RAKETTAN
Laugavegur 159
Loading building
RAKETTAN. / residence
Reykjavík 2026
scroll to continue

A launchpad for the people who build Reykjavík's future

Rakettan is a live-and-work community for entrepreneurs, artists, and makers, a rocket concentrating creative output until escape velocity. We pool space, tools, and momentum so each of us carries our work further than we could alone. This is not a closed commune; it is an engine where talent collects, collaborates, and produces value that spills into the street and the city's economy. We began planning in 2020, after living in other co-living projects and learning what worked, waiting for the right infrastructure.

Laugavegur 159 — spring light, melting snow Laugavegur 159 — autumn rain Laugavegur 159 — winter snow Laugavegur 159 — grey Reykjavík sky

An engine of connection through the seasons

The building holds eleven affordable homes of mixed sizes, but its heart is shared space. A lounge, kitchen, maker space, coworking floor, and event space form the center of gravity. Shared rooms use light, movable furniture so the collective can reconfigure as needs change: coworking on a Tuesday, an exhibition on a Friday, dinner for fifty on a Sunday. The layout is designed for natural social flow and the water-cooler moments that turn neighbors into collaborators.

FabA maker space open to the city, with room to build and experiment.
DeskReconfigurable coworking that shifts from desks to exhibition tables.
HallAn event space for talks, screenings, and a public programme open to all.
HearthThe kitchen and lounge where neighbors gather.

Keeping the core

Communities fail by ossifying or by drifting until nothing of the founding purpose remains. Rakettan is designed against both through bylaws that lock price stability and ban short-term letting, living governance where every household holds a vote, and residencies that become the pathway to long-term membership. Each year the collective chooses a creative theme, and curates community events like open dinners for Skúlagarður neighbors, and street-art exhibitions painted on the building's walls. Innovation and art in the same room, porous to the city.