lower floor contains technical and working areas.
The artwork in the building is based on ideas born in a dialogue between the artists Berghall and Arkibullan architects.
The wall piece “Traces”, made of cast concrete elements that create a pattern on the long curved wall in the conference room, is based on the placement of the largest basaltic rock on the site before development started.
In the stairway hall is a permanent wall assemblage consisting of Diasec mounted black and white prints made from historic photographs of funerals in Iceland.
The building defines the entrance to the whole area, standing as the eastern wall of the structures that are yet to come.