Borgartún 1
105 Reykjavík
Tel: 551-7700
cell: 821-7163
info<at>thetincanfactory.eu
Staff
Why The Tin Can Factory?
The name of the company is related to our new location at Borgartún 1, a building that used to be a tin can factory. A tin can contains something we consume, something that can be preserved for a long time. The tin can has in a way been the symbol for consumerism, and Andy Warhol and other famous artists have used the tin can to describe the world of consumers.
How does this name serve a company with a firm environmental policy?
Our work at The Tin Can Factory is above all related to culture. We have our Language School (skoli.eu) where you learn languages, but our activities are also about history, culture and food culture. In a way, we are making "virtual" tin cans of entertainment, language, history and culture, things to learn and enjoy. Our groups are small - we are not at a big factory level, but a personal level. All the "products" at The Tin Can Factory are related to the Icelandic language and other languages, to culture, history, food and fun. Our way is an environmentally friendly way of consuming, whether you are getting to know the culture of the country as a visitor or as someone who will stay and participate in daily life.
We focus on quality, not quantity
The Language School (skoli.eu), now changing to The Tin Can Factory, was first founded for on-line Icelandic courses and all three owners lived abroad more or less all year round. In 2008, after 8 years of living abroad, on the very day the first bank collapsed, the day when the crisis formally started in Iceland, two of three owners moved back to Iceland. Little did they know about what was about to happen. Not only in Iceland – but in almost all the world. However, they had the education, the experience and the skills needed to survive in a severely difficult economic climate. Work started on building up what is in Borgartún 1 today. It started in the living-room in their apartment, slowly taking over more or less all the apartment. The aim has always been to have small classes, and still is. Even though we now have a fully booked language school 12 months of the year at Borgartún 1, the classes are still small, the material always new and we constantly think of new ways in which we can share our culture with our students.
History and culture unite us, history and culture make us different and we like to think that we have found a good and stimulating way to share this with others.Our environmental policy - part
Whenever possible, we buy recycled material and we try to use all material again, and again. We never use any disposable material, we do not buy new furniture and we renovate, repair and renew, we do not throw away. At the same time, we want the things we work with and work on, to be user friendly.
Guđrún Gísladóttir
Gígja Svavarsdóttir
Egill Gunnarsson
Director
Gígja Svavarsdóttir
Reykjavík walk
Meet the Natives
Gígja Svavarsdóttir
Director - and aTeacher in Icelandic as a foreign language for 22 years