Snohetta’s competition winning design for Oslo’s Bjorrvika district, introduced as a catalyst for change in the run down harbor area of Oslo represents the largest single-culture political initiative in contemporary Norway; and has reaped international architectural recognition.

The government hoped the opera house would be a monumental building that would place Norway on the cultural map whilst highlighting both the social and cultural importance of The Norwegian Opera and Ballet.

A strong geometric form cuts through the landscape, rising dramatically from the harbor, a rogue iceberg encroaching on the city; with its sweeping marble roof offering a suggestion of public space; a stark, aggressive gradient that engages visitors to experience the building in an unprogrammed way. You can run over the opera house. Magic.

The architects’ idea was that the roof should be treated as a natural landscape and visitors must simply watch where they walk. It is refreshing to see a publically accessible building that refuses to treat visitors like children, and although the roof is closed off when it is icy (sickening when you are there in the snow, craving the possibility of a breathtaking sledding experience) the remainder of the time it offers itself as a generous, playful and engaging addition to the urban public realm.

By contrast, the interior is a more modest environment. Voluptuous, undulating oak walls engulf the main auditorium and dictate the form of the foyer space. Unlike other opera houses and theatres, where the visitor is often met with an awkward theatrical foyer, the entrance here is vast and welcoming and it is not until the visitor reaches the staircases or curved auditorium walkways that they feel like they are entering a theatre.

Snøhettas architecture is a narrative. Materials become defining suggestions of journey and movement through the building. The richness of this oak cladding hugging the movement channels to the auditorium adds a warm, textural dimension to the design that would not look out of place in one of the building’s 19^th century precedents; yet the space is totally technical. Each curve and fold in the dramatic timer façade designed to give perfect acoustic resonance to the space for orchestral performances. This is echoed through the stage set design, comprising of over sixteen individually controlled acoustic elements that can be angled in any direction to achieve enchanting audio perfection.

The considered use of materials to define space is truly absorbing, and vital to the way in which the user experiences the building. The junctions between arctic white marble, warm oak, and crisp glass not only dictate spatial understanding but also emphasize the role of transitions encountered in the journey through the architecture, from the aggressive geometries of the exterior to the curvaceous embrace of the interior. These transitional connections also operate on the urban scale, the building seamlessly connecting city and fjord, urbanity and landscape, visitors and the natural environment.

Steve Wilkinson

Tags: Competition, Design, photography

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 9th, 2010 at 12:52 pm and is filed under Arts Events Exhibitions, London, travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Posted by Steve Wilkinson.