Iceland, the uncrossable – day 4 (1)

Iceland – day 4, 27/06/2011

at dawn, a few sun rays touch Hofn; the town is at the foot of one of Vatna’s tongues we visited yesterday

hofn almost looks like a town and we decide to find a bank and get a hold of some more local currency; it turns out that we have spent the last three days an hour ahead of local time and we get to loiter for an hour until they open; at the bank they look suspicious at the euros we have decided to exchange…

we glide around the increasingly sliced coastline and soon we reach a curve inland; our destination is a waterfall – somewhere upstream this river

the river spreads wide into the flat, rocky valley and it splits into scores of branches and then smaller branches which constantly merge together and split apart; the road is hardly visible at times and it climbs up the surrounding hills as it crosses over the diverted waters; soon we reach a sign

heeeeeey, we are in a high mobility vehicle, nothing can stop us

the branches of the river gradually become more denser while the streams become wilder and deeper; we get to a place which we cannot cross – going into the water on foot to check the depth is impossible since we are both equipped with nothing but a pair of sneakers; we go back and try another road which only takes us to even wider and wilder waters… we go back to the first place again and after we think about it for a while we decide to break the back of the beast, so we slowly drive into the water; about a third on the way, the water is so deep that a little bit further would flood the compartment; we shift to reverse – easy, easy and we go back with our tails tucked between our legs; this whole braving experience is caught on camera and I will upload it later 🙂

on the way back, the GPS takes us through a different road

we climb the hills and get a chance to look back at the One we could not cross

the sun almost peaks behind the clouds as a consolation

on the other side of the hill we go down some green pastures on the side of another river; wherever there are green spots, there are always some of these too

back to road number 1 and north again

road number 1 is the ring-road of Iceland; more than a third of our journey is along that track

for a short while we catch a fiord in good mood (calm and without wind on the surface of its waters)

the coastline is filled with old lighthouses; we stop on the rocky shore

the local inhabitant who is brooding at the moment is highly dissatisfied with our appearance

I can almost hear it sigh with relief when we leave

we go inland once again and once again our destination is a waterfall

and once again we cannot reach it because of flooded river beds; at least this time the road is helpfully closed by a few big rocks

this time Iceland has prepared us an atonement

this beautiful animal, brought here by the Norwegian settlers, hardly noticed us

only when I got off the car did the herd decide to move a bit; when I thought about it I figured that probably our car will be the only one to pass on this road for today

to be continued…

mini office…

A lot of time passed by since this project was completed but since I haven’t written anything about it… well, now’s the time 🙂 I hope it will be interesting and inspiring…

We started with this:

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Iceland, the Jokull-land – day 3

Iceland – day 3, 26/06/2011

last night we had to clean the car since riding off-road in kjolur had dusted it quite a bit on the inside; we are going east from Hella; the weather is officially gloomy and there are just a few moments with breaks in the clouds; soon, is the famous Eyjafjallajokull before us

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Iceland, the allmighty – day 2

Iceland – day 2, 25/06/2011

The Blue Lagoon or, more precisely, Bláa lónið, is a unique natural phenomenon; part of the Atlantic Ocean flows 2000 meters deep beneath the ground and through a crack between America and Eurasia, lengthwise through the entire island; its waters interact directly with the boiling magma at 240 degrees and 36 atmospheres of pressure; at this spot, the highly mineralized waters, still partially saline and rich in silicon, gushes to the surface through one of the many fissures in the earth’s core; the resulting lake is so special in terms of mineral content that no bacteria live in it while the water itself has unique healing properties.

last night we had the pleasure of enjoying this miracle of nature with the summer sun setting to the northern horizon almost entirely by ourselves

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Iceland, the surreal – day 1

Iceland – day 1, 24/06/2011

we wake up late

the weather is promising – sunny, a few little clouds, almost no wind – perfect weather conditions for the Blue Lagoon

we leave the car at the parking lot; the path winds around heaps of volcanic rock taller than a man; there are lamps everywhere and I wonder what this place is like in winter when the sun hardly even shows up on the horizon for an hour or two … »

Iceland, the unknown – day 0

Prologue.

Years ago, at the dawn of the “Transition Period”, books became inaccessible; they were either not published at all or only the authors “deemed banned” before November 10th got published, or one could only find antiques at outrageous prices; for the adolescent who were truly into the magic of reading there was only one option left – Metropolitan City Library.

I had already rummaged the shelves and gotten my hands on most of the titles meant for my consideration; I stumbled upon The Atom Station by chance; a small, plain book which had been published before I was born; it looked like a ‘one nighter’ – one of those that you take to bed and you read until you turn the last page at daybreak; this is how I read it… the first time; I returned it and I took it again in a month or two; the Magical, unfamiliar world of Iceland and its strange people had captivated my mind forever.

Iceland – day 0, 23/06/2011

The trip to Reykjavik was long – three flights with tedious waiting in-between; we landed a bit past midnight and our tiny airplane “parked” some 20 meters from the airport building.

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Iberia – 18/19/20 – Barcelona

because of the beautiful story dedicated to this city which was previously posted in the blog, I am going to cut down on the details of our stay in Barcelona; I will only point out these spots which even now, months after that, come to my might loud and bright… my Barcelona

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Iberia 16/17 – murcia

if I want to start a new story, I should finish this one first, right…

for this effort, I have to pay tribute to a recent meeting with a childhood friend, who made me feel ashamed for not finishing what I have started – so, here it is, the beginning of the end.
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a family house – competition triptic 1

Here we promised to publish our proposals submitted within our small family adventure that turned into a competition. If other colleagues call us, we promise to publish their solutions; it will be an almost a real competition.

Before the triptic itself, here is our analysis of the situation:

We are somewhere in the remote Sofia neighborhoods;

The property is an “ideal” one: south-oriented yard, a street on the north side, a slight slope to the south as a bonus, and small neighboring buildings. In other words: there’s enough space and a view to the south, to Vitosha Mountain.

There must be, of course, a though-provoking element: one of the neighbors has built and licensed a three-story house about 1.5 m from the side regulation; so we had to ignore this direction (in this case, east). The building located in the south-west part of the property is also a given.

SP’s house

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On Family Houses

Has it ever happened to you that a client comes along, showing you these things… the type of things we were used to seeing in “The Good Homes”, “The Perfect Home” and other heroic magazines that controlled the market in the past and it just makes you nauseous? Well, it is a time of economic crisis, so telling clients that you may not be their best fit is not an option. Maybe you will give up trying to “improve” their idea of a perfect home after some time and several nervous breakdowns. Then you will draw the plans of what they want and try to ignore your gut feelings, so that they don’t turn into nausea again. Then, you will give them the folders with the papers and collect your fee and who knows if you would even go to see how the project looks when completed… probably not. And then you have to lay down low and never say a word that this house, yep, this house exactly is a product of your creation… just try to explain that it was not your fault but the investor’s.

Where are the dream investors and why don’t they ever come to you?… %”++??#@#%^%$?

Oh, what a wonderful world it could be if the investor and the architect were riding the same wave, no matter if it was a modern, an antique, a baroque, ethno, Brava Casa style, whatever really?!
Well, IT IS POSSIBLE.

Ha-ha!! – Now you’re wandering where the magic wand part is, right?

This is the story behind it:

A couple of months ago a young man came to our door, looking for a house planner. He was collecting offers as it is usually the case.

So I asked him: Are you going to choose the architect and, therefore, the house that will define your life in the next 30 or 40 years based on the offer?

And he said: Well, what else can I base my decision on?

And I said: Well, on the house!!!!!

He wanted to know how this could be…

And I told him to make a competition of his own…

The idea sank in slowly and gradually with a lot of mistrust at first. About a month later, I received the following e-mail:

“It seemed like a big deal for me to want a “competition” but it turned out, as you said, that if the bureau does not employ only a single retiree and people know that, it does not seem like a big deal to them.”

So this is how accidentally we provoked the organization of a competition for a third time that year. The investor did his best to write wonderful terms of reference for the competition. Well, he did not post it in a media, not even in the social media (although we suggested that); there was no fixed deadline (it took a week) and we left the jurying, the results and the information up to the investor and his goodwill. Still, it was a competition – a word that is almost frowned upon in Bulgaria.

MAY the BEST ONE WIN!

For us, this was an honest win-win situation.

We had a lot of fun preparing our competition entries

and if the investor would choose one of them, then there you would have your dream investor at last…

…and if he did not… well, then we weren’t meant to be the right architects for him.

He had a choice and, hopefully, he will find his dream-home among the entries.

The benefit for us were the wonderful hours spent in preparing the most difficult, most fun and most personal architectural task, discussing it and exchanging tons of ideas within our team.

So what do you say?

We will publish our suggestions soon, we promise but here is a small teaser from the kitchen:

coming up…