This vast complex, home to Norway's national opera and ballet companies, has quickly become a new national symbol, much as Jørn Utzon's Sydney Opera House did for Australia decades ago. Envisioned by Snøhetta as a glass and marble "wave wall" where the city meets the ocean, the site was designed as a large white wedge that slopes down into the water. The slanted roof has been transformed into a large public plaza closely connected to the surrounding fjord. Available for around-the-clock use, the roof is a new type of city park in which distinctions between architectural and landscape design, music and dance are productively blurred.
Gallery label from Making Music Modern: Design for Ear and Eye, November 15, 2014–January 17, 2016.