Frakkastígur 1

IÐA ehf

Green emphasis will be paramount in a new building that will be built at Frakkastígur 1. The project was selected in the City of Reykjavík's competition for "green housing of the future" in 2022.  See more here.

The development is being carried out by Iða Real Estate Development Company, and Lendager Ísland has led the project's design phase. Björt Ólafsdóttir, Managing Director of Iða, says that the carbon footprint of the building will be 50% less than usual and that there will be a strong emphasis on reusing resources in the development as much as possible. The building is designed to be at the forefront of buildings in Iceland that reduce the environmental burden on the climate and nature. Björt says that the work is being done following the state and city policy on reducing carbon emissions in the construction sector. 

The building description project states that:

"It is expected that all materials encountered during excavation and construction on site will be reused, either for landscaping and landscape design or as accents for resting places on the site and even around it as needed. It is also expected that construction materials that fall into place, such as leftover timber, iron and concrete, will be used in the building itself or landscape design. For example, leftover concrete can be used in pre-designed moulds and thus prepare bases for bicycle stands, such as benches or other items. Timber can be easily treated, redesigned and reused in cladding both indoors and outdoors."

Old road crash barriers are used for cladding, and makes up around 20% of the total cladding for the house. See more in an article on Vegagerðin's page.

Framkvæmd og áskoranir á verkstað

Verktakafyrirtækið Arnarhvoll sér um framkvæmdina við Frakkastíg 1, en þetta er fyrsta samstarfsverkefni félagsins og Iðu. Þótt hönnun verksins hafi verið langt komin þegar verktaki kom að borðinu, kallar hringrásarnálgunin á breytt vinnulag miðað við hefðbundna uppbyggingu.

Áskoranirnar við hringrásarverkefni eru nokkrar en alls ekki óyfirstíganlegar. Þegar unnið er með endurnýtt efni er mikilvægt að hafa tímann fyrir sér þar sem það gengur ekkert alltaf allt upp sem var lagt var upp með í byrjun. Til dæmis getur efnið sem býðst til endurnotkunar verið minna en þarf til að klára verkefnið. Í tilfelli Frakkastígs 1 var áætlunin að klæða húsið með vegriðum frá Vegagerðinni, en magnið sem fékkst dugði ekki til að klæða allt húsið. Þá þurfti að fara aftur að teikniborðinu og aðlaga hönnunina til að gera ráð fyrir öðru efni með vegriðunum. Sömuleiðis getur kolefnislétt steypa verið erfiðari í notkun en hefðbundin, en samkvæmt verktökunum er vandamálið ekki það stórt að ekki sé hægt að finna góða lausn. Þolinmæði og lausnamiðuð hugsun er lykilatriði.

Hringrásarbyggingar krefjast því nánara samstarfs milli verktaka, hönnuða og verkkaupa en venja er og er einn helsti lærdómurinn af verkefninu mikilvægi þess að hafa svigrúm og tilbúið „plan B“.

Vegna þessa óljósa tímaramma er erfitt fyrir verktaka að bjóða föst verð í sambærileg verkefni, þar sem breytileikinn er meiri og stöðlun minni samanborið við hefðbundin verkefni. Mikilvægt er að hugsa lausnamiðað og þá er þetta eins og hvert annað verkefni sem þarf að leysa. Oft þarf að læra á meðhöndlun óhefðbundinna efna, en til að mynda þurfti burðarþolsverkfræðingur hússins að meta sérstaklega hvernig er best að festa vegriðin utan á húsið. Það þarf líka að hafa nef fyrir því að sækja óhefðbundið efni og það gerir hönnun hússins aðeins tímafrekari og háðara breytingum.

Þótt endurnýting efna skili ekki endilega beinum fjárhagslegum sparnaði í verkefni af þessari stærðargráðu, þá liggur virði í reynslunni og þróun nýrra vinnubragða. Framkvæmdin við Frakkastíg er liður í almennri þróun í byggingariðnaði þar sem umhverfisáhrif og vottanir vega æ þyngra.

Construction and challenges on site

The construction company Arnarhvoll is responsible for the construction of Frakkastígur 1, which is the first collaborative project between the company and Iða. Although the design of the project was well advanced when the contractor came to the table, the circular approach calls for a different way of working compared to traditional construction.

The challenges of circular projects are several, but by no means insurmountable. When working with recycled materials, it is important to have time to spare, as not everything that was initially planned will always work out. For example, the material offered for reuse may be less than is needed to complete the project. In the case of Frakkastígur 1, the plan was to clad the house with road barriers from the Icelandic Road Administration, but the quantity received was not enough to clad the entire house. Then it was necessary to go back to the drawing board and adjust the design to allow for a different material for the road barriers. Likewise, carbon lightweight concrete can be more difficult to use than traditional concrete, but according to the contractors, the problem is not so big that a good solution cannot be found. Patience and solution-oriented thinking are key. Circular buildings therefore require closer collaboration between contractors, designers and buyers than is customary, and one of the main lessons from the project is the importance of having flexibility and a ready “plan B”.

Because of this unclear timeframe, it is difficult for contractors to offer fixed prices for similar projects, where the variability is greater and standardization is less compared to traditional projects. It is important to think solution-oriented, and then this is like any other project that needs to be solved. Often you have to learn how to handle unconventional materials, but for example, the building’s structural engineer had to specifically assess how best to attach the road barriers to the outside of the building. You also need to have a nose for sourcing unconventional materials, and that makes the design of the building a little more time-consuming and subject to change.

While reusing materials may not necessarily result in direct financial savings on a project of this magnitude, there is value in the experience and development of new working methods. The construction of Frakkastígur 1 is part of a general trend in the construction industry where environmental impact and certifications are increasingly important.

Below you will find a recording from a morning meeting about Frakkastígur 1, held on 3rd of December 2025:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z6HJdd_pqII