Since its foundation in 1989, Snøhetta has been working on cultural projects, including many libraries: from the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt (1989), up to the more recent Calgary New Central Library in Canada (2018) and Far Rockaway Writer's Library in New York (2023). This aspect of Snøhetta’s practice has become more and more central to the company’s work, so that today there are many ongoing projects focusing on such a theme: the Charlotte Mecklenburg Library, the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library and the Westchester Square Library in the Bronx, United States. By 2024 the Beijing Sub-Center Library will also be completed, hosting the biggest reading room in the world. Over these last few years, though, Snøhetta have been able to innovate themselves through an interdisciplinary nature, consolidating their skills and competences. Among these is product design. Marius Myking is the brain behind the Norwegian studio’s said department. We met him to discuss the Bokhus library system for Unifor, which shows how architecture can come in the aid of objects, and vice versa. 

How did Bokhus come to life?
Bokhus means “book house”. This library system was started as an exploration of the future of libraries. The key concepts were flexibility and technique. Whether you want to showcase a book or an object, the shelving unit’s built-in lights will be precious. The Bokhus design may seem simple, but I can assure you it is not. Bokhus is simple in its use, that is. It is also formally so, in the sense that it does not compete with what it houses. When moving a shelf, to raise or lower it, one notices that the connector between the upright and the shelf is connected to the electrification system via a low conductivity. It is a project we began working on in 2019, but what we are presenting at this Design Week is only a starting point, there’ll be an expansion in terms of function.

How did the transdisciplinary approach of Snøhetta support the making of this system?

What we do is share the vast skills and experiences among the various subjects within the studio. This allows us to develop solid projects. When it comes to practice, this means that there is a daily dialogue that involves all the designers from within. Who works of product design, like in the case of Bokhus, gathers information from the colleagues who are working on interiors and on the architectural scale. This process helps to bring out and foresee what the needs and challenges are in those types of projects and to find the right direction. With the advent of digital, there has been much talk about the survival of libraries. The prediction is that these places will continue to exist, but that they will have fewer books and integrate other functions. Today the library is already often intended as a social catalyst for local communities, a both educational and leisure platform. 

Is there a branch of the firm that you consider more prioritarian than others within the studio?
Product design has always been present in the studio, but it took time to make it a professional specialisation. I would say that a big change took place six years ago. This was also due to an increase in demand for that type of design sitting somewhere between architecture and interior design. The product, for us, is a natural part of architecture. What I believe sets us apart is the fact that each discipline within the studio has its own objectives, rather than all supporting one. Our ambition is to make each internal competence strong, to consolidate the totality.

What are the products that have started your specific competence in matters of product design?
We have worked on many different products. Among the most interesting ones, I would perhaps include the first series of hardware products for Telenor, the biggest Internet provider of northern Europe. Then, we worked on the custom cutlery for the Scandinavian restaurant Barr Copenhagen (the restaurant at Noma’s). It was a collaboration with Table Noir and Barr’s executive chef, Thorsten Schmidt. Under the commission of Danish design brand Georg Jensen we also worked on a series of accessories for plants made of nine terracotta and stainless steel pieces, called Terra. They’re all products with their own personality, which aren’t necessarily connected with each other. 

How would you describe the studio’s attitude?
We often say that our most important project is Snøhetta itself. We are interested in innovating and reinventing ourselves to create a positive impact on the world. This can take different shapes: perhaps a series of tiles made using electrical waste, or an important architecture which can reactivate the area of a city. A relevant case study is Flyt, for the Norwegian firm ASAK Miljøstein, which we launched in 2022. It is a permeable flooring system which can help in case of flooding. In this case, we started with a market analysis and identified a need. The ambition was to give urban and landscape designers the opportunity to work with a new material to meet the current and future challenges of water management.

Opening image: Far Rockaway Library, Snøhetta, 2023, New York, USA © Snøhetta & Doug and Wolf