Bringing the Best of Scandinavian Design to Asia

Architecture and design firm Snohetta further expands its project business across Asia with Hong Kong as its regional office.

Founded in 1989 in Norway, Snohetta is a global design powerhouse specialising in architecture, landscape architecture, interior architecture, product and graphic design. From the Oslo Opera House, to San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the recent Shanghai National Opera, Snohetta has built some of the most seminal cultural buildings around the world, as well as a variety of other architectural and design projects in all sizes.

A veteran architect, Robert Greenwood, Partner and Managing Director Overseas, said that “dialogue” is the heart of Snohetta’s design. “We do not wish to impose a particular style or design philosophy to all of our projects,” he explained. “Each project is unique, because they are from different places and for different functions. One can only create a building by having dialogue with many stakeholders, and the project is a result of all these dialogues.”

With offices based in, amongst others, Oslo, New York and Paris, Snohetta set up its first Asia office in Hong Kong in 2018 in view of the growing number of projects in the region. “We establish the Hong Kong office so that we can have a foothold in Asia,” said Greenwood. “We believe that it is important to be here as we need to be close with our clients in the region, and we will also be able to follow our projects in Asia closely.”

“As there are more and more upcoming high profile projects in Asia, we are confident that our brand will organically spread in the region, and more interesting projects and new opportunities will come along,” he added.

Currently there are around 12 staff members in Snohetta’s Hong Kong studio with a majority of architects, a lot of which has cross-disciplinary profiles. As more projects are coming, they also plan to hire more interior architects as well as product designers.

“We can see a really skilled and talented workforce in the design and architecture field in Hong Kong,” Greenwood said, “not only are they well-educated and have an expansive international exposure, especially in amongst the younger generation, their language ability is also one of their greatest strengths.”

Greenwood also finds Hong Kong very business-friendly. “To start a business in Hong Kong is easy. The commercial, financial and legal structures are similar to those we know from Europe, which also help business to set up and further expand,” he concluded.