100th Anniversary Celebrated with Book Release

In celebration of Héðinn’s centennial, a book has been published Héðinn í 100 ár – Svipmyndir 1922 til 2022, featuring highlights of the company’s history in words and pictures across 138 pages

Below is the translated foreword of the book, written on behalf of the anniversary committee by Guðmundur S. Sveinsson, Managing Director of Héðinn from 1983 to 1992 and later Chairman of the Board until 2016, and Gunnar Pálsson, Development Manager at Héðinn.

This book is published in celebration of the 100th anniversary of Héðinn hf., founded on November 1, 1922. The company was established when two young and ambitious engineers, Bjarni Þorsteinsson and Markús Ívarsson, purchased the workshop of Bjarnhéðinn Jónsson, and in his honor they gave the company the name Héðinn.

In preparing this book, we have come to see how diverse the company’s activities have been. Many major projects were carried out, and Héðinn played a significant role in national life. We also realized that Héðinn has been not only a company, but also a community. This included internal activities with the Staff Association, tackling complex projects, and extensive, close cooperation with customers — some spanning decades. The inventiveness that shines through the company’s history is very much alive, and in every era new innovations and continuous progress have emerged.

As these pages clearly show, the visual arts became increasingly intertwined with Héðinn’s activities. It is as if founder Markús Ívarsson’s passion for art and culture had become ingrained in the very spirit of the company.

This compilation contains only a fraction of the material — photographs, drawings, and written records — that have been preserved over Héðinn’s hundred-year history.

The photo archive from the very beginning up to the present day has been well preserved, as has the company’s document archive. This is thanks to the dedication of employees, past and present. Many people have played key roles in the company’s operations. And even if they do not appear in this book, they undoubtedly hold their place in sustaining and ensuring the success of Héðinn.

This is not a work of history, not a memoir, and not a photo book, but rather a book of photographs accompanied by short texts. It presents snapshots from the 100-year history of the company, offering insights into its activities from various perspectives. In a way, it is a travelogue of Héðinn, from the first quarter of the twentieth century to the present day — a century that also happens to be the era of the greatest advances in Iceland’s history.