Project Name
Domkyrkoforum
Year of Construction
2010-2011
Location
Domkyrkoplatsen in Lund
Client
Domkyrkrådet i Lund
Architect
Carmen Izquierdo
Project Managers
Carmen Izquierdo
Andreas Hiller
Collaborating Architects
Andreas Hiller
Andreas Hermansson
Erik Törnkvist
Isabel Gonzaga
Malin Belfrage
Landscape
Domkyrkoforum: Carmen Izquierdo Arkitektkontor AB
Domkyrkoplatsen: Ateljé Landskap
Photography
Åke E:son Lindman
Art Installation
Den gyllene cirkeln by Anita Christoffersson
Gross Area
New Building: 1617 sqm
Renovation: 883 sqm

The site of the new cathedral forum is central Lund, in direct connection to the cathedral itself. On the site is situated the existing "Arken" house, which is a building of historical value.

The new building aims to integrate itself in the urban fabric in a natural way, by adapting to the scale and lines of the surrounding cityscape. At the same time our vision has been to create a contemporary building that adds a new layer to the many historic layers that characterize the urban environment of central Lund.

The shape of the building creates new adjacent public spaces: The entrance plaza towards Kyrkogatan street, the entrance passage facing the cathedral, and a triangular square towards Kungsgatan street. In addition to the welcoming exterior spaces an internal atrium is created, as well as an interior courtyard, shaped by the existing and the new building.

The central public space in the building is the entrance hall that is reached from both entrances. The entrance hall is formed as a meeting space; a general and generous which can hold various activities like reception, exhibitions and a cafe. A two-story atrium allows daylight to enter from above, while visually integrating the public spaces with the congregational facilities on the second story. The auditorium is conceived as a unique space, with its skylight pointing up towards the cathedral towers.

The exterior is a simple yet characteristic volumes, its lines playing with the surrounding buildings. Towards Kyrkogatan street the roof lines of the Arken house are continued over the entrance plaza. Towards the cathedral the entrance is signaled by the characteristic skylight.

The facade of the building is made of a brass alloy, a natural material that ages with a rich and living texture, allowing the building to age into its surroundings; at the inauguration it shimmers like gold, but in a couple of years it will have oxidized into a deep and matte bronze color.

The interior of the building is cast in concrete with form of wooden boards. The massive and heavy character of the material is balanced by the play of light in the interior spaces.

Project Name
The Forest of Venice
Year of Construction
2016
Location
Serra dei Giardini
Client
Swedish Institute
Kjellander + Sjöberg Architects
Folkhem
Curator
Jan Åman
Exhibition and Installation Design
Kjellander + Sjöberg Architects
Exhibitors
Architects Without Borders Sweden,
Arrhov Frick Arkitektkontor,
Carmen Izquierdo Arkitektkontor,
In Praise of Shadows Architects,
DinellJohansson Architects,
Horn.Uggla Landscape Architects,
‎URBIO Landskapsarkitektur
With the support of
Svensk Trä /Swedish Wood
Sveaskog
Martinsons

The exhibition Forests of Venice is shown in Serra dei Giardini, in the greenhouse from 1894, located between the two main venues of La Biennale di Venezia: Il Giardini and Arsenale. Seven selected architectural practices - Architects Without Borders Sweden, Arrhov Frick, Carmen Izquierdo, DinellJohansson, Horn.Uggla, In Praise of Shadows, and Urbio - explore how classical Venetian architectural and urban elements can be reinterpreted and translated into new strategies for our time, using wood as the material driving the enquiry.

The start point is a typical plan structure of the venetian palace on the "piano nobile".

The "Sala del portego" is the principal hall of the palazzo, running the depth of the house, opened towards the facade of the canal and the facade of the inner courtyard with a portico of vertical openings often decorated with fretwork, and originally unglazed. From the "portego" you reach the living rooms along both sides. It is common until the end of the XVIII century that the use of these rooms is flexible, and adaptable with help of the furniture "mobile", that could be arranged differently accommodating different uses in the same room.

It´s striking how today´s search for a flexible use of spaces, limited by functionalisms specificity and optimized dimensions, can find a parallel in the architecture of the venetian palace. We embrace the flexibility of the original structure and propose the transformation of the "piano nobile" of the venetian palazzo into the communitarian space of the "new Venice". Opening a courtyard towards the sky in the middle of the plan, creates a centripetal force that changes the directionality of the two faced plan at the same time that introduces a nice gradient of light filtered through the inner gardens vegetation. In this way the sequential character of the portego is extended to the hole space, in all directions, even towards the sky.

The bidirectional character of the portego is turned cartesian, transforming the hierarchical room sequence, from the most public to the most private, into an equally public sequence in its extension. The filtering screen of the exterior is segmented and repeated within. The mysterious nature of the venetian screen becomes a part of the space itself.Deconstructing the geometry of the gothic fretwork, its symmetries, juxtaposition, repetition, ... in different layers of simpler geometry; and distributing them into the regular grid of the plan, we get a delicate and slender hypostyle structure. A structure with an organic character by simply using a repeated curved element framed between verticals. An element that has a stabilizing roll within the framework, and that by repetition, and rotation, is generating an abstract representation of the forest, even more reliable than the one in the referenced original fretwork.

How are the spaces for "the collective" of tomorrow´s communities? What kind of common spaces is the future Venice offering its citizens? In the belief that sharing and creating a common culture are keys to participation, social interaction and integration in times of mass migration, we suggest a place to gather for cultural and community activities. A building that embodies communitarian identity. That could have the role of the churches in Venice once had, that of gathering the community together and generating participation, involvement and a sense of collective. In this case, a non religious building, a hybrid between a community and a cultural center, where public information takes place, as well as all kinds of community initiated cultural activities: Food, art, music, dance, theater, etc...

The construction of the cultural center is a community action , the pieces of the building are prefabricated and easy to put together. A showcase of "file to factory" wooden architecture that we can make today. The spaces that it offers evokes the spaces of Venice´s palazzo architecture, the simple plan structure of the Portego with adjacent rooms at the same time that the fretwork of the filtering screen gets translated into a hypostyle hall , a sort of abstraction of the forest . The mysterious nature of the venetian screen becomes a part of the space itself.

Project Type
Invited Competition
Status
Sketch
Arkitekt
Carmen Izquierdo
Gross Area
1100sqm

The new relax section is located on a slope between an existing courtyard and a nature area with oak trees that are a hundred years old.

The building is designed as a beautiful and tactile background, and adds a fourth façade to the existing courtyard. A wall made of stones that are intermittently stacked to create a base relief that invites the touch and creates a play of shadowsin the differing light during the day.
Above the wall there are characteristically cylinder shaped roof lanterns, and the existing tree tops of the oak trees.

In front of the spa entrance and also as a part of the courtyard’s outer circle, a new space opens up – a small courtyard that is separated by a softly shaped wall. A perforated wall with the same stacking system as the building façade, but made with holes between the stones.

In the interior three different settings are created with the help of a soft geometry with curved walls, circular courtyards around the existing trees and roof lanterns. An interior that is full of character where defined spaces are created, while at the same time giving you the feeling of a floating room, as you move along the inviting shapes and around the conserved natural spaces. The central terrace both divides and ties the building’s pool section and relax sections together. By opening up its glazed façades you get a feeling of being outside on warm summer days.

The circular shape is used to create collective rooms and integrate the existing oak trees into the building and also to lead the way in the spatial experience. Carefully chosen openings in the façade create clear views from the different rooms. Openings designed to divert your gaze allow you to admire the view from a distance. Smooth white marble floors interact with concrete surfaces, jointless tile walls and wood finishing, as well as water, glazed surfaces and nature – all under the indirect lighting from the ceilings and courtyards.

Status
Sketch
Client
Folkhem
Architect
Carmen Izquierdo
Structural Engineer
Frida Tjernberg
Gross Area
12000 sqm
Building Height
20 floors
Nr. of Apartments
100
Status
Concept
Client
Oscar Properties Bygg
Architect
Carmen Izquierdo
Grossarea
3000 sqm
Nr. of Apartments
22
Nr. of Comercial Facilities
2

The building is beautifully located on the waterfront at Lilla Essingen.

The floor plan is designed as an assembly of four simple buildings. These are turned and aligned along the street and the promenade, creating a pentagonal and quiet courtyard whose fifth side is the opening towards the park and the view.

The building has six floors facing Primusgatan and seven floors facing the water. It has a main entrance on Primusgatan through which one reaches the house’s two stairwells, and it has two entrances on the courtyard in the lower level, one of which continues and also opens onto the promenade.

The floor plan is designed so that all rooms are connected to the outer facade, so that they receive light and have a view on several sides.

The building’s facade is thought to be built in brick. The facade’s exterior includes a series of thin vertical pilasters a brick’s width. The pilasters extend from the point where the building meets the ground through a low base up to the house’s rooftop, made with the same bricks.

The facade’s surface is slightly indented between the pilasters. The facade openings fit into the pilaster openings with a vertical proportion. The windows are withdrawn from the brick exterior, thus amplifying the effect of niches and reliefs in the facade. The balconies are built into the building’s body and completed with steel railings.

Project Type
Competition
Status
Sketch
Location
Tungevågen, Randaberg,
Norway
Architect
Carmen Izquierdo
Gross Area
2500 sqm

The new Maritime museum is a building that is based on a building type:
The shipyard building – a building type that is functional and historically associated with the museum’s contents.

The shipyard building consists of a composition of building naves with generous interior heights and a structure that can be used length-wise in the angle of the row’s span roof but also across through possible extensions out into the side nave. That way it creates a roomy context with clear qualities and adds relevance as a general container for the Maritime learning centre program.

The traditional structure and shape is processed through extension, shifting, bending and faceting of the volume. The shape strategy creates a dynamic and place-specific broken down building shape. Building proportions refer to the location’s building scale and dimensions, with gables that are 10 meters wide and have a maximum height of 11 meters.

The varying volume forms a number of outer rooms around it in relation to the landscape. The outer room details that have been created are intended to be used as an extension of the exhibition’s exterior, where a connection with the adjacent harbor is also created.

Like some fishes have biologically adapted their exterior to become invisible through reflection, the building’s materiality on the border of sea and land can be incorporated into the landscape through a reflective metallic skin.

The effect of the metal reflection that is strived for is to softly dissolve the volume into the landscape, as if we are referring to a water reflection, and extend the landscape’s color scheme in its facades. The building’s expression thereby changes with the daylight and seasons.

Project Type
Competition
Status
Concept
Location
Skellefteå, Sweden
Client
Municipality of Skellefteå
Architect Team
Carmen Izquierdo Arkitektkontor AB:
Carmen Izquierdo

Nyréns Arkitektkontor AB:
Annika Lennman, Architect
Ernesto Garcia, Interior Architect
Daniel Ericsson, Landscape Architect
Collaborating Architects
Carmen Izquierdo Arkitektkontor AB:
Måns Björnskär
Arvid Forsberg
Sara Omar
Anders Stenholm

Nyréns Arkitektkontor AB:
Andreu Taberner
Fredrica Sällstrom
Culture House: 11800 sqm
Hotel: 10600 sqm

We propose a house with a generosity in the common areas, a house that invites to spontaneous meetings and leaves room for the citizen’s initiatives to take shape. A house with a flexibility in the design of the premises, that provides endless opportunities for creative, parallel activities and activity development. A house where everyone is welcome and where Skellefteå residents can express their imagination.

The new culture house building is situated between Kanalgatan, Järnvägsgatan, Trädgårdsgatan and Torggatan.

This large program is organized within an articulated volume that consists of several buildings assembled in one whole. A new square area “Kulture Torget / Culture Square” is built south of the Culture House, designed with a paved surface divided into two defined areas, a garden area enclosed by a sitting bench, and an ice rink that, in the summertime, can be used as a stage.

The building is designed exteriorly as an an ensemble of volumes with a clear coherent look. A crimped geometry and an exciting and distinctive roof profile give the building an integrated and clear presence in the city. At the same time, the building is adapted in scale and form to the different urban situations, so that it becomes a natural part of the city from where one meets it.

The building’s character is created by the combination of solid wood details and the facade’s geometry. The crimped geometry returns on a larger scale, in the whole volume’s shape, and in the house’s actual surface. A movement which, together with Skellefteå’s northern light, creates soft shadow effects on the house’s body and a richness and variety in its appearance.

The building’s interior is designed with a visible frame of laminated construction and cross-laminated wood panels, which are organized in a regular grid, on a general plan. Inside it are the Stage rooms and the atrium, from which stairs and elevators extend, resolving the vertical connection.

The program is organized in the building according to the two main directions available on the site. From north to south, the Hotel is placed closest to the station and the arriving visitors. Followed by the Guest Stage / Congress Hall and Västerbotten theater’s stages and foyers in the central part of the building. The library, Culture House workplaces, and art galleries are placed closest to Kanalgatan.

From west to east, a gradation from public to non-public activities is created. Along Trädgårdsgatan, an interior street is created, connecting the flow from the inner city with the flows from the railway and giving access to all the activities in the house. Loading areas, janitorial areas and staff entrances are organized along Torggatan, which allows separate internal communications inside the building.

Project Type
Competition
Status
Concept
Location
Type house adaptable to different topography and places
Architect
Carmen Izquierdo
Gross Area
125 - 160 sqm

The aim is to create a wood house of massive wood that on its own or as a part of a group can become an integrated part of the natural and cultural landscape.

When we designed these contemporary model houses we chose an extended design that conveys lightness in the building volume. The houses are given a clear direction and a verticality of organization that allows the rooms to take part of the landscape and view in different ways. The volume is generous, flexible, airy and light.

Massive wood panels are rigid across and durable, while not weighing much. This allows for large spans as well as rational methods for quick assembly.

The house’s structural principles are two load-bearing side facades and stabilizing full length façade and roof elements. The large span makes it possible to create open and continuous rooms that are suitable to today’s housing, where the multifunctional and large open surface is viewed as an excellent quality.

The interior living space is organized on the ground floor around the conservatory in the entrance hall, which holds everything from kitchen plants to beautiful decorative plants and small trees. Along the side-façade the stairs go up towards the bedrooms and den. Glazed fronts facing the landscape and view open up from the family room as well as from the bedroom and den. The illustrated room division is one of several possible configurations.

On the exterior we have chosen to allow the cross-laminated wood element clearly contribute to the house’s visual effect, where the tectonically folded geometry of the facades give the building its shape. Small dislocations in the side façade between elements, and a framing of the house’s horizontal row of windows create a simple yet expressive detail.

The roof is wooden paneled in the traditional Swedish manner. A drain gutter in the roof valley is created in galvanized sheet metal and is extended out of the building as water dispensers. The wood surface of the façade is oiled and when the houses are repeated as a suite we suggest different shades in the wood’s natural color scheme.

Status
Concept
Buiding permit drawings
Project type
Family houses on a sloping ground
Place
Sidöparken. Strängnäs
Client
Folkhem
Architect
Carmen Izquierdo
Collaborating architects
Anton Bogårdh
Sara Omar
Nr of houses
10
Gross area
1970 sqm
Office
Carmen Izquierdo Arkitektkontor AB
Address
Ragvaldsgatan 19b,
11846 Stockholm, Sweden
Inquiries
+46 0706-15 50 07
carmen@izquierdo.se