Dining on the waterfront

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A charming waterfront warehouse in Copenhagen offers a beautiful setting for the Danish Architecture Centre’s summer exhibition Snøhetta – World Architecture. Snøhetta won international acclaim for the Oslo Opera House in 2008 and has since established its position as one of the leading architectural firms in the world.

The exhibition invites us to go behind the scenes and offers insights into the people behind the name, their creative process, and ingenious projects. The exhibition raises the question whether this marks a new era for Scandinavian architecture.

Upon entering the exhibition, we find ourselves in the middle of the Oslo Studio. The central features are “lunsjbordet” (the lunch table), a sofa and a poetically designed staircase which could also be interpreted as an amphitheatre or a mountainside. In fact, it is very characteristic for Snøhetta that their designs are functionally flexible, open to multiple readings or associations, and urge people towards a particular behaviour.

The lunch table is a table where Snøhetta’s employees eat, work, socialise, and conduct meetings with clients. At the same time the table symbolizes the core values of being together as a family, with a shared sense of equality, confidence and playful co-creation that it promotes in both co-workers and clients.

Unlike conventional architectural exhibitions which tend to focus on the founder, this exhibition focuses on the shared values and beliefs which make up Snøhetta. As part of their vision this integrated design practice of architecture, landscape, graphic and brand design has not been named after a head architect. The practice name (meaning snow hood) was named after the mountaintop of the mountain Dovrefjell. This mountain is a source of national pride, a powerful primordial force forming the border between the northern and southern parts of Norway, and holds a special position in national identity. Today Snøhetta is a renowned brand celebrated worldwide for their authenticity and original approach.

At Snøhetta they share the firm belief that the individual and the community are equally important, and that the creative process thrives in this symbiosis. The principle of equality applies not only between people across nationality and disciplines, but it also applies in a larger context between people, architecture and nature. It seems this egalitarian approach runs deep in the studio culture, and flows into their projects. Snøhetta have hit an aesthetic main artery in approaching architecture as a human experience, a physical and cultural body sensing the world through movement.

An iconic example of these principles applied is The Oslo Opera House, as it synthesizes culture, nature and urban life. Seamlessly integrated at the waterfront it reads as a spectacular cultural building, an open public park, and a raw iceberg protruding from the fjord. Its playful design invites exploration of the building and the surroundings in numerous ways, also attracting people who would not normally visit the opera. Located at the edge of the harbour the building successfully meets the city government’s plan to enliven the waterfront and merge it with the city.

The slanting body of the building clad in white marble encourages relaxation, walking, dancing and even skiing on the roof, while the interior design continually surprises with odd angles, perforations in materials and play of light. The building has won several prestigious prizes including World Cultural Building of the Year 2008, the Mies van der Rohe Prize, and the International Architecture Award. The Opera is a perfect example of Snøhetta’s unique ability to synthesize architecture and landscape, so architecture in fact becomes landscape, or vice versa.

Snøhetta portray themselves by the trinity “People, Process, Projects”, emphasising that success is constituted not by the work of a single person, but by a complex creative process involving several people. We are witnessing a manifestation of a new era for architecture and a move away from the notion of Starchitecture that has prevailed for the past years.

They explore the creative process as an interplay between idea generation and craft, working alternately in the studio and the workshop. Snøhetta has developed innovative methods such as “transpositioning” enabling them to focus on ideas covering all angles by reversing the formal roles of client and architect and by involving other disciplines such as artists, landscape architects and graphic designers in the process. Ideas are tested in the workshop for scale, materials and details in both analogue and digital ways, to reach common ground between the architect and the client.

Snøhetta demonstrate their Scandinavian principles around the world working on prestigious projects such as their design for the September 11 Memorial Museum Pavilion in New York. Their focus on what we have in common as human beings, embracing and refining the boundaries of sea and land, architecture and nature, life and death, somehow enhances and connects our physical experience of life with our emotions and our cultural minds.

Snøhetta are currently designing Norway’s new banknotes, the SFMOMA extension, and an extension to Ordrupgaard Museum. Through their innovative designs they offer people new gathering places where architecture becomes landscape. By applying a universal humanistic approach and enabling multiple readings, Snøhetta succeed in transcending culture and make us want to engage with the world.

by Jeanne Rank Schelde

Snøhetta – World Architecture is on until September 27 at Danish Architecture Centre, Strandgade 27B
1401 Copenhagen K
Tel: +45 3257 1930 Email: dac@dac.dk

http://snohetta.com
http://www.dac.dk/en/front-page/