Architecture At Large

Nordic Reprieve - New Oslo Opera House
A summer trip to Europe afforded an opportunity to visit Oslo’s new Opera House by hometown Oslo firm, Snohetta. East of Ekeberg hill near Old Oslo, the new Opera House occupies a commanding position at the end of Oslo Fjord’s Bjorvikautstikkeren peninsula. Oslo’s newest public building sits with it’s toes in the gulfstream warmed saltwater, relaxed, but clothed in formal attire – like a barefoot tenor sneaking a few moments to lounge in the sun before a matinee performance.



An assembly of angled planes of white Italian marble tiles, the structure welcomes all comers to wander across it’s sloping walkable stone roof surfaces or into the white sculpted angular lobby.

The building is an exercise in contrasts. Snohetta explains concepts driving the buildings design as following four primary objectives:

• Create contrasts between “front of house” public and performance spaces distinct and separate from “back of house” support functions.
• Contrast non-performance public Lobby / Atrium spaces - the world of reality - against the cloistered performance spaces held within - the world of fiction and fantasy.
• Create a structure that will welcome and draw in diverse visitors beyond traditional opera or ballet followers.
• Craft the building – which Snohetta’s website describes as “…the largest cultural building to be raised in Norway since *Nidarosdomen…” – as a symbol of the role of ballet and opera in modern Norway.

Snohetta introduced these concepts in their design competition entry describing three primary components of the design as the “Wave Wall” – the oak clad wall defining the performance space, the “Factory” – or back of house production spaces, and the “Carpet” – the surfaces of white marble that characterize the buildings exterior.

These concepts are none too subtle as you move around and through the building. The East side – back of house – area of the building is made distinct by its box like shape and choice of cladding. Back of house spaces are wrapped in a distinctively textured metal skin – clearly unlike the public and performance spaces they serve.

A tall hallway separates the two functions, slicing through the buildings interior, expressed on the exterior by a vertical strip window on the North wall and skylit slot on the roof, a gesture lost on the buildings South elevation.



Within the lobby, the curving multi-tiered walks serving the main auditorium are wrapped in vertical oak slatted panels in warm contrast to the crisp white container of the lobby and building exterior. These walkways form a nautilus-like organic shell wrapping the horseshoe shaped classic main opera performance space and defining the heart of the building.

In the auditorium, curving dark stained oak strip panels face the horseshoe shaped seating levels. Overhead, catwalks are concealed above a circular dark oak ceiling cloud with an enormous round convex 17,000 piece glass chandelier at its center. The dark stained oak supports a feeling that you’ve entered into a place where the fantastic might occur.

The 1350 seat main auditorium and 400 seat black box auditorium are supported by ample and well equipped side stage spaces. The main stage surface can be raised, or lowered – lighting support is impressive. Back of house spaces include scene shop and storage spaces, rehearsal studios and offices.

The setting for the Opera House is a formerly neglected area of Oslo’s waterfront. The Opera House and a massive highway improvement project are the first artifacts of an aggressive program of improvements for the area.

Across the water and West from the Bjorvikautstikkeren peninsula at the edge of downtown Olso the Oslo Havnelager, Norway’s first reinforced concrete building (built 1916 through 1920, architect Bredo Berntsen) squares toward the Opera House. To the South and West, construction is underway for tunnels that will carry Oslo’s Highway E18 beneath OsloFjord, re-routing the highway away from Old Oslo and the downtown waterfront (reminiscent of Boston’s troubled “Big Dig” project). Two monolithic concrete towers – ventilation towers for the new tunnel - mark the East tunnel end just off the base of Ekeberg Hill and West of Kongsveien.

An interesting and encouraging aspect of Snohetta’s design process is the incorporation of artists into the development of the design. White marble roof/walk surfaces break down to areas of varied texture. Portions of the roof rise to form benches or linear channels. Design for the carpet of carrera marble form the La Faccciata quarry near Tuscany was a collaboration of Sculptor Kristian Blystad, Visual Artist and Illustrator Kalle Grude (both Norwegian) and Finnish Photographer Jorunn Sannes.

To help set the back of house enclosure apart, Norwegian textile artists Astrid Lovaas and Kirsten Wagle collaborated to design the patterns used on the aluminum wall cladding. These panels show a weave of depressed and raised bumps of various diameter. Danish visual artist Olafur Eliasson created translucent honeycomb-like screens surrounding cloak room and toilet room areas off the main lobby.

The Opera House design meets it’s goals with grace, apparently drawing a surprising number of visitors and selling out performances for the coming season. The project has faced criticism for its $800,000,000 price tag with public concerns over whether it will prove to be a continued burden to the average Norwegian taxpayer. Views of the building from Ekeburg looking down from the East are less than pleasing – from this view the starkly different aesthetic of the production portion of the building detracts from the overall composition which one young Oslo resident I spoke with described as a giant skatepark.

In almost every way the building deserves the widespread praise it has received. Approval, adoration and perhaps even a sense of ownership can be seen in the faces of families playing at the waters edge, picnicking on the marble roof just sneaking a few moments to lounge in the sun before a matinee performance.