Morgunbladid, Reykjavik, Iceland. December 21st, 1997 p. 2

Translation

People who to take themselves to seriously strap on their own ball and chain.

Good to follow Architecture from the outside

In New York Olafur Thordarson Architect is the vice-president of Pesce Ltd., which is run by the well known designer Gaetano Pesce. Einar Orn Gunnarsson spoke with Thordarson in his own studio on Manhattan where he was busy building an enormous wine bottle rack. His studio is full of drawings, models and furniture that he has designed.

Olafur Thordarson completed his BS degree in Architecture from the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee in 1986. Later he completed his Master of Architecture from Columbia University in New York in 1990. He has participated in several urban design competitions here and won a special award in the competition for Grafarholt hill. He has also written articles about architecture in Icelandic Newspapers.

"Here in New York is a lively community where the most diverse sections of human life gather, " explains Thordarson. "Since there are so many directions and worlds of thought that meet in this spot, there is more freedom to create things. One can tread uncharted territories but still find a venue for one’s works. I think that this part of the city is the most interesting one."

Reykjavik a disconnected collection suburbs

It is good to follow Icelandic architecture from the outside. It gives you a different angle on things. For instance I consider Reykjavik City east of Raudararstig [street] as hardly a city but rather a disconnected collection of individual suburbs. Many of these suburbs have been designed like some sort of electrical components so the results are cold and shattered. I see very small improvements in city design since the third decade of this century in terms of the overall design of urban communities. The City planning commission has used a kind of formula that has like a patterned carpet been rolled over hills and small valleys. In the last few years there has been a tremendous effort to plant trees to try and improve these environments.

What I do like about Reykjavik city are various improvements downtown. I am not talking here about specific design or the style of individual buildings, but how the downtown area has become more diverse than it was only 10 years ago. It has become more alive as a central point of human life but there are more factors than urban planning or architecture.

Once in a while I send in urban design proposals for competitions sponsored by the [Reykjavik] City and The [Icelandic] Architecture Association. In these proposals I try to put in place a cornerstone for different solutions on the making of new neighborhoods. In these the priorities are shifted from what is now the norm. I have the singular goal to create a human environment alive with people, rather than the giving of the car as a priority. The composition of neighborhoods need to approach more a city planning which has a consistent density between single family houses and highest three story high apartment buildings. The environment needs, in my view, to be woven as a whole so there is clear and plentiful internal circulation between the various urban elements. What is first and foremost needed is a dense environment which one could categorize as alive urban design. In a competition for Alftanes in 1991 I managed to summarize a typology that in my view is very suitable for Icelandic conditions.

Building design and coffee machines

In Pesce’s office I have managed much of the design work for the last 7 years. This is demanding work because of the diversity. For instance I managed the work on a building in Osaka, Japan, with it sides covered with large plant pots. The building is a vertical garden, a certain injection into Osaka City, but the authorities there decided to take it under its wings and take care of the garden as they do with other gardens in the city.

We worked a variety of interior design works, designed industrial design products and furniture. A while ago the office produced a design for a coffee maker which takes its shape from a volcano and is now produced by Zani Zani in Italy. I for instance materialized the idea for a chair which one can collapse like an umbrella. This chair is now produced by Zerodizegno and is sold in the better furniture outlets. Mr. Pesce and his designs are constantly in the media and I represent him for his various work. The whole experience is truly excellent and a very important part of my career.

These days we are working on a major retrospective of Andy Warhol which will be in the Guggenheim museum next year. I work closely with Mr. Pesce and provide input on the smallest and largest portions of the exhibit. I hope everything works out as planned and the exhibit will turn out well.

During the evenings and on weekends is when I work on my own design work. My partner/fiancé Donna Fumoso is a great person. She is very encouraging and doesn’t mind that we live in a carpenter’s shop and a design office with all the necessary junk. If I get an idea for a piece of furniture I just must make it even though we ran out of space or personally have no need for it. In spite of long school years full of indoctrination's about symmetries, centerlines, what architecture is in or out and so on, I try to put this all aside and concentrate on an originality in my work. I consider a free and fertile spirit is really the prerequisite of any good design. To let go of one’s inhibitions is most often misunderstood as childish. People who to take themselves to seriously usually make their own ball and chain. To many designers are stuck in certain principles and over the board explanations and make it hard for them to think freely as they restrict their own process.

Since I graduated from Columbia University I have designed numerous objects, including lamps. Intramuros Magazine recently published on of them in their June issue. They are free in form and in a certain sense personalities in the space which they make. They are supposed to create a certain spirit that reflects the spontaneous work it took to create them. One of these lamps is created partly in metal coat hangers and gauze. There really are no limits which materials to use because it works if one persistently follows through with the original idea. The furniture I make are literally three dimensional paintings within one’s household. I don’t really care how people are "supposed to" design and make furniture and look at each piece as a unique work parallel to the painter which elaborates with oil paints on canvas. It is a matter of how each work represents the space of reality.

(Interview was taken during summer 1997)