Snøhetta, together with 70°N architecture and artist Joar Nango, has unveiled Čoarvemátta, a Sámi theater and school in Finnmarksvidda, Norway’s largest and northernmost plateau.
Sámi are the Indigenous peoples inhabiting large parts of northern Norway, who have preserved traditional ways of handcraft and reindeer herding.
The name Čoarvemátta comes from the Sámi words for horn and root, named after the innermost and strongest part of reindeer antlers. This symbolizes the unifying force of the institutions that share the new building: the Sami National Theatre Beaivváš and the Sami High School and Reindeer Herding School.
Snøhetta’s inspired design
The building sits low in the landscape, built to harmonize with the surrounding hills with sloping, organic forms. The façade of the structure is rendered in ore pine, while the expansive roof is clad in more than 111,000 feet of kebony.
Inside, the vestibule and corridors are constructed from polished concrete floors that mimic the ground outside, along with elements of locally mined stone—including slate and masi quartzite, in various shades of gray and green.
Drawing inspiration from wooden structures (lávvu) found in reindeer herding areas, the interior features curved lines, skylights, and visible load-bearing timber.
The structure has a branching shape, with its main entrance and vestibule at the center, acting as a gathering place for both school and theater students. From here, the building stretches in three directions—with a wing dedicated to theater, workshops and teaching rooms, and administration.
The spaces around the foyer, vestibule, and theater halls are painted in warm shades of red. The color scheme becomes cooler the further you branch from the center, ending with bluish tones at each end of the building’s wings.
The new-build is 90 percent self-sufficient in energy to heating and cooling, thanks to 40 geowells drilled approximately 820 feet into the ground. The wells supply two heat pumps that heat and cool the building, while exchangers for the energy wells reuse surplus heat.
“We are proud to have contributed to putting this long-awaited and important building in its place,” says Kjetil Trædal Thorsen, founding partner at Snøhetta. “A combined theater and reindeer herding school is a fun program to work with for an architect. It is a testament to good architecture that two really non-interoperable institutions are successfully connected.”
“The project also provides exceptionally good use of resources, which play a vital role in traditional Sami handicrafts, duodji, where it’s an important principle that everything from the animal can be used for something,” he adds.
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