Archinect - News

Snøhetta and sbp to replace 120-year-old bridge across New York gorge

2024-10-29T15:34:00-04:00

The New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (OPRHP) has unveiled the design of the new Sentry Bridge at Watkins Glen State Park, designed by schlaich bergermann partner (sbp) and Snøhetta. Set to replace a 1908 concrete arch bridge, the new structure reflects over a century of pedestrian infrastructure, from tunnels to lookouts, along the popular Gorge Trail.

This redesigned Sentry Bridge maintains a connection to the original arch structure while offering a modern, lightweight aesthetic. Stretching 46 feet, the bridge’s stainless-steel construction is anchored by the stronger rock face on the gorge’s north side, with a half-arch design that subtly disappears behind the rocks, inviting visitors into the scenic Gorge Trail. Materials including stainless steel, bronze, concrete, wood, and local stone seek to highlight both craftsmanship and durability, embracing the elements to become part of the gorge’s natural and historical landscape.

Image credit: schl...

Snøhetta previews new Omaha Children's Museum in Nebraska

2024-10-25T10:48:00-04:00

Snøhetta will follow up on its recent Joslyn Art Museum project with the design for the new Omaha Children's Museum in Nebraska. The project was updated this week and includes a 175-seat performance room, a cafe, and a play-workshop. Rubberized mounds placed in its forecourt will activate additional space, "inviting visitors to climb and play before experiencing everything the museum has to offer inside." Snøhetta also recently completed the 70,000-square-foot El Paso Children's Museum (aka La Nube) and Far Rockaway Library in Queens.

Image: Tegmark

Snøhetta's Shanghai Grand Opera House project nears 2025 completion

2024-10-11T13:21:00-04:00

Construction of Snøhetta's Shanghai Grand Opera House is rapidly progressing towards a 2025 completion in the city's Pudong District. The firm, which is working with ECADI locally, won an international competition for its design in 2019. We last updated its progress in October 2023. The two firms have also collaborated on the new Beijing Library, which was named the winner of the 2024 IFLA/Baker & Taylor Public Library of the Year Award yesterday.

Take a look inside Snøhetta's newly opened Joslyn Art Museum expansion

2024-09-10T15:40:00-04:00

The Joslyn Art Museum celebrates its grand reopening today following a $100 million Snøhetta-led expansion project that established the new 42,000-square-foot Rhonda & Howard Hawks Pavilion on its campus in Omaha, Nebraska.

Photo © Nic Lehoux, courtesy Joslyn Art Museum

Founding partner Craig Dykers shared: "Our goal has been to provide a harmonious place for guests, art, and gathering that will become a vessel for inspiration and creativity to flourish."

Photo © Nic Lehoux, courtesy Joslyn Art Museum

The restoration of the museum's 1931 Art Deco Joslyn Building was another key aspect of the project. Alley Poyner Macchietto Architecture was integral to the design and execution of the new pavilion, which joins the Joslyn Building with Norman Foster's 1994 Suzanne & Walter Scott Pavilion via an atrium.

Photo © Nic Lehoux, courtesy Joslyn Art Museum

Th...

Snøhetta completes new cultural and education facility in Norway inspired by Indigenous design practices

2024-08-23T19:48:00-04:00

A new cultural and educational hub that draws from the heritage and traditional building practices of the Sámi peoples, an Indigenous group in Norway, designed by Snøhetta, in collaboration with Norwegian practice 70°N architecture and artist Joar Nango, has officially opened.

Image: Lars Petter Pettersen/Snøhetta

Called Čoarvemátta, the project takes its name from the Sámi words for horn and root, after the innermost and strongest part of reindeer antlers. The shared facility creates space for the Sámi National Theater Beaivváš and the Sámi High School and Reindeer Herding School.

Image: Lars Petter Pettersen/Snøhetta

The building is located in Kautokeino, a municipality in the middle of Finnmarksvidda, Norway’s largest and northernmost plateau. Čoarvemátta’s design responds to its environment as all the structure’s façades relate to the various landscape spaces that surround them.

Image: Lars Petter Pettersen/Snøhetta

The two-story building sits low in the landscape with proportions...

Snøhetta’s Far Rockaway Library shines as a new literary beacon in Queens

2024-08-20T19:12:00-04:00

This past month saw the opening of Snøhetta’s Far Rockaway Library in Queens, New York. The $39 million project contributes towards the continued revitalization of the community that was heavily impacted by Hurricane Sandy, adding an 18,000-square-foot facility that doubles the size of its 56-year-old predecessor.

Image: Jeff Goldberg/Snøhetta

Artist José Parlá’s Style Writing (2022) mural design wraps the glass facade of the building, giving credence to the firm’s intentions of establishing a space dedicated to writers away from the city’s traditional literary strongholds in Manhattan and Brooklyn.

Image: Jeff Goldberg/Snøhetta

Inside, users are immersed in a lively “ephemeral” library experience suffused with natural light and augmented with different occupancy sensors that work to reduce energy usage in unison with its building management system.

Image: Jeff Goldberg/Snøhetta

Pointing to the project's ability to support "j...

Snøhetta's Joslyn Art Museum expansion teases first photos ahead of September opening

2024-08-09T11:39:00-04:00

Work on Snøhetta's Joslyn Art Museum expansion in Omaha, Nebraska, is wrapping up ahead of an anticipated September 10th opening. Since our last update, the new 42,000-square-foot Rhonda & Howard Hawks Pavilion has finished construction. Founding partner Craig Dykers says it will “become a vessel for inspiration and creativity to flourish.”

Bird's-eye view rendering of the completed Joslyn Art Museum expansion. Rendering courtesy of Moare.

The project is part of a multi-billion investment into downtown Omaha to which the Joslyn serves as a key cultural anchor. The existing 1931 Art Deco Joslyn Building was also renovated through the project, which is valued at $100 million. Alley Poyner Macchietto Architecture is involved as a design partner.

Here are two more teaser photos the museum just released, showing details of the facade and the interior.

Image: © Nic Lehoux, courtesy of the Joslyn Art Museum.

...

Snøhetta completes redesign of the Blanton Museum of Art grounds with rain-capturing shade structures and native plants

2024-07-17T14:31:00-04:00

Snøhetta has completed work on their $35 million redesign of The Blanton Museum of Art grounds for the University of Texas at Austin.

The debut of the New Ground Initiative comes at the end of a three-year revitalization that saw the Blanton continuously operate during construction. The 200,000-square-foot campus now has a greater permanent presence as the gateway between the university and city of Austin thanks to public art installations and key improvements to the existing landscape design and architecture.

Image courtesy Casey Dunn

Lead architects and UTSOA alumni Craig Dykers, John Newman, and Elaine Molinar were able to guide the project using their student experiences, resulting in an inclusive new space.

Image courtesy Casey Dunn

At the center of the project stands a previously completed intervention of petal-like 40-by-30-foot metallic shade structures that was designed to reconcile an open area now referred to as the Moody Patio. Besides providing protection from Texas's re...

Snøhetta shares updated construction photos for El Paso Children's Museum

2024-07-12T11:20:00-04:00

The El Paso Children's Museum in Texas from Snøhetta and Exigo Architecture is advancing toward completion later this summer. The four-story, 70,000-square-foot museum is part of El Paso’s Downtown Arts District and will serve the community as its first purpose-built children's museum when it officially opens to the public on August 10th.

Snøhetta says: "The development of La Nube — Spanish for ‘the cloud’ — was directly influenced by input from the community. During the master planning process, a recurring theme was 'Blue Sky Thinking.' The sky is limitless, undefined by borders and holds clouds that can take an infinite number of shapes. The sky connects us all, regardless of culture, language, age, or ability."

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Snøhetta (@snohetta)

The design utilizes repeated barrel vaults and a glass-wrapped rectilinear base to create a "cloud-like" composition distinct from the apparent firmament and mix of corporate architecture b...

Snøhetta's high-tech Vertikal Nydalen mixed-use project opens in Oslo

2024-04-27T10:00:00-04:00

A new mixed-use project in Oslo from Snøhetta has been completed following a nine-year design and development phase that culminated in 118,400 square feet and 18 floors with restaurants, an office component, and 40 apartment units all built in.

Vertikal Nydalen is the focal point of a new town square in the Norwegian capital and features a self-sufficient climate system bolstered by PV panels, geo-wells, heat pumps, and an advanced building monitoring system that allows user feedback to inform its controls.

Image credit: Lars Petter Pettersen/Snøhetta

The project was born out of a pilot program that combined two research efforts supported by the Research Council of Norway. It focused on enhancing the building’s ventilation strategy and helping its heating/cooling systems run with little added energy at an efficiency rate of up to 2.5 times the industry’s current leading standard.

Image credit: Lars Petter Pettersen/Snøhetta

Snøhetta's Kjetil Trædal Thorsen says: "We are proud to f...

Snøhetta launches national park regeneration project in Japan

2024-04-26T11:57:00-04:00

Snøhetta has announced a new regeneration project with the Japanese private environmental agency BOND. The scheme for a yet-unnamed national park has several planned outcomes aimed a different social and environmental issues in Japan, which is experiencing a crisis of aging and still recovering from damages caused by seismic events in January and throughout the course of the last decade.

In a social media post, Snøhetta says: “Our masterplan will strengthen the relationship between earth, people, and nature, while beginning to heal and restore the scarred landscape to its original state of biodiversity and natural richness. Eco-concepts for health, wellness, and educational facilities are woven together with active public spaces spread across the park. This ecotourism development is the first step in furthering BOND’s vision of linking top stakeholders, government agencies, and locals to offer sustainable solutions for some of the long-term challenges facing the country.”

The firm h...

Snøhetta's 'whimsical children's museum' takes shape in El Paso

2024-04-02T11:52:00-04:00

New construction photographs published by Snøhetta via social media show substantial progress on the El Paso Children's Museum, designed with Exigo Architecture.

We first reported on the scheme in 2018 when Snøhetta won the competition for the project. In 2020, the firm unveiled a completed design for the 70,000-square-foot museum, which will sit in El Paso's Downtown Arts district.

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Snøhetta (@snohetta)

Through an unorthodox use of geometries, the building seeks to distinguish itself from the rest of the local skyline. The rectilinear base is wrapped in glass, allowing for natural light and interior views for the public on the outside. A succession of barrel vaults, visible in the construction photographs, add a rhythmic quality to the structure.

Snøhetta designs hemp-based lighting product inspired by 1970s ateljé Lyktan line

2024-03-13T12:02:00-04:00

Snøhetta has designed a line of lighting products for Swedish lighting manufacturer ateljé Lyktan.

The line, named Superdupertube, sees a revision of the manufacturer’s 1970s Supertube product, which was given a “contemporary makeover through extensive material research.”

Image credit: ateljé Lyktan

Image credit: Jonas Lindstrom

“When ateljé Lyktan challenged us to create a new technical office luminaire, we rediscovered their iconic Supertube from the 1970s,” said Snøhetta Partner Jenny B. Osuldsen about the project. “Our joint decision was clear — let's update and elevate the Supertube to a 2.0 version, guided by our commitment to sustainability and cradle-to-cradle thinking.”

Image credit: ateljé Lyktan

The project began as an exploration into how ateljé Lyktan’s products could be reimagined using locally sourced materials with a smaller ecological footprint. Initial experiments with pine cones and coffee grounds led to the choice of hemp fiber, which the...

Snøhetta unveils newly completed Beijing City Library design

2024-02-26T19:31:00-05:00

Snøhetta has shared new photos of its completed Beijing City Library design in the Chinese capital.

What is billed by the team to be the "world's largest climatized reading space" is composed of a glass curtain wall fronted by a forest of sculptural columns resembling ginko trees in a design that harkens the natural landscape to affect an "emotional connection" between people, books, and the environment.

Photo: Yumeng Zhu

Snøhetta says this is meant to challenge contemporary thinking on libraries and to disabuse designers (and critics) of the notion that the typology has become largely outmoded in the digital age.

Photo: Yumeng Zhu

Located in the city’s Tongzhou District, the library design was born out of a 2018 competition that paired the firm with local studio ECADI. Their effort was replete with integrated photovoltaic (BIPV) construction elements and other features aiming to reduce solar gain. This combines with the use of locally sourced construction materials...

Snøhetta's Joslyn Art Museum expansion set to open in September

2024-02-26T14:06:00-05:00

The Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, Nebraska, has shared new renderings and construction photos to go along with the announcement of the impending completion of a two-year, $100 million expansion project designed by Snøhetta and Alley Poyner Macchietto Architecture.

The design establishes the new Rhonda & Howard Hawks Pavilion on campus while adding another 40% worth of gallery spaces to house the museum’s fast-growing collection. Joslyn’s CEO Jack Becker complimented the firms’ "sensitive and imaginative approach" in planning the 42,000-square-foot extension, which is one part of the broad-ranging reinvestment the state and other private entities are making into downtown over the next decades.

Rendering courtesy of Moare

A pink-colored aggregate was added to pre-cast panels on the pavilion’s exterior, referencing the marble materials used in the facades of the Joslyn’s other existing structures from 1931 and 1994. This trio of buildings welcomes the public via a new entrance made at Da...

Snøhetta tops out Manhattan residential tower with ‘striking geometry’

2024-02-23T12:03:00-05:00

A Snøhetta-designed residential tower in Manhattan’s Upper West Side has topped out. Named 50 West 66th Street, the scheme is described by Snøhetta as having a “striking geometry” with a “natural palette of refined materials.”

Archinect first reported on the development in 2017 upon the release of the design proposal, detailing the tower’s palette of textured limestone, glass storefronts, and bronze details. Externally, the facade is defined by what the designers call a “series of sculptural excavations, evocative of the chiseled stone of Manhattan’s geologic legacy.”

Image credit: Extell

As the tower rises, its profile gradually narrows, including a distinctive splitting of the volume at the 16th level, creating a shared amenity terrace. Above the terrace, the opposing corners of the tower are sliced away to create residential balconies. “Angled facets evoke this chiseled vocabulary, revealing the same gleaming bronze found at the building’s base,” the designers add.

Image credit: L...

Snøhetta designs Saudi opera house inspired by traditional Najdi architecture

2023-12-18T11:45:00-05:00

Snøhetta has unveiled its design for an opera house in Diriyah, on the outskirts of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Inspired by the surrounding desert landscape, local cultural heritage, and Najdi building traditions, the Royal Diriyah Opera House forms part of a wider master plan to redevelop the historic area.

Image credit: Binyan

Both the form and materiality of the opera house respond to a vernacular style in the area known as Najdi, which historically saw mud-brick structures closely clustered to create constant shade. Similarly, the proposed scheme comprises a cluster of buildings connected by open-access passages, responding to the need to shade visitors from the sun.

Image credit: Binyan

The concept behind the design was “the idea of earth from the riverbeds, which crack when exposed to the hot sun, is molded by wind and rain, and then finds a new shape as separate forms.” As a result, the cluster of buildings is imagined as rising from the ground to form open passages across the site. ...

Snøhetta's green, mixed-use AIRSIDE development opens in Hong Kong

2023-11-11T11:21:00-05:00

Snøhetta’s AIRSIDE, a LEED Platinum-certified, mixed-use development in Hong Kong, has officially opened.

Located at the site of the former Kai Tak Airport district, the approximately 1,912,424-square-foot project merges into the surrounding urban landscape by creating direct access between pedestrian transit areas, retail spaces, and elevated landscapes. The development comprises an approximately 699-foot-tall tower with a second tower and its base in a continuous form.

The building mass comprises five interconnected volumes that gradually step up from the Kai Tak River, which lends the 699-foot-tall tower an inviting presence at ground level. The building’s sculpted forms create a series of human-scale urban spaces at this level, in addition to rooftop gardens. Landscaped plazas contribute to further integrating the development into the surroundings and creating an engaging pedestrian realm.

An expansive elevated garden sits atop the podium containing the building’s central atr...

Snøhetta's spiraling Shanghai Grand Opera House is taking form

2023-10-27T18:06:00-04:00

Snøhetta has shared photos revealing the construction status of their Shanghai Grand Opera House design ahead of its expected opening in 2025.

What’s most noticeable is the formation of the structure’s distinctive fan-shaped roof, which frames the Opera House’s spiraling form. This visual identity is evoked throughout the project, expressed through the winding staircase, the lobby, the halls, and the three auditoriums. The roof will operate as an accessible stage and meeting place, open to visitor access year-round.

Snøhetta was commissioned to design the Opera House following an international design competition.

Previously on Archinect: Snøhetta's spiraling design chosen for new Shanghai Grand Opera House

The project has set out to be an important component of a new urban master plan for Shanghai. The structure is being built in the Expo Houtan neighborhood, located at the convex bank in the riverside area near Huangpu River.

Check out more construction photos in Snøhetta's recent...

Snøhetta completes Vesterheim Commons, blending Norwegian and Midwestern cultures

2023-10-03T11:46:00-04:00

Snøhetta has completed work on the Vesterheim Commons in Decorah, Iowa. Part of Vesterheim, the National Norwegian-American Museum and Folk Art School, the new building and associated landscape seeks to “establish a new entry point and gathering space for a cultural campus.” Snøhetta served as the design architect and landscape architect for the project, with BNIM as the architect of record.

Image credit: Michael Grimm

The 8,000-square-foot building is marked on the street by a large wooden canopy inspired by boat designs. Off the street, a public reception lobby and event space “mirror the cozy and sheltered outdoor rooms of the surrounding park,” while upper-level galleries and a new digital production studio create spaces for showcasing art and artifacts.

Image credit: Michael Grimm

Image credit: Craig Dykers

Light is drawn into the lobby by a wood oculus above, while a flexible event space and new circulation areas create interior connections to Vesterhei...

Architectural Workers United charges Snøhetta with anti-union tactics

2023-08-29T19:58:00-04:00

Earlier this summer, Snøhetta was accused of unfair labor practices amid allegations of outside tampering during an unsuccessful union push at the firm.

On the afternoon of August 29, a charge on behalf of the Architectural Workers United (AWU) was filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), accusing Snøhetta of unlawfully discriminating against employees over their support for the failed unionization campaign.

“We trust that the National Labor Relations Board, upon hearing the evidence, will rule accordingly and in favor of the workers,” said David Sullivan (Machinists Union, IAM Eastern Territory General Vice) in a press release. “Today’s filing sends a message to the architecture industry that they are no different from any other industry and that if employers use illegal tactics to obstruct their employees from organizing, they will be held accountable.”

Related on Archinect: Snøhetta's U.S. office votes to not unionize

The AUW announced the news on Tuesday via Instagr...

Construction underway on Snøhetta and Park Associati’s 1960s office renovation in Milan

2023-08-29T11:50:00-04:00

Snøhetta and Park Associati have published photographs showing progress on the refurbishment of the 1960s Pirelli 35 office block in Milan. When completed in 2024, the project seeks to “create a generous and publicly accessible building with a significantly reduced carbon footprint.”

Image credit: Tommaso Maserati courtesy of Snøhetta

Building on the existing scale and lines of the neighboring buildings, the Pirelli 35 refurbishment will see works to the existing structure complimented by a rooftop addition and a six-story extension. The rooftop volume will create a new penthouse office floor while the extension “intimately addresses the smaller scale of the surrounding residential buildings while also providing chromatic contrast to the sober and elegant re-cladded facade of the existing building.”

Image credit: Tommaso Maserati courtesy of Snøhetta

The new scheme has been organized in three horizontal “layers.” The ground and 9th floor emphasize transparency to provide a high degree...

Snøhetta's Charlotte Mecklenburg Library officially breaks ground

2023-08-24T17:07:00-04:00

Snøhetta’s Charlotte Mecklenburg Library (CML) project officially broke ground on August 15th in North Carolina with a demolition celebration of the existing Main Library building. Designed in collaboration with Clark Nexsen, the new library aims to become a major destination and centerpiece in Uptown Charlotte.

“We wanted to celebrate this demolition to mark the start of a new beginning in Uptown Charlotte,” said CML CEO Marcellus Turner. “From the café to the community living room and the technology hub to the destination reading room, the new Main Library will be an inviting place to learn, grow and engage with others in our community.”

The facility stands at the head of Charlotte’s public library system, which consists of 21 branch libraries that welcome 3.4 million visitors each year. It aims to transcend its use as a conventional library by also serving as a public commons. The project is supported by funding from Mecklenburg County and a major investment by the Knight Founda...

Snøhetta to redevelop site of the second-largest waterfall in the US

2023-08-16T11:27:00-04:00

Snøhetta has unveiled a master plan to revitalize Willamette Falls in Oregon City. The second largest waterfall in the United States by volume, the site has been obscured by infrastructure for over a century, with Snøhetta’s plan centered on making the area more publicly accessible.

Image credit: Snøhetta

The master plan includes a riverwalk that begins at the entrance of Oregon City’s historic downtown and culminates at the waterfall’s peak. Imagined as a sequence of "islands" crafted from basalt, steel, wood, and concrete, the riverwalk is designed to be an immersive experience where visitors can witness the power of the falls up close while also feeling the mist and appreciating the landscape's changing tones.

Image credit: Snøhetta

By encompassing the city’s historic downtown, the project hopes to revitalize Main Street, which once served as a major avenue but today dead-ends at the entrance to the waterfall site. Under Snøhetta’s plans, the street will become the gateway for the ...

Snøhetta's U.S. office votes to not unionize

2023-07-07T16:40:00-04:00

With much anticipation, voting results for Snøhetta's U.S. employees and their fight for a union have come to a decision. After following Snøhetta's journey towards unionizing back in May and June of 2023, their efforts have fallen short.

Thanks to active report updates from New York Times labor reporter Noam Scheiber, final voting counts from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) resulted in a 35–29 final vote count against unionizing.

Image via @noamscheiber's Twitter account.

As reported merely a little over an hour ago (around 11:50 am PST), the possibility of things taking a turn for the better was mentioned after Scheiber reported the NLRB did not count 6 ballots from Snøhetta's San Francisco office. Prior to the most recent count update, the voting results posted earlier this morning reflected a 29–28 vote. However, after the remaining San Francisco ballots were taken into account, the results still remained unsuccessful.

The topic of fair labor within architecture firms a...

Snøhetta’s Orionis planetarium debuts in France

2023-06-30T14:58:00-04:00

Snøhetta has revealed photos of its just-completed Orionis planetarium and observatory design in the northern French city of Douai.

The project opened in May following a three-and-a-half year construction phase and is defined by a pronounced desire to provoke continuous movement while encouraging users towards a rich multisensory experience on a site adjacent to the city’s Arkéos archaeology museum and Scarpe river.

The 21,527-square-foot planetarium is designed around two offsetting domes connected by a curving envelope that surrounds an elliptical interior courtyard. A landscaped garden path connection to the existing museum completes the exterior program while promoting biodiversity and linking various outdoor spaces together into one accessible whole.

According to the design team, materials used in the paneled curtain wall façade are supposedly inspired by the surrounding landscape and residential structur...

Snøhetta's U.S. employees will vote today on unionization push

2023-06-14T12:53:00-04:00

An update has been provided in the case of Snøhetta’s U.S. employees who have, since the spring, been pushing internally to join the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union.

Staffers will vote today via mail-in ballots as to whether or not to join the union, which was also the subject of an unsuccessful push by SHoP employees that first gained attention in late-2021.

Snøhetta's effort to file a petition with the National Labor Relations Board for a union election first appeared on Archinect in early May.

Previously on Archinect: Snøhetta’s U.S. employees are seeking to unionize

"We are architects, landscape architects, designers, and operations staff who care deeply for Snøhetta, our projects, and the collaborative culture that makes our firm unique. We are proud of our work at Snøhetta and we are committed to our studio’s success. Through unionization, we will gain a collective voice in the future of our workplace and our profession," organizers said at ...

Snøhetta's Blanton New Grounds redesign opens at the University of Texas at Austin

2023-05-25T12:20:00-04:00

A recently completed project from three alumni Snøhetta staffers at the University of Texas at Austin’s Blanton Museum of Art has delivered an artistic intervention they say stands as a new gateway between the 51,000-student campus and its host city.

Principal and co-founder Craig Dykers, Managing Director Elaine Molinar, and Director John Newman, each School of Architecture graduates from the late-1980s, collaborated to enact a new canopy-like intervention that’s meant as a centerpiece to the museum’s $35 million Blanton New Grounds initiative.

Photo: Sloan Breeden Photography

Their solution involved a series of 40-by-30-foot metallic shade structures formed in the shape of flower petals to create a canopy of the new landscaped garden entrance to the museum while also framing Ellsworth Kelly’s 2018 monumental stone Austin chapel on the Blanton’s Moody Patio.

Photo: Sloan Breeden Photography

The petals double as a rainwat...

Snøhetta’s U.S. employees are seeking to unionize

2023-05-09T10:30:00-04:00

Workers at Snøhetta’s U.S. studios are filing to form a union. In an Instagram post published by Architectural Workers United, the group said “We, the employees of Snøhetta’s U.S. studios, have filed a petition with the National Labor Relations Board for a union election.”

“We are architects, landscape architects, designers, and operations staff who care deeply for Snøhetta, our projects, and the collaborative culture that makes our firm unique,” the statement continues. “We are proud of our work at Snøhetta and we are committed to our studio’s success. Through unionization, we will gain a collective voice in the future of our workplace and our profession.”

“We are excited to take this next step together,” the statement concludes.

Archinect Feature: Unionization in Architecture: Reviving a Dormant Movement to Fix a Broken Industry

The group is seeking to join the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, the union group associated with the movement among ShoP wor...

Snøhetta and Asak Miljøstein create hexagonal pavement system to aid water management

2023-04-04T11:14:00-04:00

Snøhetta has collaborated with Norwegian manufacturer Asak Miljøstein on the design of an outdoor surface to aid water management. Named Asak Flyt, the permeable concrete paver system consists of three hexagonal interlocking unit types that can be combined to “provide landscape architects with another powerful tool for nature-based water management.”

Image credit: HISM, courtesy of Snøhetta

The varying sizes of tiles in the Flyt system create different interlocking spaces between each stone, allowing for greater control over the extent of permeability through the system. The team estimates that their system allows for up to 28% permeability per square meter of water.

Diagram credit: Snøhetta

The varying spaces between the tiles also create what the team calls a “visually exciting expression,” with the intention that the system becomes a design feature in its own right alongside its water management functions.

Diagram credit: Snøhetta

“Permeable surfaces are part of the increasingly nee...