Snøhetta celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. In the first part of an exclusive interview with Dezeen, co-founder Kjetil Trædal Thorsen explains that the firm's ultimate aim has always been to make buildings for the betterment of society.
Thorsen and partner Craig Dykers founded Snøhetta in 1989, after winning the competition for the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Alexandria, Egypt. At the time, neither of them had ever completed a building.
Projects that followed included the Oslo Opera House, which famously has a plaza on its roof, and the National September 11 Memorial Museum in New York. Both are designed with the idea of creating valuable public space.
Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Alexandria, Egypt, was the first project Snøhetta won. Photo is by Gerald Zugmann "We started off, I think, very clearly with a picture of how architecture could contribute to better social awareness," explained Thorsen.
"We were trying to create buildings that could generate some sort of public ownership ? like libraries and concert houses ? by changing the attitude towards them."
"We're neglecting our public space"
Norway-based Thorsen had previously been part of a collective of architects and landscape architects. They borrowed the name Snøhetta from the highest peak in Norway's Dovre region, because their first office was located in the attic above a pub called the Hall of Dovre.
When he teamed up with US-based Dykers, they carried on both the name...