Snøhetta’s glass and marble-clad Norwegian National Opera and Ballet elegantly dips towards the Oslo Fjord like an icy slipway in the city’s old harbour area of Bjørvika.

Bjørvika is the historical meeting point between the city and the water and Snøhetta’s design for the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet creates a meeting place between the public and the arts.

The roof of the building is angled to ground level, sweeping visitors up from a large plaza and elevating them upwards where the views of downtown Oslo are most beautiful.

The roof is covered in an 18,000m² “carpet” of La Facciata marble from Italy, which was chosen for its whiteness and the way in which it retains its colour even when wet.

The glass-covered lobby pierces through the whiteness of the “carpet” and, when illuminated at night, it takes on the appearance of a giant lamp. The glass façade is up to 15-metres tall and was designed with minimum disruption by framing or column supports. Low-iron glass was used to avoid a green tint.

The stage tower, the highest part of the building, is covered in aluminium. Snøhetta used metal for all the production areas of the building, marking these as the “factory” areas of the building. Flat-panel aluminium panels were chosen for their aesthetics, malleability and longevity.

The panels were punched with convex spherical segments and concave conical forms, a pattern inspired by traditional weaving techniques. In collaboration with artists Astrid Løvaas and Kirsten Wagel, eight different patterns were designed, creating a constantly changing effect on the building depending on sunlight.

The “factory areas” are predominantly located on the eastern side of a central north-south axis called the “opera street”, a grouping of about 1,000 rooms of varying size and function, including costume and set-building production areas.

Visitors to the building enter the foyer from the plaza outside, with marble paving stones shaped by artists Kristian Blystad, Jorunn Sannes and Kalle Grude. From the foyer, visitors have access to a restaurant, a brasserie, several bars and the information and ticketing desk.

Olafur Eliasson designed perforated wall panels that cover roof supports in the lobby. These feature hexagonal openings and, when lit from below and behind, create the illusion of melting ice.

Larger furniture elements, such as bar counters, the ticketing desk and café interiors are either integrated in larger building forms or designed as free-standing sculptural forms in white corian. These can be completely closed down when not in use.

The horse shoe-shaped main auditorium is wrapped in a large timber “wave wall” made from oak. The wall has a complex organic geometry, made from joined conical shapes. At night, the wall becomes the building’s façade when seen from the exterior through the foyer’s glass curtain.

A grand staircase is peeled out of the “wave wall”, leading up to three galleries around the auditorium. The wall has an intimate feel that contrasts with the open, white foyer. The feeling in the auditorium is of being inside a carved-out piece of timber or perhaps a musical instrument.

The main auditorium can house 1,370 visitors and is divided into stalls, perterre and three balconies. The orchestra pit is highly flexible and can be adjusted in height and area with the use of three separate lifts. The 23-metre wide stage curtain made from wool, cotton and polyester was designed by Pae White to look like crumpled aluminium foil.

A chandelier with a seven-metre diameter is made up of 5,800 hand-cast glass crystals through which 800 LED lights shine. The distance between the crystals increases towards the stage, allowing a greater amount of sound to pass through, thereby contributing to the sound quality in the auditorium.