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 structures and divided into a palette of three select colors: beige poplar tree wood for the siding, iron rust for the alternating steel brise-soleils, and light grey for the PVC membrane that covers both domes. The roof of the structure is also covered in vegetation, offering what the firm says is a further natural enhancement of its connection to the site.

Included inside are an amphitheater, a projection room, exhibition spaces, a screening room, and a gift shop connected by a slightly inclined ramp that's visible from the outside. Green considerations include geothermal heating, natural ventilation, and rainwater retention. The firm says its overall aim was to "create an accessible and inspiring space for visitors."

Snøhetta's co-founder Kjetil Trædal Thorsen added: "We wanted to propose an extraordinary meeting place and a new destination for the inhabitants of Douai. The architectural and urban concept of our project takes its inspiration from the elliptical movement of the stars. Being continuous, fluid, and perpetual are notions that we have reinterpreted in the project, not only in terms of the shape but also in the experience that visitors will have of the planetarium, all senses employed."

Snøhetta also recently announced their commission for the new National Court of Asylum in Montreuil and will begin work soon on its transformation of the 200-year-old Natural History Museum of Lille.