Carolyn Jack
Editor and CEO, Geniocity.comA project of The Genius Group LLC
Creative Nerve
Architecture award goes to amphibious opera house
Most of the world resists changing anything more significant than its socks. But for some reason, we make an exception for buildings, among the costliest and longest-lasting of human creations – and the wackiest.
Frank Gehry ’s creations have lately been the favorite example of outer-limits architecture. But Snohetta, an Oslo, Norway-based firm, has a pretty singular imagination of its own: It was announced Tuesday that the company has won the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture - Mies van der Rohe Award 2009 and 60,000 euros for its Oslo Opera House, home of the Norwegian Opera and the National Ballet, featuring an auditorium that’s half under water. Opened in April 2008, the opera house has a roof that slants like a white marble beach running down to – and underneath – the waters of the Oslo Fjord. You have to wonder if, like Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater House outside Pittsburgh, the edifice of art will turn out to be a leaky teepee. Here are some views of its exuberant facade and interiors:
