AVS. Arkitektúr verktækni skipulag - 01.03.2003, Side 62

Björn Ólafs archítect
The Pa
Of
Björn Ólafs Architect
Björn Ólafs has been working
almost continuously as an architect
from 1969 in Paris, where he stud-
ied architecture. The first part of
this period, in the 1970’s, he
worked at the office of DLM archi-
tects and was in charge of large
projects in Paris and its new towns
Marne la Vallée, Cergy Pontoise
and Melun Senart. Among these
are districts which received an
international award of the European
Union, the French award Palmarés
National del 'Habitat, and Prix de la
Beauté de Paris.
During the next decade, Björn col-
laborated with the same firm on
many large projects. The most
important of these is the central
area of the city Saint- Quentin-en
Yvelines, built between 1985 -1987.
"After this assignment I was tempt-
ed to work as an international
expert for French multi-national
firms. I took on work in the USA,
Egypt and England and stayed for
months in these countries. In con-
tinuation of this and my work on
central areas in French cities, a
connection was formed with
lceland where I had not worked for
two decades. This resulted in some
consultancy work for the Kringlan
shopping mall in Reykjavík. I how-
ever missed not working on the
design of buildings and districts,
which has for me always been an
uncontrollable passion. I therefore
did not regret taking part in two
competitions for central areas dur-
ing the last decade, which we won,
and design after those two central
areas, which have now been built.
One of these projects, carríed out
in collaboration with DLM archi-
tects, is by a new station in the
high velocity train system of Paris,
Cergy le Haut. The other is an
enlargement of the central area of
Montrouge, next to the centre
of Paris.
During the last decade I have grad-
ually undertaken more and more
jobs in lceland and they now
account for more than half of the
projects I am working on at the
moment. The reason for this is that
I consider that my experience
can be better put to use in lceland
than in my dear hometown. As a
result of this my work environment
has radically changed. I now work
in a small office in the centre of
Paris, assisted by two French archi-
tects, Frangois Perrot and Mathilde
Mahler. I now put an emphasis on
working for the most part on
design in order to not drown in
administration and take enough
time tolisten to the people I work
for.
My collaborators are now lcelandic,
such as the practice Vinnustofa
Arkitekta on Skólavörðustígur,
which we won a competition for the
planning of the Úlfarsfellshlíðar dis-
trict. We are at the moment work-
ing on that project for the city of
Reykjavík and that is an exciting
partnership. In Garðabær, I am for-
tunate in taking part in the develop-
ment plan with a good team. I have
also put a great emphasis on creat-
ing very competent work-groups to
carry out the areas that I have
designed.
All my work in lceland now has to
do with planning, although I find it
difficult to swallow to design only
the outdoor space and not the
surrounding buildings. The three
coastal areas, which I have
designed in the Capital Area, are in
a way a continuation of my work in
France. The creation of space and
the use of land follow the same
method and ideology. Although,
they do look very different from one
another. This is probably because I
always want to be designing some-
thing new. If that were not the
case, beíng an architect would not
be any fun at all.” ■
60