Practicing mindfulness – Iceland

This mindful holiday home is carefully placed on a densely overgrown hill sloping north in the direction of the great Lake Pingvallavatn in southwestern Iceland. On multiple levels, the otherworldly landscape has modeled the form of the building. Designed by Krads architects, the house is In dialogue with the terrain, the concrete foundation of the wooden house lies in three staggered planes that follow the movement of the landscape. In a similar manner, the roof surface, overgrown with local grass and moss, slopes towards and partly with the hill.
The location of the house has been chosen with great care to integrate the building into the surroundings while framing specially selected views of the landscape.
Towards North, the house rises above the low scrub to give an unobstructed view over Pingvallavatn and the mountain Skjaldbreio from the main room of the house. In the opposite direction, the main room opens onto a south-west-facing terrace that is closely surrounded by trees. From here, the mountains and waterways can be seen at the same time as a view is established from the terrace, through the house, and out towards the lake.
Apart from the terrace, the immediate surroundings of the building are so densely vegetated that they are close to impenetrable. Preserving the landscape as pristine as possible was a major intention in both the design process and during the construction of the house. In return, the greened roof is established as an accessible plane. Access to the roof can be gained from inside, from the house’s sleep- and play loft, or from the outside where the slope starts at the foot of the integrated boat shed. Following the ascend, standing at the top of the roof’s edge above the trees, the landscape opens up in a magnificent and ever-changing panorama towards the lake and the surrounding mountains.