Interment nominated as project of the year - Icelandic Design Awards 2023

Interment by Anna María Bogadóttir, architect is nominated in the category project of the year at the Icelandic Design Awards 2023.

From the jury:
Interment is a complex project that tells the unique story of a building and how modernistic expectations of urban development gain new meaning as time goes on. The building loses its purpose, it fails to find a new role in the contemporary world and is disqualified from the game. The author presents the content through different mediums: a performance, installation, film and finally a book. The power of the machine is presented in the film and the viewers look helplessly at the demolition of the building and the resulting waste of raw materials with the city’s everyday life in the background. The end of a building is the end of ideas about single-use buildings, grounding. 

The book intertwines the story of the building’s life and death with the author’s story and ideas. The author enters the large building of the Industrial Bank of Iceland on Lækjargata and from there into the light of ideas and dreams that live in the built environment. 

The large building of the Industrial Bank of Iceland on Lækjargata was built in the 1970s in the spirit of international visions, but more than half a century later the building is doomed to be demolished to make room for  new buildings with a different role. With Interment, architect Anna María Bogadóttir, creates a unique and influential work that has managed to generate interesting discussions in Iceland. Interment pushes people to think about architecture and its role in the modern world and the need for a change, the life of buildings, re-use, environmental considerations and circular thinking. The approach is artistic and professional, but at the same time personal, so the result is appealing to a diverse group.  

About:
Architect Anna María Bogadóttir emphasizes the cultural and social aspects of architecture, which she approaches from the perspective of daily life in the midst of complex systems and stimuli. She treats narrative, heritage and media as transformative forces in the built environment, with her work finding cross disciplinary purchase across architecture, creative writing and visual art.

Anna María is the founder and owner of Úrbanistan, a studio operating in the liminal space between architecture and other art forms and taking on a variety of projects with focus on re-design, and re-use, as well as undertaking publications, exhibitions and filmmaking that center on the nature and transformation of the manmade environment.

Stay tuned as we will be announcing the nominations in the upcoming days. 

The Icelandic Design Award honours the best Icelandic design and architecture. The importance of design in our society, culture and business has been growing steadily, and it is therefore vital to increase the understanding of good design and highlight the value of quality.

The Icelandic Design Award will be awarded for the tenth time this year (2023), and to mark the occasion, the award categories have been increased to three: Product // Place // Project. In addition, the Icelandic Design Awards also include honorary award and recognition for the best investment in design.

The Icelandic Design Award is established by Iceland Design and Architecture in collaboration with the Iceland Academy of the Arts and the Museum of Design and Applied Art and with support from Business Iceland and SI - the Federation of Icelandic Industries.