Reykjavík Art Museum
The Reykjavík Art Museum is an insertion within an existing concrete warehouse.
The new Art Museum occupies two floors of the south wing and three floors of the north wing of a concrete warehouse built about an open court between 1933-39. At the turn of the twentieth century the main pier in Reykjavík, Icelands umbilical cord to the world, occupied the site. This link is reawakened in the Art Museum.
Externally the building is predominantly painted Fishery Protection Vessel grey with the museum demarcated in white. A concrete canopy marks the entrance and new windows either contain hermetically sealed doors or allow glimpses into the south gallery. Internally the canopy reflects light into the double height lobby which is one of a series of spaces, lined with hot rolled steel sheets and black walnut floors, which collectively form the pier link.
Flanking the lobby is the raw concrete museum shop and reception with white and walnut furnishings. Cloakrooms are contained within a crystalline glass box.
Bisected by the pier the court is split into a large external exhibition space and a small multipurpose room each with white concrete floors. Two 7x4m steel doors allow the pier to open to the court and two pairs of multi-folding steel doors offer an array of openings to the room. A skylight box illuminates the pier and at night its glow fills the court.
The pier is terminated on the north façade by two huge glass panes on the ground and first floors. These openings serve the library and café respectively.
The six galleries share a common pallet of concrete and white but placement, form and scale give each one a distinctive character. Generally daylight is admitted indirectly to the galleries and sliding or folding plates allow total black-out when necessary.
Delivery, workshop and storage are all located on the ground floor and accessed from the harbour side. Administration and the Architectural Archive is located on the second floor next to an external sky gallery on the roof of the multipurpose space.