The name Yrki has specific meanings in Icelandic –to cultivate and to write verses. This gives a hint to the office’s philosophy, to unite the earthly and the lyrical but as well to show an sensitivity in intertwining different sources to the project from the urban and natural context while wanting to take a coherent position in the designated landscape.

Yrki Architects is an architecture office in Reykjavik and has a modest ambition to expand. Instead, it wishes to develop in quality and creation which has given it a firm space within the architecture panorama in Iceland. Although founded as recently as 1997, the office has been involved in very diverse projects and competitions. Its current portfolio of completed works and works in progress includes a cluster of apartment blocks linked to a service centre for the elderly and a nursing home, a home for disabled people, a freezer storage for a shipping line, single family houses, recreation homes, two museums. All do they have a strong sense for a dialogue, an important factor in a country where one can barely say that architecture has a long tradition.

Yrki consider it important to integrate the functionality and the visual. The environment influences us as architects and we seek evidence or guidelines in the environment itself. Our background as architects living in harsh weather and environmental condition has obviously puts mark on everything that we have created. We have tried to make a critical assessment of the existing environment and show it the respect it deserves. We always depend on our own values and judgment, as well as our character and background. We consider that our contribution should always be positive from architectural point of view and that is based on those needs and use, as appropriate.