Snøhetta

In 1987, Kjetil Thorsen, Craig Dykers, and a group of young architects co-located in an office space in Storgata in Oslo. They were architects and landscape architects united in the idea that landscape architecture was a leftover discipline, only to be realized after most of the efforts and money had been spent on the construction of the building. Snøhetta’s strategy was to combine architecture and landscape architecture within a single concept.

Another important event had taken place that year: Former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Harlem Brundtland’s UN report, “Our Common Future”, had just been released. To Snøhetta’s knowledge, it was the first time social, environmental, and economic sustainability had been formulated with such thoroughness and with such an impact on future policies. They saw a possibility to translate the content of this report directly into architectural designs of their physical surroundings.

They took the name Snøhetta arkitektur. landskap after the tallest mountain in the Dovrefjell National Park.

In 1989 the company entered the open and anonymous competition to design a reincarnation of the historic Library of Alexandria. Conceived as a revival of the ancient library in the city founded by Alexander the Great some 2300 years ago and lost to civilization centuries later, the design features a vast circular form alongside the Alexandrian harbor recalling the cyclical nature of knowledge. Its tilting roof recalls the ancient Alexandrian lighthouse.

The building’s facade also serves as a piece of art. It is a canvas of letters and symbols without a specific statement and an artistic celebration of the smallest element of the library's content, the letter. In addition to the library facilities, the building contains other cultural and educational functions including a planetarium, several museums, a school for information science, and conservation facilities. The new Bibliotheca Alexandrina was completed in 2001, and awarded the Aga Khan Award for Architecture in 2004.

Bibliotheca Alexandrina was later followed by the commission for the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet in Oslo, and the National September 11 Memorial Museum Pavilion at the World Trade Center in New York City, among many others.

Today, Snøhetta has a global presence, with studios in seven locations spanning from Oslo to Paris, Innsbruck, New York, Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Melbourne.