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Sited on a narrow working pier in Reykjavík's Old Harbour, this project proposes a public Music Development Centre — a place for musicians of all levels to rehearse, perform, record, and be inspired. The design responds to the harbour's hybridized character: industrial in material and spirit, yet increasingly vibrant and public.

The building is lifted above the pier on a series of exposed concrete diagonal columns, preserving the daily life of the working harbour below while offering a bold architectural presence on the waterfront. A street-level entry café and performance space draws passersby inward, leading up to a sky-bridged concourse housing a music and instrument library, performance hall, café-bar venue, practice rooms, and recording studio. A detached recital hall anchors the seaward end.

The architectural language draws directly from the harbour's visual noise — structural honesty, raw materials, and expressive form. Inverted vault forms in the ceilings of performance and rehearsal spaces simultaneously scatter acoustics and diffuse Iceland's low-angled daylight deep into the interior, while glowing at night as a beacon into the harbour.

The project grew out of research into Reykjavík's music community, including conversations with a founding member of the local punk rock music scene, and is designed to put the tools of music creation — instruments, space, and knowledge — into the hands of the public.