I went to Iceland looking for fabulous design, and I found it just not in the places I expected. Although I couldn’t find any museums or galleries devoted to contemporary Icelandic design, it seemed like good design surrounded me everywhere I went: in the smallest details of every drinking fountain I encountered to numerous houses and public buildings around Reykjavik.
From the moment I arrived at Keflavik airport (shown above), Iceland’s unique take on minimalist Scandinavian design was on display everywhere I went:
Drinking Fountains Something that I particularly noticed was the fact that virtually every drinking fountain I came across in Iceland was very designed. There were no run-of-the-mill drinking fountains like you typically find in the U.S. Every drinking fountain I came across seemed to be intent on taking drinking-fountain-ness to the next level.
Olafur Omarsson, a student at the Icelandic Academy of Arts, makes inspired wooden furniture, like this bike rack and bookshelves.
4 Responses to “ICELANDIC DESIGN: In the details”
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I hope you got a picture of the foot-operated drinking fountain at the Pearl
I picked up three of those stools from IKEA with the hopes of sanding and staining them with a dark walnut stain. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out too well since they put some type polyurethane (or ?) that prevented the wood from absorbing the stain. I still have them and was thinking about putting some walnut veneer on them instead. For $20, you can’t beat the price!
Oh, that?s an IKEA stool? That makes sense. I know this designer (Ragnhei?ur ?sp Sigur?ard?ttir) had nothing to do with the design of the stool itself – her thing is to take generic, mass-produced pieces and then make each one unique with embroidery.
It makes sense that she would use IKEA stools, since they are mega cheap and she seems to have interest / issue with IKEA.
In fact, she was involved in the Icelandic UN-IKEA design exhibition that L+L wrote about in January:
http://www.landliving.com/articles/0000000547.aspx
hello and good day
my name is Tzahi Shneider, i’m 27 and i’m Israeli.
i have a patent that combines aquarium with a toilet tank. acording to my patent the fish lives in the same water that are flushed – not two different tanks.
i’m now into looking for investor or a toilet tank company that would like to take this thing and make it comercial.
is it possible to put a picture of it with some words about it in your web site?
thank you very much
Tzahi Shneider
Tzahi@schoolBooks.co.il