Background
Kjetil Trædal Thorsen was born 14 June 1958 on the Norwegian coastal island of Karmøy.
Kjetil Trædal Thorsen was born 14 June 1958 on the Norwegian coastal island of Karmøy.
After several years in Germany and England, he studied architecture in Graz, Austria.
In 1987, he co-founded the architecture firm Snøhetta. He had practiced at the office of Espen Tharaldsen (Arbeidsgruppen Hus) in Bergen (1982–1983), Ralph Erskine in Stockholm (1983–1984) and David Sandved in Haugesund (1985). Thorsen led several award winning design competitions for public buildings around the world.
He led the Snøhetta teams designing the museum built for the Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, the 2007 Serpentine Gallery temporary Pavilion in London designed with Olafur Eliasson, the new Bibliotheca Alexandrina library in Alexandria, Egypt, and the new Oslo Opera House in Oslo, Norway.
He has served as a juror on various design competitions in Europe. Since 2004, Kjetil Trædal Thorsen has been a professor at the Institute for Experimental Studies in Architecture of the University of Innsbruck.
2008 Commander of the Royal Norwegian Order of Street Olav
2011 Honorary doctor (drhc) of Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Norges teknisk-naturvitenskapelige universitet)
2013 Prince Eugen Medal for architecture.
Akademie der Künste Berlin]
Thorsen is a member of the Norwegian Architectural Association (NAL) and has served on their design competition committee.