The Nordic House in Reykjavík was opened in 1968 and is a cultural institution run by the Nordic Council of Ministers. The goal of the Nordic House is to foster and strengthen cultural ties between Iceland and the other Nordic countries. From the beginning, Norræna húsið has marked itself out in Icelandic cultural life, often by initiating and organizing various cultural events and exhibitions.
The Nordic House also has a unique library, which lends out literature only in Nordic languages, a children’s library, a café, an exhibition hall and a festival hall. Basically low-rise and painted white, the Nordic House building is not large, but is truly tailored to the place, the climate and the culture in which it is built, and its location testifies to the sensitive feeling that Finnish architect Alvar Aalto had for the landscape of a place.
In the Norræna Hús one can find a mature implementation of many of the elements that Aalto worked with, from the close fusion of the white modernism to the materialistic or poetic modernism that characterized his later works. The contrasts of horizontal, disciplined lines and vertical, organic features that appear in the white painted surfaces of Norræna Hús against the high-gloss street rising from the middle of the building create strong visual tension and stimulate a variety of perceptions of the building’s form and space.
In the Nordic House, all the light fixtures, lamps and almost all the furniture are designed by Aalto, as he did for most of his buildings. From the flat roof of the rectangular ground floor rises a very special and distinctive shape covered in dark purple glazed tiles. From the lobby, there is a pavilion in the center of the building that enjoys daylight through a round skylight spread across the ceiling. From the pavilion you enter the building’s library, into the music and conference hall, into the office wing and, last but not least, into the building’s restaurant, which opens with a great view of the city center, from the Esjuni to the north.
In the library, the space opens up in an unexpected way, as its shape and ceiling height are marked by the shape of the street rising from the center of the building. The central part of the floor is taken down and leads to the lower level of the building, while the light flows generously down through a skylight in the ceiling shaped like a crystal that stands out prominently from the street. Next to the library is the music and conference hall. Its irregular shape and wood-clad walls contribute to good acoustics whether it is music or spoken language. Alvar Aalto designed the interior of most of his buildings, and many of his furniture, lamps and other items are still produced today.
Read more on Nordichouse.is
