The Oslo Opera House, designed by the Norwegian architecture firm Snøhetta, was awarded the top prize in the Culture category at the prestigious World Architecture Festival in Barcelona at the end of October 2008, after the jury recognised the project’s power to revitalise an entire urban area, its scale as well as its coherence and clarity. We expect this to be the first in a series of prizes to be awarded in time in recognition of the special quality of this project, which manages to model a creative urban space that remains human while also being monumental and symbolic.

With a surface area of 38,500 metres squared, the new Opera House in Oslo represents an impressive mixture of architecture, urbanism and landscaping, while redefining the Bjorvika peninsula on the banks of the Oslo Fjord. An abstract transposition of the Norwegian landscape and, at the same time, a monumental, already iconic public space, Snøhetta’s design demonstrates how architecture can lend a spiritual and civic value to a building that is simple in terms of its function, essentially a space with good acoustics.

The architects chose to continue the performance at an urban level by using a hybrid form that also involves passers-by, giving them the chance to participate actively in the life of the city. In practice, this design has transformed an arid and flat industrial area into a public space (the project was commissioned by the Ministry of Culture) which fits in perfectly with the landscape of fjords and hills that surrounds the city of Oslo.

The project called "Reed. Traditional means modern" is part of a series of activities that igloo intends to continue by checking their value and relevance in a more complex context. Carried out in the Danube Delta, the series of studies dedicated to houses and resorts that are part of this project proposes a number of architecture project that try to offer solutions to the conflictual state of the region. This conflictual state is a result of the growing pressure exercised by real estate companies over the Danube Delta's building areas, combined with the necessity of protecting the patrimony, whose destruction would gravely affect the traditional value of this region.

Founded in 1999 by Bruno Andresoiu and Adrian Ciocazanu, igloo openly set out to promote architectural quality, honesty and measure. Known for its interior designs, is bold and unconventional award-winning houses, as well as for the involvement in the TUB project, igloo is currently focusing on larger scale projects, aiming for an urban-level impact.

"We meant for the magazine - originally called "Habitat" - to create a bridge between professionals and the public, in order to try and bring together these two parties, that are very much apart. In other words, we wanted to select and present serious architecture to the public in an accessible way. [...] As an architecture office with no publishing experience, we tried to involve the architects in the publishing process. We then realized, obviously, that these are two different things and we have slowly separated the two fields, keeping them open to each other."

As with railway stations, the stations and stops which make up a public transport system form a part of urban history. These public spaces are defined by motion, give structure to a city and are characterised by legibility and vitality.

According to The Metapolis Dictionary of Advanced Architecture, public space is that space which is “used publicly” (which can be appropriated but not possessed)… “an authentically collective space open to use, to enjoinment, to stimulus, to surprise: to activity. To indetermination of the dynamic, the interchange between active scenarios and activating passers-by-users-actors”. A stage for actions and heterogeneous actors that is not the result of a given morphology, but rather the articulation of the sensitive qualities resulting from practical operations and spatial-temporal schemas produced in real time by its users. Could there be a better definition of stations?