Snohetta

Snøhetta is the most famous contemporary Norwegian architecture firm, based in Oslo but with a strong international orientation since its foundation. The firm takes its name from the Norwegian mountain of the same name: a programmatic choice that reveals how, from the very beginning, the founding members were interested in an architecture capable of integrating into a close dialogue with the landscape and natural elements. Snøhetta’s design practice has a strong collective imprint: all of the firm’s three hundred-plus partners give their creative contribution in defining the projects, which therefore often acquire a very heterogeneous look among themselves. The firm’s first major project began in 1989 with the meeting between founding member Kjetil Trædal Thorsen (1958-) and American architect Craig Dykers (1961-) to participate in the competition for the design of the New Library of Alexandria, which saw the light only in 2001 after many years of work. Over the years, the studio has expanded internationally with projects such as the Oslo Opera House (2007), the Le Monde group headquarters in Paris (2015-20) and the underwater restaurant Under in Lindesnes (2019). Snøhetta also has a division dedicated to product design, active especially since the post-2020 years, which can boast projects in collaboration with brands such as MDF Italia, UniFor, Lodes and Varier.