Snøhetta Works

Selected Projects

Snøhetta's past work includes such critically acclaimed cultural projects as the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt; the National Opera and Ballet in Oslo, Norway; and the Lillehammer Art Museum, built for the 1994 Winter Olympics. Current projects include the National September 11 Memorial Museum Pavilion at the World Trade Center site, New York; the Wolfe Center for the Arts at Bowling Green State University, Ohio; the Hunt Library and Institute for Emerging Issues, Raleigh, North Carolina; the Mutrah Fish Market in Muscat, Oman; the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia; and the new Student Learning Center at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada. Snøhetta has also been commissioned to reconstruct the public spaces in and around New York City's Times Square.

Illustrated here are just a few examples of Snøhetta's cultural projects; for more, visit the firm's website. 

 

Snøhetta, Lillehammer Art Museum, Norway, 1994; photo: Jiri Havran; © Snøhetta

Snøhetta, Lillehammer Art Museum, Norway, 1994; photo: Jiri Havran; © Snøhetta

Lillehammer Art Museum, Norway, 1994

Commissioned for the 1994 Winter Olympics, this addition to the existing Lillehammer Art Museum is characterized by a smooth, undulating wooden form, which connects it to the surrounding mountain landscape. Snøhetta experimented with some of its formative ideas in this project, exploring the relationships between immediate conditions and broader contexts, and the resonances between a cultural institution's contents and its wider audience.

 

 

 

  

 

Snøhetta, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Alexandria, Egypt, 2001; photo: James Willis; © Snøhetta

Snøhetta, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Alexandria, Egypt, 2001; photo: James Willis; © Snøhetta

Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Alexandria, Egypt, 2001

The principals of Snøhetta came together in 1989 to create the winning entry in a design competition for a new incarnation of the ancient Alexandria Library. The culmination of an international effort lasting over 12 years, the library is one of the most contemporary in the world, encompassing a range of museums and public assembly areas in its over 800,000 square feet. Despite its large size, the building often feels humane and intimate in scale, while also offering an atmosphere of dignity and calm repose.

   

 

 

Snøhetta, National Opera and Ballet, Oslo, 2007; photo: Jens Passoth; © Snøhetta

Snøhetta, National Opera and Ballet, Oslo, 2007; photo: Jens Passoth; © Snøhetta

National Opera and Ballet, Oslo, Norway, 2007

The opera house connects city and fjord, urbanity and landscape. It combines three conceptual elements: a "wave wall," representing a threshold between land and water, Norway and the world, the public outside and the art within; a "factory," containing production facilities; and a "carpet," a complex of horizontal and sloping surfaces on top of the building that create a sense of easy and open access for all.

 

 

  

 

Snøhetta, National September 11 Memorial Museum Pavilion at the World Trade Center site, New York (rendering), due to be completed in 2011; image: Squared Design Lab, courtesy Snøhetta; © Snøhetta

Snøhetta, National September 11 Memorial Museum Pavilion at the World Trade Center site, New York (rendering), due to be completed in 2011; image: Squared Design Lab, courtesy Snøhetta; © Snøhetta

National September 11 Memorial Museum Pavilion, New York, scheduled for completion in 2011

Snøhetta has been commissioned to design this cultural facility on the memorial grounds at the site of the World Trade Center; it is scheduled to open on September 11, 2011. The building — aspects of which will allude to the original towers — is intended to offer each visitor the opportunity to engage in the act of remembering and consider the consequences of forgetting.