Aug 31, 2026 · 25 min · 10 segments
In Scandinavia, nature is the ultimate design guide. Clean lines, light-filled spaces and a seamless connection to the outdoors are hallmarks of the region's architecture. Award-winning Norwegian…
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What if the point of architecture isn't to protect us from nature, but to remind us that we're already part of it? This is By Design on ABC Radio National.
Today, one of Norway's most influential architects, Kjetil Tredeltorsen, joins us to talk about the connection he finds between nature and architecture and why it's so fundamental to everything his firm Snohetta does.
Long before phrases like sustainable design or living with nature became common currency, one architect was quietly working from a radical assumption that buildings should behave less like objects placed on land and more like extensions of the landscapes they inhabit.
His buildings feel like they've grown out of the ground, shaped by wind and light and the natural world around them.
I'm speaking about Schertl Tredl Thorsen, one of the founders of the Nordic architecture studio Snohetta, and behind buildings as brilliant as the newly opened Glass House Theatre in Brisbane, the Oslo Opera House, the Bibliotheca Alexandria in Egypt and the 9-11 Memorial Museum Pavilion in New York.
Can we begin with how the Nordic perspective shapes how you practice architecture, and in particular, the very Norwegian relationship to nature that you have?
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