Stefan Paronikyan

Nestled deep in the basalt of Hveragerði's lava ridge, the SAGA Centre re-forges Iceland's traditional longhouses for the twenty-first century. A single, linear long-house is quarried into living rock; above its geothermal "hearth-bridge" three timber-clad knowledge pods hover like glowing embers, each fed by one of the site's 120 °C production wells.

Heat becomes architecture: the radiant trench lures coders, growers and storytellers from every corner of the plan to trade ideas, bake rye bread in sand ovens, and author the next chapter of Icelandic innovation.

Programme

Innovation hub, cafeteria, tourist route

Strategy

Geothermal core, lattice substructure, charred-birch envelope

Brief

Open competition

The Continuum aims to revive the dying entertainment scene in Stirchley with a community hub that draws people off the traffic-choked main road and into a shared space for film and theatre.

Continuity is expressed through fluid forms that give the building a bold presence. An indoor/outdoor café with embedded terrain seating borrowed from the local park — invites the community to accept the building. Inside, a parametric light installation references the Harbin Opera House by MAD Architects.

Programme

Amphitheatre, café, foyer, public terrain

Strategy

Acoustic ceiling cloud, fluid envelope, terrain seating

The proposal pairs the elderly battling loneliness with university students priced out of accommodation, fostering mutual support, affordable living and a vibrant community life.

At its heart is a community garden under a waffled canopy populated with local butterflies and plants at once habitat creation, flood defence, passive cooling, and a social anchor for intergenerational interaction.

Programme

Mixed-tenure housing, communal garden

Detail

Town-house section with construction call-outs

Two in-situ concrete gable walls support the inverted vault of galvanised steel, cantilevering toward the quay to frame uninterrupted fjord views while shielding waiting passengers.

Rotation is prevented with steel rods welded to the roof; the metal structure is strengthened with ribs. The model interrogates how a small civic shelter can do a great deal of work with very little material.

Type

Tectonic study · physical model

Materials

Brass, sheet metal, cast concrete (model)

The Capitol — a theatre in Horsham was in need of a façade renovation. I was tasked with designing a screen that would let the existing brick façade shine through and remain visible from the street.

The work moved through parametric forms and a study of offsets, arriving at a perforated timber screen that filters light by day and glows by night, reading clearly from across the public square.

Role

Designer (work experience)

Tools

Grasshopper, Rhino, Enscape

The EAS School (European Azerbaijan School), located in West Baku, required a façade redesign. The brief called for a new external skin that could be installed over the existing façade.

We explored tiled parametric patterns and researched materials suited to the structure, the existing walls were relatively weak and originally designed only to support a rendered finish, not a heavy cladding system. The result is a perforated terracotta screen carrying both shading and identity.

Role

Part 1 contributor

Strategy

Lightweight parametric overlay

This project, in northern Azerbaijan, is a redevelopment of a village called Duruja. I was tasked with creating Bronze, Silver and Gold options for accommodation — giving the client flexibility of cost and specification — and contributed to the design of an adjacent tea house, treated as a double plot.

The design intent was to preserve as much of the panoramic view as possible, given the buildings' position on the hillside, while using local stone cladding to anchor them in the landscape.

Role

Part 1 contributor

Tiers

Bronze · Silver · Gold