Snøhetta: People Process Projects

April 17 – June 30, 2016

The Center for Architecture

403 NW 11th Ave, Portland, Oregon, USA

World renowned Oslo-based architecture practice Snøhetta opens its first USA exhibition at the Center for Architecture in Portland on April 17. 'Snøhetta: People, Process, Projects' invites visitors behind the scenes of the office’s culture and design philosophy. First created in collaboration with the Danish Architecture Centre in Copenhagen in Summer 2015, the exhibition will open on April 17, 2016 to kick off Design Week Portland.

The exhibition is based on a book published on June 18 2015, parallel with the opening of the Snøhetta exhibition at the Danish Architecture Centre in Copenhagen, the new Snøhetta book is a tribute to the people, process and projects that is Snøhetta. It is a collection our most beautiful photography, sketches and models, bringing forward less obvious views and details to the studio's work. The 300 page book, designed by Snøhetta, celebrates not only the completed and ongoing projects, but perhaps the most important project of them all: Snøhetta.

According to Snøhetta's design philosophy, the studio states that ''since the very beginning, the studio has defined Snøhetta as a project in itself. We have lived this project. It has been refined, twisted, rearranged and evolved, influenced by zeitgeist, society and technology. The overlapping activities driven by different people involved at all times, has led to a continuous state of reinvention, independent of the tasks at hand. These reinventions are transprofessional and include as much architecture as landscape architecture, as much art as graphic design, as much interior architecture as urbanism''. 

''When our efforts in the process of “transpositioning” reveal unforeseen results, it means that each participant has managed to leave his or her profession slightly behind, releasing personality and insight into the core of the process. There is nothing to defend and nothing to gain but a moment of shared ideas. Ideas belonging to all. Each individual is a force, reaching their full potential in our collective space of creation. Each result is unique, has its own departure and each project has its own embedded logic in the spiral of creation'' adds Snøhetta.

''Some might see this as inconsistent: we see it as a consistent adaptation to the wide range of conditions in relation to changing societies. The contemporary intersects with the future and with history, both deeply imbedded in our world-view.When walking, look down to see where you put your foot, then look forward to see where you are going, shift your eyes towards the sky to dream and now and again turn your head to see where you came from. This puts you in the middle of now, a moment in itself based on parallel complexities'' 

The book comes with three different colored covers, all with a wooden structure breaking in a diagonal line. The front and back endpapers are done in contrasting colors, adding to the many surprising details of the book. The binder carton edges are trimmed, making the book easily stackable, opening for possibilities of creating interesting installations and shapes with the books. 

all images courtesy of Snøhetta

> via Snøhetta