Snøhetta (company)

Snøhetta (Norwegian pronunciation: [ˈsnøːˌhɛtɑ]) is an international architecture, landscape architecture, interior design and brand design office based in Oslo, Norway and New York City with studios in San Francisco, California, Innsbruck, Austria, and Singapore. Craig Edward Dykers and Kjetil Trædal Thorsen are the two Founding Partners of the company. Snøhetta has approximately 150 designers working on projects around the world.

Snøhetta has received the World Architecture Award for the Bibliotheca Alexandrina and the Oslo Opera House, and the Aga Khan Award for Architecture for the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. Since its completion in 2008, the Oslo Opera House has also garnered the Mies van der Rohe Award and the EDRA (Environmental Design Research Association) Great Places Award, as well as the European Prize for Urban Public Space, the International Architecture Award and the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture in 2010.

History

In 1987 the landscape architects Inge Dahlman, Berit Hartveit and Johan Østengen contacted landscape architects Alf Haukeland, and architects Øyvind Mo and Kjetil Trædal Thorsen to join together to make a collaborative studio. The idea was to incorporate architecture and landscape architecture into one design process. The studio was placed above a “brown” beer hall in Storgata in Oslo where they used to hang out. The beer hall is called "Dovrehallen" which means the "Dovre’s Hall". Dovre is the mountain area where Snøhetta is the highest peak. The collaborative took the name Snøhetta arkitektur landskap.