This is the Operahuset in Oslo (the Opera House to you and me) It is just the most incredible building! Its a playground asking you to run all over the roof. Its all white marble, angles, views over Oslo and the fjord, cold wind.
The building sits up out of the fjord like some huge banking, it is rocky and angular (have a look at google images to see it from far away). It is made so you can walk right from the waterline up various marble bankings onto and all over the roof.
The bulk of the Operahuset seems to be made entirely from marble. There is glass for the windows and a metal, braille-like covered block on the top, but a visitor mostly interacts with this marble.
It is a soft grey-white and has been cut or finished differently in different parts. More than anything it is brilliantly practical. Walking up the slope, which from afar looks like you could use it as a slide into the fjord, you can feel your boots being gripped by the surface, even in rain and frost it would be easy to walk up here.
The marble has been smoothed to varying degrees. Angles, shades and imitations of shadows make a visitor look at the surface and the building just as much as the view. Crests and huge expanses of space mean you are torn between wanting to just get to the next bit or just look over this wall, and also wanting to sit down and have a picnic and just look.
It is a completely fantastic building, and would be well worth going to Oslo to see! I'll bet the Opera's probably pretty good too.
