We shapespace.Space shapesus.

The Snøhetta Foundation is an independent, non-profit foundation governed under the Norwegian Foundation Act. It is based at Skur 39 in Oslo and works exclusively for public benefit.

Its Board of Directors is chaired by Stephan L. Jervell, with Kjetil Trædal Thorsen and Craig Dykers as founding board members. Martin Haakon Gran serves as Managing Director.

The Board is responsible for strategic direction, financial oversight and compliance with the Foundation’s statutes. Its central duty is to protect the Foundation’s independence and ensure that resources serve education, culture and social sustainability.

The Advisory Board contributes independent knowledge from architecture, culture, education, philanthropy, peacebuilding and the performing arts. Governance is understood not only as administration, but as a culture of openness, responsibility and trust.

The Master Class in Alexandria brings young architects, artists and designers together to explore design as a tool for dialogue, learning and transformation. The city and its library offer more than a setting: they place the work within a long history of curiosity, exchange and public knowledge.

Each edition combines Sensing Space, Poetry and Presentation Technique. Movement develops spatial awareness; language gives rhythm and precision to an idea; presentation turns complex thinking into something that can be shared.

Participants work through a common question in dialogue with local craftspeople, researchers and artists. The emphasis is on process: making, testing, reflecting and learning across disciplines and cultures.

At Bibliotheca Alexandrina, a building conceived as an act of international cooperation becomes a classroom for renewing that purpose. Architecture is not only studied there; it is used as a medium for exchange.

Alexandria forms part of a wider educational network connecting institutions and practitioners across cities. Its premise is simple: design is not a solitary act, but a social responsibility.

The Foundation translates creative practice into programmes people can use: workshops, master classes, public conversations and open archives. Education, dialogue and shared knowledge are treated as mutually reinforcing forms of public infrastructure.

We address three connected deficits: distance from nature and the built environment; the decline of hands-on, embodied learning; and weakening trust between citizens and institutions.

Sensing Space builds spatial literacy through movement, language and making. The Rethinking Series creates settings for difficult questions and plural perspectives. The Living Archive keeps cultural knowledge available for study, reinterpretation and use.

Students, educators and local institutions are the direct beneficiaries. The purpose is not to increase the number of events, but to strengthen capability: more people able to learn creatively, participate confidently and carry methods into their own contexts.

Impact becomes collective when methods are open, partnerships are reciprocal and knowledge remains in circulation after a programme has ended.

Talent is widely distributed; access is not. The Educational Equality Initiative works with institutions in underrepresented regions to widen access to education in architecture, design and public art.

Master classes, mentorship and open knowledge resources give students and educators practical access to methods for developing ideas, working across disciplines and using design as a social and environmental practice.

Local institutions lead the work. The Foundation contributes curricula, case studies, teaching formats and mentorship, while schools and universities adapt them to their own cultural and educational conditions.

The aim is not to export a fixed model, but to strengthen local capacity. Creative education becomes durable when it is globally connected, locally owned and open to those who have historically been excluded from it.

Sensing Space brings architecture and design into the everyday lives of children. It starts from the understanding that space is felt and negotiated long before it is formally described.

Movement is our first language. A child climbing under a table, reaching over a wall or walking between friends is already using a spatial grammar. Prepositions make that grammar visible.

Workshops combine movement and language with drawing, craft, play and collaboration. Abstract relationships become physical experiences, and space becomes something children can question, shape and share.

The Oslo pilot connected the roof and interior of the Opera House with woodcraft and collective making. Children explored balance, gravity, direction and trust through their own bodies and constructions.

Every workshop begins with a direct question: How does it feel to be here? Spatial literacy grows from that attention — together with confidence, empathy and a stronger sense of agency.