From afar, Snøhetta’s National Opera House for the Norwegian Opera & Ballet appears like a marble-and-glass iceberg floating in the eastern Oslo harbor of Bjørvika. The building brings to mind typological and urbanistic features of other, similar structures, from the grand staircase and sense of public areas of Charles Garnier’s Paris Opera House (now Palais Garnier) in Paris (1875), to Jorn Utzon’s iconic soaring forms and civic plazas of the Sydney Opera House (1963–73) in Australia, and even the Foreign Office’s Yokohama Terminal roofscape [record, November 2002, page 142] in Japan. Closer to home, Alvar Aalto’s Finlandia Hall in Helsinki (1971) and Henning Larsen’s static harborfront Copenhagen Opera House (2005) prompt further comparisons.
You have 0 complimentary articles remaining.
Unlimited access + premium benefits for as low as $1.99/month.