• • Einar Thorsteinn (1945-2015) was an experimental architect of singular vision. Born in Iceland, he studied in Hanover and Stuttgart, Germany and worked in Frei Otto’s architecture studio from 1969 to 1972, where he was part of the team designing the lightweight roofs structures at the Munich Olympic Village. Back in Iceland from 1972, Thorsteinn founded his own firm, the Constructions Lab, which produced a number of lightweight structures from ceremonial event tents to geodesic domes for geothermal power plants. His innovative work with spatial geometry also led him to collaborations with the likes of Buckminster Fuller and Linus Pauling.
    
    This picture shows Thorsteinn at work in the studio of Ólafur Elíasson in Berlin where he worked in-house from 2000 to 2013, advising and calculating many of the complex polyhedral volumes and spatial challenges that are integral to Elíasson’s work – most notably the five-fold symmetry of the “quasi brick” polyhedron façade of the Harpa Concert Hall and Conference Centre. “In his many years at the studio”, says Ólafur Elíasson, “Einar gave shape to space – and he also gave space dimensions that go beyond mathematical definitions”. I (sl)

  Giving Shape to Space

   

  Einar Thorsteinn (1945-2015) was an experimental architect of singular vision. Born in Iceland, he studied in Hanover and Stuttgart, Germany and worked in Frei Otto’s architecture studio from 1969 to 1972, where he was part of the team designing the lightweight roof structures at the Munich Olympic Village. Back in Iceland from 1972, Thorsteinn founded his own firm, the Constructions Lab, which produced a number of lightweight structures from ceremonial event tents to geodesic domes for geothermal power plants. His innovative work with spatial geometry also led him to collaborations with the likes of Buckminster Fuller and Linus Pauling...
  
  

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  Photo courtesy Ólafur Elíasson.

• COVER

  COVER

  Cover

  Iceland
• Table of contents

  Table of contents
• EDITORIAL

  EDITORIAL

  Editorial

  Iceland
• CASE STUDY

  CASE STUDY

  Northern Flights

  Leifur Eiríksson Terminal, Keflavík International Airport

  Text: George Kafka
• FOUND

  FOUND

  No Sleep Till Breiðholt

  Housing, horses and hip hop

  Text: George Kafka
• VIEWPOINT

  VIEWPOINT

  Wish You Were Here

  Arna Mathiesen asks: Refinancing Iceland with tourism – but at what cost?

  Text: Arna Mathiesen
• PHOTO ESSAY

  PHOTO ESSAY

  Spaces Create Bodies, Bodies Create Space

  An essay by Ólafur Elíasson

  Text: Ólafur Elíasson
• FOUND

  FOUND

  Home Turf

  Iceland's ancient rural vernacular

  Text: George Kafka
• FOUND

  FOUND

  Tin Skins

  Reykjavík's corrugated cladding

  Text: Rob Wilson
• FOCUS

  FOCUS

  Icelandic Domestic

  Focus on post-independence houses by George Kafka

  Text: George Kafka
• FOUND

  FOUND

  Notes from Nowhere

  William Morris' road trip

  Text: Fiona Shipwright
• CASE STUDY

  CASE STUDY

  The Road Less Travelled

  Route 1/Hringvegur

  Text: Fiona Shipwright
• FOUND

  FOUND

  Giving Shape to Space

  The geodesic genius of Einar Thorsteinn

  Text: Sophie Lovell
• ESSAY

  ESSAY

  The Harp That Sang

  The saga of Reykjavík's Concert Hall by Sophie Lovell & Fiona Shipwright

  Text: Sophie Lovell, Fiona Shipwright
• FOUND

  FOUND

  In the Round

  A fishy factory

  Text: Sophie Lovell
• CASE STUDY

  CASE STUDY

  Some Like It Hot

  Blue Lagoon Spa and Clinic

  Text: Rob Wilson
• FURTHER READING

  FURTHER READING

  Further Reading
• NEXT

  NEXT

  Next

  Zvi Hecker

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