AVS. Arkitektúr verktækni skipulag - 01.06.2005, Qupperneq 52

Utilities in Building
Valdimar K. Jónsson, Professor Emeritus
New buildings are not always prop-
erly finished when they are handed
over to their owner. Instead of dis-
cussing this in general terms I shall
in this article only deal with utilities
in buildings, such as hot and cold
water, sewage, and air conditioning.
As example of the lack of proper
utilities, the loss from water damage
in lcelandic buildings amounts to 1
billion ISK every year, a large part of
which can be traced to faulty work-
manship.
The Utilities Society of lceland
(Lagnafélag íslands) was founded
almost 20 years ago on Oct. 4,
1986 and has been active ever
since.
The goal of the Society is to
encourage the development of utili-
ties technology, design, and proc-
esses, and to further mutual under-
standing between the disciplines
concerned with both interior and
exterior facets of building. There are
currently 700 members and around
400 supporting bodies.
The history of the Society can
be found on the homepage of the
Society at www.lafi.is and in the
magazine “Lagnafréttir" issues 1 to
32 and in the 92 news/notes that
have been published.
The presidents of the Society
have been Kristján Ottósson, the
first two years, Jón Sigurjónsson
the next two, Einar þorsteinsson
and Hreinn Frímannsson one year
each, Grétar Leifsson, Guðmundur
Þóroddsson and Guðmundur
Jónsson two years each, Þórður
Ó. Búason during three years and
Guðmundur Hjálmarsson the last
four years. Kristján Ottósson has
been the managing director since
the founding of the Society.
Soon after the Society was
founded it started to work towards
the creation of a Utililies Centre that
could assist educational institutions
both at the secondary and university
level with practical teaching and
research. It was also to serve as a
centre for continued education for
designers and industrial workers in
this field. The start was very slow.
Many people concerned had to be
persuaded that working together
served a common purpose
It was not until the end of 2001
that the Utililies Centre of lceland
(LKI) came into operation in a new
building in Keldnaholt. Today a
large collection of machinery has
been built up that can be used for
practical teaching. This Centre can
also be used for research, and one
doctoral student at the University
of lceland is working there on his
thesis. Companies in the utililies
field have donated the machinery
and this shows how interested peo-
ple have been in establishing the
Centre. The value of this machinery
has been estimated at 53 million
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