The home of Gudjon Bjarnason
- we were fortunate to be invited to stay in this awesome home overlooking the drama of the ocean in Stokkseyri.
He's a well known artist/architect and here is a description of his house in his own words:
2500sq ft. house which is soon under completion in the little village of Stokkseyri Iceland 40 miles away from Reykjavík-I hope you got the texts from NY art critics/editors who have commented on this house as a product of art given that I work simultaneously as a sculpture and painter as well as an architect.
This house stands in a most unique place embedded in the protective seawall of the small fishing town at the Southcoast of Iceland. (500 inhabitants). The view to the archipelago coastline is amazing-the lava formation in the ocean comes form Lakagigar eruption 147km away which took place aprox 3000 b.c and is the longest know lava flow on earth. From the glass facade facing the sea there is an uninterrupted view all the way across the globe to the South-pole.
Within the modern house lies a smaller older house - a typical everyday A-frame structure which was built as a fishing equipment storage in 1971. The timbers of that older house were again reused out of poverty from a wood shipping wreck from the year 1929. So the house contains many folded layers of history and the old cottage within was called "Misery" due to its wreck like apperance and old shipwrecked woods. The good old name still holds.....
The architectural play of the house is that of transparency and movement exemplified by complex layers which bring a symphony of light to the interior of the house. The narrow diagonal tower facing the ocean houses a room for thinkers and acts as a beacon for the lost seafarers.
The house dynamically exploded from within reaching out to the open sky and the infinity of the horizon has the secret metaphor of a gracious dissolving sea wave aggressively in dialog with the ever breaking white broad surfwall of the ocean where the endwall of lava stream meets the depths of the Atlantic sea.
Very special.
Very quiet.
A night of listening to his love songs.. quiet dancing, an outstanding dinner at the nearby lobster restaurant (see another post of the lobster place).. it's a very popular place in the tiny town of Skokkseyri - people come to this town for the lobster soup.
We spent the night in a work of art - even though it's a work in progress and had a few leaks... the openness and vibe was memorable.
