My final-year project was prompted by the competition 'A new opera house in Oslo' to house the Norwegian Opera and the National Ballet. This opera house is involved with the production side as well as with performance.

Given the large programme and wide range of activities, it cannot be described as an opera house in the traditional sense where the public zone has an air of openness about it and use is exclusively targeted at the audience. Anything taking place 'behind the scenes' is then considered of secondary importance and stashed away in an opaque box. In the new building, a team 700 strong spends a full 18 months, day in day out, preparing a performance. The audience only sees the last three hours of this process. My proposal seeks to break open the 'opaque box' by having the design proceed from the requirements of that team.

The setting is a bay at present belonging to Oslo's harbour; its port activities are to be relocated in the near future so that the bay can be transformed into an area of urban identity. Central to its new identity is the opera house, which in my design accompanies the public urban space; it is the hub along which passers-by proceed.

By drawing apart the main stage and under-stage space and adding a taller stage lift, the ground plane emerges as a transparent, open public space. The auditorium is set centrally in the building instead of being visually imposing on the exterior. This leaves more of the frontage free for rooms for the opera house team. The various supportive functions and activities are so placed on the facade as to be visible from outside, generating a varied exterior. As a result, the team feels a sense of attachment with the outside world, whilst passers-by can experience the world of the opera house in all its diversity.

Place of education: TU Delft
Specialization: architecture
Tutors: Emiel Lamers, Andrew Borgart & Lau Nijs