Kjetil Trædal Thorsen

Kjetil Trædal Thorsen is a Norwegian architect. In 1987, he co-founded the architecture firm Snøhetta.

History

Kjetil Trædal Thorsen was born 14 June 1958 on the Norwegian coastal island of Karmøy. After several years in Germany and England, he studied architecture in Graz, Austria. He had practiced at the office of Espen Tharaldsen (Arbeidsgruppen Hus) in Bergen (1982–1983), Ralph Erskine in Stockholm (1983–1984) and David Sandved in Haugesund (1985).

Designs

Thorsen led several award winning design competitions for public buildings around the world. He led the Snøhetta teams designing the museum built for the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, the 2007 Serpentine Gallery temporary Pavilion in London designed with Olafur Eliasson, the new Bibliotheca Alexandrina library in Alexandria, Egypt, and the new Oslo Opera House in Oslo, Norway. He was a founder of Norway’s foremost architecture gallery, Galleri Rom in 1986.

Associations

Thorsen is a member of the Norwegian Architectural Association (NAL) and has served on their design competition committee.^{[citation needed]} He has served as a juror on various design competitions in Europe.^{[citation needed]}

Since 2004, Kjetil Trædal Thorsen has been a professor at the Institute for Experimental Studies in Architecture of the University of Innsbruck.

Decorations and honorary degrees

• Commander of the Royal Norwegian Order of St Olav (2008)