Lögberg-Heimskringla - 21.06.1985, Síða 6

6-WINNIPEG, FÖSTUDAGUR 21. JÚNÚ 1985
The Torfa Houses
Continued from page 5
extension to the Amtmannsstígur
house, added in 1905, was moreover
the handiwork of Iceland's first
trained house-builder/architect,
Rögnvaldur Ólafsson.
The Torfa houses have seen many
activities in their time. The
Bankastraeti building housed the
country's first bakery, Bernhöfts
(est, 1834), which in turn gave the
row of houses its formal name,
Bernhöftstorfa. Linked to the bakery
were a brewery and a family house.
Later these extensions became a
storage shed and a shop. Other build-
ings in the group also have a
colourful history. They started out as
family residences and later became
government offices devoted to every-
thing from state economy to vehicle
licensing.
But whereas the concrete Gimli
building was kept up and used
constantly, the brick and timber
houses around it were allowed to
deteriorate. At the heart of this
neglect was the attitude held by
many Icelanders of middle age
towards their past. The old Torfa
houses symbolized the old Iceland,
poor and ruled by the Danes. The
"new Icelanders," the generation
that had prospered during the post-
war years, called these houses
"Rotten Danish timbers" and wanted
them replaced with ultra-modern
concrete buildings. When a new
generation began to demand that the
Torfa houses and others like them be
restored and preserved, seeing in
them their only link with the past,
the reaction of older people was often
violent. The issue became political,
sinCe the conservationists also tended
to be active on the left.
A debate raged in the newspapers
and various city committees for
almost a decade, and attempts were
even made to set fire to the Torfa
houses, most seriously in 1977.
The movement towards the conser-
vation of the Torfa as a whole started
for real when two architect/de-
signers, Hördur Agústsson and
Thorsteinn Gunnarsson, did a
thorough survey of the houses
involved. In their report, which came
out in 1968, they emphatically
recommended preserving the Torfa
houses as important cultural
monuments. Two years later the
Icelandic Society of Architects drew
up plans for their restoration and in
1972 a special society,
Torfusamtökin, was formed with the
express purpose of fighting for a new
lease of life for the torfa houses, not
only as monuments to the past, but
also as centres for small businesses
and all kinds of creative activity.
For awhile there was a stalemate,
but when the great fire of 1977
occurred, supporters of the Torfa
realized that something needed to be
done quickly. A thorough survey of
the state of the houses was carried
out, and both the official Council for
the Conservation of Buildings and the
state archeologist urged the minister
in charge to place a preservation
order on the Torfa row as a whole —
which finally happened in 1979.
Torfusamtökin then signed a
contract with the ministries of edu-
cation and finance, the legal owners
of the houses, where the society
leased them for a period of twelve
years, pledging in return to restore
them and put them to use. In
February 1980 restoration work was
begun, and now, in 1984, all the
Torfa houses have been returned to
their original state, at least on the
outside.
The Bankastraeti building now
houses the restaurant Laekjarbrekka,
one of a score of fine and inexpensive
restaurants that have appeared in
Reykjavík in the last few years. On
the Amtmannstígur side, the house
has been turned into a combination
of restaurant and gallery. On the left
we find the Torfan restaurant, a
haven for gastronomes ever since it
opened in June 1980; on the right we
find Gallery Langbrók, where a
cooperative of Icelandic women
artists opened a small shop and
gallery nearly four years ago, which
has become a very successful
institution. The old bakery, adjoining
the Bankastraeti building, is in the
process of being finished, but will
house a small all-purpose lecture or
assembly room, offices and crafts
shops.
In all the restorations, scrupulous
attention has been paid to the original
Exterior of the Laekjarbrekka restaurant.
When dusk falls, the Torfa houses look their best. This is the time
people like to gather in the Torfa restaurant, to bask in its hospitable
atmosphere. Adjoining the Torfan restaurant is the Gallery Langbrók,
run by a cooperative of women artists. Their shows of weaving,
pottery and prints attract a lot of attention.
features of the houses on the outside,
every door-post, window-frame,
chimney site, but on the inside each
house has been adapted to the needs
of its occupant, without distorting
essential features like rafters,
panelling and woodwork. All paint-
work is both subdued and tasteful,
contributing to the hushed, relaxed
atmosphere that seems to pervade
the Torfa houses.
The Torfa area provides a haven of
peace on a busy thoroughfare. Once
considered expendable, the Torfa
houses have now become an integral
part of modern Reykjavík.
A corridor on the upper floor of the Laekjarbrekka restaurant,
formerly Bankastraeti 2.
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