The company of designers working with interdisciplinary fields of Architecture, landscape architecture, interior architecture, art, product, graphic design, and digital design integrates a combination of all in a project. The Architectural design firm is based in Oslo, Norway. “Snohetta” comes from a historical and remotely beautiful mountain in Central Norway. The firm started in the year, 1989 growing exponentially in design practices in and around the world. They focus on creating sustainable and environmentally responsible buildings.
1989, initiated the project for Bibliotheca Alexandrina, an ancient reviving library in Alexandria, Egypt, followed by the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet in Oslo, Norway, and the National September 11 Memorial Museum Pavilion at the World Trade Centre, New York City, United States of America.
The scale range they work with starts from something as small as a beehive, a bird’s nest, to a large scale as urban master planning. They work on commercial, scientific, and cultural aspects to improve by designing new environmentally sensitive construction materials to shape the world for a better place.
Motives:
Environmental and Cultural Sensitivity:
Design being a sensitive force to the environment, they promoted a positive impact on the future. The connection between humans and non-human habitats is considered with other sustainable materials, water resource management, and emission control to reduce carbon footprint and encourage positive energy.
Process:
Designing for the future:
The vision for the future from Snohetta is to face the challenges of climate change, social injustice, stability in the economy, and cultural enlightenment by giving a positive impact through design and construction, building a better ecosystem for plants, animals, and humans to co-exist.
The fundamentals of Snohetta for Sustainability are environmental, social, and economic sustainability. The goal is to achieve carbon-neutral projects by the next 15 years. The thought process in design is to shape with sensitivity towards the community for a better-built environment.
Emphasizing all aspects of nature such as floral, fauna, soil, vegetation, and all life to have a good relationship between biotic and abiotic elements.
Research and Material Experiment:
Research on challenging building conventions, innovative construction materials, and redefining them for the future. The aim is for every building to pay back the carbon footprint by its life cycle, which leads to carbon neutrality and zero negatives, which can be achieved with the current technology and aims to scale up to the portfolio and the construction industry. They strive to research, learn and test to have responsible construction materials like clay, wood, recycled plastic, and different kinds of low-carbon concrete for better repercussions.
Interactive dialogue:
The transposition of the project is the interaction varying from different clients and perspectives to have a core design philosophy. Snohetta includes others in the working process by fostering a greater sense of possibility, letting others build, and freeing themselves from habitual thinking leading to a broader spectrum of design outcomes.
A Cycle of Innovation:
Holistic design approaches involving other people bringing in openness and collaboration are the key to their work. The value adds to the projects done by Snohetta for design solutions challenging each project. They take reality by surprise through continuous reinvention in the industry to gain success in the present and future.
Traditional Methods:
Traditional handicraft cutting edges and technologies act as a catalyst and drive towards the creative process. The workshops are equipped with 3D capabilities, hand tools, and woodworking equipment triggering innovative designs to be introduced into this world showcasing the regional elements and materials of the place.
Works:
Oslo Opera House, Norway:
Situated on the waterfront in Oslo, the authentic design of the slope attracts visitors to walk up the sloping roof for a panoramic view.
Natural History Museum of Lille, France:
They aim to re-energize the museum with sustainable solutions under the conditions of the City of Lille’s Sustainability goals. This is implemented as the landmark of the place.
Shanghai Opera House, China:
The firm developed architectural, interior, landscape, and graphic design. The building aims to attract people for cultural and traditional performances, and the spiral stairs running around from the ground to the roof significantly stand out.
Cloud 11, Thailand:
Thailand’s largest elevated urban garden. Sukhumvit district is the Central Hub for street life, re-inventing part of the Sukhumvit design with tech companies providing with a large green area for public spaces, expected year for the completion of the project is 2024.
Ryerson University Student Learning Centre, Canada:
The sloping façade creates a unique and dynamic design through innovative learning spaces by offering various places for learning.
Conclusion:
The projects showcase the qualities and character of Snohetta by pushing the boundaries of design and understanding spaces around for the people using them. The company has drawn a path to many architectural companies to have an inspirational design motive for a strong focus on sustainable environment leading to a better future for the globe.
Sources:
(2023) Our Process Snohetta: Snohetta, Available at: https://www.snohetta.com/process
[Accessed: 4th August 2023].
(2023) Projects Snohetta: Snohetta, Available at: https://www.snohetta.com/projects
[Accessed: 5th August 2023].
