Founders of two of the leading Scandinavian
architecture studios, Bjarke Ingels (BIG) and
Kjetil Thorsen (Snøhetta), coincided in Pam-
plona during the IV International Congress of
the Fundación Arquitectura y Sociedad, held
under the motto ‘Change of Climate’. Though
their works are readily distinguishable and
evidently different, their approach to archi-
tecture is practically the same. They both take
inspiration from the landscape, the one they
have known since their childhood, and that,
as in the case of so many Nordic authors, has
marked their career and work.
Bjarke Ingels: Maybe this is a cliché in
the concepts of Scandinavia but the fact that
you guys do this annual hike to the Snøhetta
mountain is very interesting to me. We also
go on an expedition every year, but last year
there was a terrible snowstorm in which seven
people had died, so we had to stay in the val-
ley. It was so shocking though that we haven’t
actually planned this year’s trip.
Kjetil Thorsen: But you have to do it. It
is like a car crash, you have to go straight
back to the car, or you will be always scared
of driving. For us it is important because you
build many new kinds of relationships. When
you get so close to landscape, you are almost
having sex with the landscape…
BI: I have been thinking that I get so much
out of getting into nature. Not just staying in
a nice hotel and then seeing a lot of nature,
but mostly disappearing into it in a way that
is so fully unprogrammed and uncategorized
that it is entirely up to you to enjoy or inhabit
it. It is a gigantic playground for grown-ups.
KT: It is also a way of learning about ar-
chitecture. Skiing, for example, is the best
way of describing the section of a landscape,
through height and speed. You are following
the contour lines of landscape continuously,
so you get a really close perception of the
abstraction of the landscape when you are
skiing. But it is the same with the slowness
of climbing. When you are climbing, and you
are hanging from the wall, you get the feeling
of being far from everything, but at the same
time the wall could not be any closer.
BI: I remember this amazing experience.
We were walking up this pass, it was like an
1,800-meter ascent and it was raining non-
stop, endless rain for a week. Everything was
slippery, so climbing up was super hard. It was
beautiful. Up there we were in the clouds, and
once in a while they would open and you would
have this magnificent view, but right after they
would close again, very fast. Finally, when we
walked down, we constantly had to lie down,
flat on the stomach – we could not do it on
our backs, because we had the backpacks –
and slide down this kind of greasy mountain.
It was a complete surrender to the elements.
KT: We keep drifting in the direction of
having sex with the landscape… For me there
are only two situations in the world: the moun-
tains or the sea. Everything in between is kind
of boring.
BI: I totally agree.
KT: But I like that. That type of challenge.
I have this feeling sometimes, that if we don’t
have enough wind I would close the office
sort of thing, because you need the forces
against to get there. If it is not windy enough,
stay home. If you see where our offices are
located in Oslo, we are completely exposed
“Nature is a like
a gigantic playground
for grown-ups”
