Culture is future »

WHO IS … Kjetil Tredal Thorsen ?

Kjetil Tredal Thorsen studied architecture in Graz, Austria, at the Technische Universitat, and he completed his Dipl.Ing of architecture in 1985. This same year he moved to Oslo and opened his first private practice as a one man office, but in collaboration with other architects and landscape architects.

In 1987 he was co-founder of Snøhetta Architecture and Landscape, a collaboration of architects and landscape architects. During 1986 and 1987 he was active on the board of the Oslo division of the Norwegian Architects Association (NAL) and an active co-founder of Nor­ways first Architectural Gallery, Galleri ROM.

Since the creation of Snøhetta as, a private limited company in 1990, he has been a driving partner, a board member and a projects director. He has been instrumental in defining and developing Snøhettas philosophy and architectural ambition.

From 1999 to 2002 he served on the Design Competition Committee of the Norwegian Architects Association (NAL) when adopting EU regulations into public architectural competitions. In 2002 he became a member of the European Cultural Parliament.

Many of the projects created by Snøhetta have been inspired or led by Kjetil and to fulfil projects abroad he became a member of both the French Association of Architects and the American Institute of Architects (AIA).

Kjetil has served as a Juror on various design competitions in Europe, and has been involved in several architecture exhibitions, design symposia and conferences worldwide.

From 2004 to 2008 he worked as a professor at the University of Innsbruck, where he led the Institute for experimental studies in Architecture together with Patrick Schumacher from Zaha Hadid Architects.

In 2011 he was awarded the RIBA International Fellowship Honour.