Reykjanesbraut - Hafnarfjördur

This project addresses the passage of a four lane highway through the town of Hafnarfjordur. Starting in the north it is cut into the lava within the existing urban development. Here the narrowness of the cut is enhanced by the steep, crude retainingwalls. Concrete columns cast at close centers follow the road edge with broken basalt visible between. From outside the cutting the walls appear as dry-laid low lava walls. Two bridges are in this area, a footbridge and a double-bridge-roundabout. The footbridge has a light handrail on the west side exposing the pedestrians to the traffic below. A future plan proposes that the cutting is closed on this side of the bridge to form a tunnel and in the event that the plan is realised the handrail will simply be removed. On the west side the bridge is of concrete. It's steeply raking form reflecting dambient skylight thus making it appear brighter when seen from cars passing below. The massive scale of the concrete is matched by a loglike timber handrail. Lava coloured ceramic tiles line the inner face of the wall.

The roundabout bridge continues the concrete aesthetic of the footbridge albeit at a larger scale. The form is more complex reflecting the movement of the cars negotiating the junction and this complexity is echoed in the flexing of the cutting columns. The darkness and mass of the bridge is exaggerated by it's flat soffit which extends to the sharp arris of the handrail; a compessing effect which is relieved by the circular hole between the two bridges.

As the road moves southwards it climbs out of the cutting and away from the town. The immediate environment is more open and green. The simple span of Kaldárvegs brú lifts itself from the surrounding pastures over the road in a single sweep echoed by a twisting concrete handrail. Grass banks line the road and the column motif retaining walls are softened by the introduction of growth in the back-fill.

At the peak of it's route southwards the road is cut into the side of Ásfjall and decends to the west.An assemetric concrete footbridge cuts diagonally accross the road perched on paired columns which appear to restrain rather than bear the bridge.

Client : Town of Hafnarfjordur / Public Roads Administration
Architects : Studio Granda
Structural Engineers : Línuhönnun
Landscape Architects : Landmotun

on site 15.08.04
on site 09.09.03