That notion has led to an emphasis on thoughtful public spaces in many of Snøhetta’s projects around the world, including the firm’s very first project, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, a library in Alexandria, Egypt which was completed in 2001.

Its circular form emerges from the earth like a mountain sliced in half, an eye-catching approach that was chosen to accommodate a vast, naturally lit reading room, the largest in the world at the time. Snøhetta followed up the library in Alexandria with the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet, which was completed in 2008.

Like its Egyptian cousin, the structure is as much landscape as it is a building, taking a cue from the surrounding mountains for its angular form. More than a gimmick, though, it’s a strategy that creates a series of public plazas on the building’s sloping roof.

“It came very naturally to us,” Thorson said in a 2019 interview. “We were seeing at the time that construction projects didn’t have budgets for their outdoor areas. So it was like whatever was left over from the construction could be spent on the landscape. We said that this can’t be the case, because we’re neglecting our public space. This is how we ended up at the Oslo Opera House, where there is no differentiation between public space, building and site.”

The firm approached the Calgary Central Library, which opened in 2018, with similar intentions. Located on a crescent-shaped plot of land atop the entrance to a railway tunnel, Snøhetta saw the awkward site as an opportunity to create a link between Calgary’s existing central business district and the quickly-developing East Village neighbourhood on the other side of the rail portal. The result is a building that acts as a bridge, drawing passers-by under a sweeping canopy that leads to the library’s inviting wood-clad atrium as well as to adjacent streets.

“A perfect, well-behaved modern monument” is how the library was described by notoriously hard-to-please critic Aaron Betsky. “It stands by itself, different than everything quotidian around it. It invites you in, while at the same time impressing you. It evokes your awe, and then lets you stay to make use of the services that every self-respective community should offer its citizens.”

Asia has turned out to be a fruitful ground for Snøhetta. Its way of treating buildings as an opportunity to create new landscapes seems well-suited to a continent whose cities have historically suffered from a paucity of good public space. “We’ve always been interested in maximising the public side of projects, even private projects,” says Greenwood, who joined Snøhetta to work on the Alexandria library.

Since 2018, he has run the firm’s Asian operations from an office in Hong Kong, using it as a hub for projects in Singapore, mainland China, Japan and South Korea. “Snøhetta isn’t as well known in Asia as it is in America or Australia or Europe,” says Greenwood. “That has pluses and minuses. We have fresh ground.”

The firm has made quick work since its arrival here, with major projects such as the Shanghai Grand Opera House, which is slated for completion in 2024. “That’s going to be an amazing space,” says Greenwood. “We’re creating a plaza that winds itself up like a spiral staircase. There’s a lot of people in Shanghai and I think most of them will want to go up to our roof.”

In Beijing, a new library set to open by the end of this year draws from Snøhetta’s previous experience in Alexandria and Calgary. More than just a repository for books, it’s also a gathering space for the community. “This whole idea that going to the library these days is different to what it was for previous generations,” says Greenwood. “You go to the library to meet people. It’s a social space. You can go alone, but you’re alone together. You’re part of something bigger.”

Like in Alexandria, the Beijing library will have an enormous reading room that Greenwood describes as a “valley” that connects different parts of the library. That space will be revealed to the outside by a transparent glass façade sheltered by a canopy-like roof inspired by ginkgo trees. “We’re not creating rooms you go into, we’re creating spaces you come out into,” he says. “It’s so big, airy, and full of volume.”

The question of how a library can be relevant in an era of virtual information and communication has come up again and again in Snøhetta’s projects. Greenwood says the fact that they are physical spaces makes them all the more important. “Libraries bring people together as opposed to the Internet and social media, which maybe keep people apart,” he says. “It’s particularly poignant when we talk about the metaverse and such. A library is the real thing.”

Most of Snøhetta’s work falls in the cultural sphere, but its focus on public space holds true even for commercial projects. Work is nearing completion on Airside, a shopping mall and office tower located in the centre of the former Kai Tak Airport in Hong Kong, which is now being redeveloped into a city-within-a-city with thousands of new residential flats, offices, hotels and a sports park.

Although a retail and office complex is “nothing revolutionary in itself”, says Greenwood, Snøhetta’s design aims to use the building as a link between Kai Tak and the existing adjacent neighbourhoods. “It’s going to be really exciting to see how it activates an area that needs some substantial activation at the moment,” he says.

In Tokyo, Snøhetta is beginning work on a complete redevelopment of the Tokyu Department Store in Shibuya, which will be replaced by a mixed-use tower that contains a new department store, a wellness centre, a hotel and apartments. “The existing department store is a closed box,” says Greenwood. “We’re going to open it up. We’re excited by the way it will interact with the streets and lanes of Shibuya, so it really becomes an extension of the public realm.”

Here, we highlight some of the key projects by the firm:

Spanning over 1,900,000 sq ft, this mixed-use complex features a 200m tower soaring over the former Kai Tak Airport in Hong Kong, which is now a redevelopment area that will eventually be home to 134,000 residents and a huge sports park. Airside’s design includes a series of public spaces meant to bridge Kai Tak with adjacent areas. It is expected to open in early 2023.  

With a sloping structure that invites the public onto the roof, this cultural venue functions as a giant public plaza. Along with the architecture and landscape design, Snøhetta is responsible for the interiors for the opera house, which is slated for completion in 2024. 

Since it was completed in 2018, this library has become an instant landmark in this fast-growing city in western Canada. Built on a half-moon-shaped site atop the entrance to a railway tunnel, the library’s wood-clad interior atrium and outdoor public spaces bridge the gap between the existing central business district and a new development area to the east. 

When it is completed in 2025, this new civic complex will form an embrace around the former city hall of this city in central South Korea. Sheltered by curving Korean-style roofs, the complex will include exhibition spaces, a library, an auditorium, food and beverage outlets, a post office and childcare facilities. 

Inspired by gingko forests, this enormous library — whose reading room will be one of the largest in the world — consists of a vast interior space whose roof is held up by tree-like columns. The effect is meant to be one of a seamless connection between indoors and outdoors. The facility is slated for completion by the end of the year. 

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