In Western Iceland, an old farm with stunning views of the Breiðafjörður Nature Reserve was in danger of crumbling into a pile of rubble in the meadow. Architecture firm Studio Bua was asked to bring it back to life, restoring its functionality without erasing the passage of time. The renewal concept will reimagine a fragmented cluster of buildings in various states of disrepair, starting with the barn, which was little more than a shell made of concrete and local aggregate rock when the project began. Today, it’s a combination artist studio and home, thoughtfully transformed into a two-story structure with a unique walled garden.

Set back from a cliff overlooking the water, the old barn structure consisted of two parts: a taller volume with gabled ends, and a wide addition off one side with a sloping shed-style roofline. No doors, windows, or actual roofs remained – just holes where they used to be. Aiming to keep as much of the concrete structure in place as possible to preserve its aged and weathered character, the architects decided to insert a lightweight two-story timber structure into the original volume, mimicking its shape.
Preserving the crumbling concrete required some creativity. The old barn was made of thick and stable mass concrete, but most of its walls lacked foundations, and some were very fragile. They decided to retain only the perimeter walls, leaving them in a ruined state peppered with lichen and patchwork patterns of local ...