Fjord

The new extension at Fjörður consists of retail space on the ground floor connected to the existing shopping center, hotel apartments on the second to fourth floors on Strandgata, a library on the second floor that also connects to the existing shopping center, and then high-quality apartments on the second to seventh floors with stunning views in all directions over the entire Hafnarfjörður. The building is up to four floors on Strandgata, but then rises seven floors to the west to the other two towers of the shopping center. From Strandgata, we experience the building as four floors that fit well with the existing streetscape. Between the hotel and the apartments is a roof garden on the second floor, a kind of pedestrian street that connects the hotel, the library, apartments and Strandgata with steps down to the street. The seven-story apartment tower rises with large roof balconies from the east and south and is highest to the north to maximize sunlight on balconies and other outdoor spaces. The roofs of the hotel building and the apartment building are so-called «mansard» roofs with dormers, updated to a modern look. The buildings also get their own unique look and cladding material that breaks up the appearance of the whole into a human scale with references to the smaller buildings of the old Middle Ages. The hotel is clad with red aluminum cladding and yellow corrugated iron cladding on Strandgata. The entrance to the shopping center is wood-clad and the apartment tower is clad with dark cement-pack cladding on Strandgata and light gray aluminum cladding in diamond panels in the courtyard. Large circular skylights on the roof garden provide daylight to the retail spaces down to the shopping street on the ground floor of the building. Arched windows on the terraced roof balconies of the residential part give the building a certain distinctive character, and soft corners reduce both the scale of the building and wind loads.