This Čoarvemátta centre is the new shared facility of the Sámi National Theatre in Beaivváš and the Sámi College and Reindeer Herding School, two important cultural institutions in the Sápmi Sámi settlement area. The name comes from the Sámi words “čoarvi” and “mátta”, meaning “horn” and “root”, which characterise the strongest part of the reindeer’s antlers – often used in duodji, traditional Sámi handicrafts. The architectural firm Snøhetta developed the proposal together with the architectural firm 70°N arkitektur, the entrepreneur Econor and the artist Joar Nango.
Čoarvemátta is located in Kautokeino, in the middle of Finnmarksvidda, Norway’s largest and northernmost plateau. All sides and facades of the building are of equal importance, and relate to the various surrounding landscape spaces in different ways. The two-storey building has a low height and proportions that harmonise with the surrounding hills and elevations, avoiding angles that break with the natural forms of the landscape. The roof slopes down on both sides of the building (north, south) to minimise the height effect of the project when viewed from afar, and at the same time forms the entrance to the access from the southwest.
The project interprets Sami architecture with references to craftsmanship, materials and nature. Just as the innermost articulation of the reindeer’s horn symbolises different qualities and forces and represents two elements coming together, Coarvematta integrates theatre and school, and releases the potential that lies in the tension between the practices of the school and the storytelling capacity of the theatre.
The National Reindeer Herding School merged with the Sami College in 1988. Five years later, Beaivváš received the status of one of Norway’s four national theatre institutions. Since then, the school and theatre have been of great importance to Sami culture and education, but both have also been in need of new premises for a long time. The co-location means that the institutions can take advantage of each other’s facilities and jointly exploit large, spacious rooms and halls. The building facilitates synergies between building and user, theatre and school, and architecture and landscape. This is in line with the Sami ideology of caring for and using all resources.
Meeting point
The new shared space has a ramified form, with a main entrance and a foyer in the centre. From here, the building extends in three different directions – adapting both visually and functionally to the landscape – with a wing for each of the three functions: theatre, school and faculty.
The foyer is the focal point of the building. The curved lines, the protruding roof with skylights like a reahpen, smoke hole, and the visible load-bearing glulam structure are inspired by the light wooden constructions typical of Sami reindeer herding areas, such as the lávvu.
As a natural meeting place, the space is ideal for activities such as duodji, Sami crafts, cooking and theatre performances. The large amphitheatre is a unifying common room for students and theatre audiences and offers a good overview and connection to the 2nd floor. The large glass panels at both ends of the foyer provide an open, well-lit space with good natural light conditions and views of the two peaks of Bealjážat mountain, “the two little ears”, a landmark in Kautokeino.
Materials
The façade of the building is made of mineral pine cladding. The huge roof measures 4,930 m2 and is clad with 34,000 metres of kebony. The tall slate of the theatre’s gable has been reused from the village’s old primary school, which has been demolished.
Inside the foyer and corridors, polished concrete floors mimic the floor outside the building, with locally quarried stone elements, such as slate and masi quartzite, in various shades of grey and green. On the upper floor, there is coloured linoleum on the floors. The walls have wooden slats and oiled smoothed wood panelling, while all the fittings are made of pine and ash veneer.
Colours
The colour approach and material concept for the school is holistic. The centre of the building, around the foyer, the lobby and the theatre rooms, is painted in warm, red tones. After that, the colour scheme becomes colder, and the further you move away from the home, the colder the colours become, with bluish tones at each end of the building’s wings. The contrasts between door, wall and floor within the different heating zones have clear references to the Sami use of colour. This contrasts sharply with the exterior of the building, which is covered in white for most of the year.
The school has a strong desire to continually showcase the pupils’ new work, both for the school itself and for visitors. Therefore, large wall panels and hanging surfaces have been set aside for this purpose in various parts of the building, preferably where they can be seen by large groups.
Landscape
“Sami culture has no tradition of cultivating landscapes in parks and urban spaces. When you leave the lavvu, you are directly in nature, in the landscape. So a big part of the project has been to create a strategy to revegetate the area and to re-encircle the plateau after the construction period is over” says Thea Kvamme Hartmann Senior landscape architect.
The shape of the building naturally forms three exterior spaces. The south-facing one constitutes the main entrance and a space in front of it. The courtyard is an intimate, circular space with a terran, a fire pit, seating stones and an amphitheatre. The seating stones come from the plateau outside, and this flexible room can be used for both school and theatre. The Alta slate used here comes from a quarry near the construction site.
The outdoor area on the other side of the theatre wing is intended for the school’s construction classes, and is protected both visually and from the prevailing wind direction. To the north of the building, large areas have been set aside for reindeer enclosures, which are directly related to the reindeer husbandry department inside the building, and have been built by local reindeer experts. On the east side, the plateau meets the building naturally, and the terrain and vegetation have been preserved as close to the building as possible.
Soil that has had to be removed has been conserved throughout the site, the topsoil has been temporarily stored and then returned to all surfaces around the building, so that the seed reserves are intact. Restoring the landscape of the plateau takes time, but it is possible. The esplanade has been exceptionally sown with some grass seed that NIBIO has collected in Finnmark, so that it will green up faster. The outdoor area has also been planned with snow removal in mind, as the snow remains for a long time.
Passive house
Čoarvemátta is a Passive house, which means that the building is of very high quality, with a good indoor climate and extremely low energy needs. The building is 90% self-sufficient in energy for heating and cooling from wells and heat pumps thanks to 40 geothermal wells drilled at a depth of about 250 metres. The wells supply two heat pumps that heat and cool the building, while the heat exchangers in the energy wells return the excess heat. On colder winter days, the system is supplemented by an electric boiler.
The building also has ambitious environmental targets, including being able to document a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions of at least 30% in energy, materials and construction compared to the project’s reference building, calculated as total emissions in tonnes of CO2 over the life cycle of the project.
The theatre
The Sami Beaivváš National Theatre was first established as a free group when committed young cultural activists from the Kautokeino area created the theatre and the first performance “Our Plains” in 1981. The theatre is a travelling theatre that travels several times a year through the Sami area of Norway, Sweden and Finland, sometimes also through Russia. In addition, the theatre regularly tours outside the Nordic countries to make Sami culture known internationally. The base has been in Kautokeino Kulturhus, but since 2005 work has been underway to create a building dedicated to Sami theatre.
In its new location in Čoarvemátta, the theatre is located in the centre of the building, allowing for close synergy between the school workshops and the theatre’s support areas. The main access to the main hall is from the foyer, with an alternative entrance directly from the front courtyard. This provides a close connection to the amphitheatre of the open-air theatre located in the southern part of the area. The dressing rooms, green room and make-up room are located on level 1, with direct access to the main hall. Other premises for theatre employees are located on level 2, from where there is direct access to the technical balcony of the main hall.
School facilities
Reindeer husbandry and duodji are important to Sami culture and society. The two national reindeer husbandry and duodji programmes are therefore two of the cornerstones of the school. Čoarvemátta reflects this with premises adapted to modern teaching in traditional subjects. Much of the training in these subjects takes place in the field, but with the new building it is possible to better bridge the gap between the traditional and modern requirements. Perhaps most special is the school’s own slaughterhouse, where the students learn industrial slaughtering, but where they will also be able to use resources in the traditional way, resources that in most slaughterhouses are considered waste.
Sami handicrafts are closely linked to nature and the materials that can be gathered from nature. With the location of Čoarvemátta, they will have proximity to resource-rich areas. The slaughterhouse will also generate materials for Duodji. The location of the duodji department near the main entrance will make the school visible as a living part of the building, as part of the training will take place outside, clearly visible to visitors and passers-by. The school also houses a construction room, a workshop room and its own e-sports room.
The works of art
The Norwegian national agency for art in public spaces, KORO, is responsible for the art in the new building of the Sami Beaivváš National Theatre and the Sami upper secondary school and reindeer herding school.
The artworks are deeply rooted in two fundamental concepts of Sami cultural understanding: vuoiŋŋŋalašvuohta, Sami spirituality, and árbemáhttu, traditional knowledge, and show the range of Sami art, from tradition-based duodji to contemporary conceptual art.
In total six new works have been created for the new building. Following a closed competition, Máret Ánne Sara (1983) was invited to design the theatre’s front curtain. The work Gapmu goes to the core of Sami knowledge and worldview, and is deeply rooted in the artist’s personal stories and political commitment.
Britta Marakatt-Labba (1951) is one of Sápmi’s best known contemporary artists. She created the embroidery Miin Duoddarat / Our Plains, with direct references to the history of the theatre, for the common room of the building.
In addition to the new works, two larger works by two of Sápmi’s most famous and influential artists, Aage Gaup (1943-2021) and Iver Jåks (1932-2007), have been moved from the old school building to the new one.
Project: Čoarvemátta
Location: Kautokeino/Guovdageaidnu, Noruega
Surface: 7.200 m2
Typology: Edificio cultural y educativo
Finished: 2024.
Customer: Statsbygg.
Architecture, interior architecture, landscape architecture and graphic design: Snøhetta.
Entrepreneur: Econor.
Associate partner, architect: 70°N Arkitektur.
Collaborating partner, architect/artist: Joar Nango.
Art acquisition: KORO, comisaria: Monica Milch Gebhardt.
Artists: Máret Ánne Sara, Laila Mari Brandsfjell, Fredrik Prost
Ellen Berit Dalbakk/Rámavuol Elle Bigge, Merethe Ella Márjá Kuhmunen, Elle Valkeapää, Britta Marakatt-Labba, Iver Jåks, Aage Gaup.
Consulting Engineer, Building & Fire: Norconsult.
Consulting Engineer, Building (Precast): AB consult.
Consulting engineer, acoustics: Brekke & Strand.
Ingeniero consultor, HVAC: Afry.
Ingeniero consultor, pipes: SWECO.
Ingeniero consultor, electricity: Rambøll.
Ingeniero consultor, roads: Asplan Viak.
Photography: Lars Petter Pettersen / Snøhetta.
Text: Snøhetta. Traducción: Exágono.
Snøhetta
The internationally acclaimed architecture and design firm Snøhetta is renowned for its innovative, sustainable and context-specific designs that make architecture a positive force. Founded in 1987 by Kjetil Thorsen and a group of young Norwegian architects, Snøhetta rose to fame when it partnered with American architect Craig Dykers in Los Angeles in 1989. Together they won an open international competition to design the new Library of Alexandria in Egypt, resulting in the acclaimed Bibliotheca Alexandrina, completed in 2001. This project, an experiment in working across disciplines and physical locations, marked the beginning of the Snøhetta studio we know today, ushering in a period of rapid growth, with pioneering projects and numerous accolades around the world.
Within a few years, Snøhetta received the World Architecture Prize and the Aga Khan Award for Architecture for the Library of Alexandria. His next project, the Oslo Opera House, completed in 2008, also won the World Architecture Prize, as well as the Mies van der Rohe Award, the EDRA Great Places Award and the European Prize for Urban Public Space.
In 2010, Snøhetta received the World Award for Sustainable Architecture, which recognises their project’s commitment to the environment. Not a bad start for a young collective that wants to challenge established norms.
Aaron Dorf. Architect Director de Snøhetta
Aaron Dorf joined Snøhetta in its fledgling New York office in 2007, shortly after the Library of Alexandria was completed, and immediately set to work on the National September 11 Memorial Museum Pavilion in New York, a project for which Snøhetta had recently won a design competition.
He says that joining Snøhetta straight out of university and working on such an intense and politically involved project gave him an ideal entry into the company, with the youthful exuberance and incredible self-confidence that won the design competition and continues to energise the company.
“Although we were an established company by that point, when I came to New York in 2007 we were a group of just seven or eight people. Because of the rapid growth, at unexpected times or places, we have a tremendous startup, do-it-yourself mentality that has never gone away” says Dorf.
“That’s really the birth of this company. It has always been multinational and multidisciplinary: made up of architects, landscape architects, interior architects and, more recently, graphic and product design. We are a multidisciplinary design agency with a worldwide presence” he says.
Far from the “makeshift group” it worked with in the beginning, Snøhetta now employs more than 350 people from 40 countries, with teams spread across nine regional studios in Oslo, New York, San Francisco, Innsbruck, Paris, Adelaide, Melbourne, Hong Kong and Shenzhen.
Project by Aaron Dorf. Snøhetta
