Kjetil Trædal Thorsen is an architect and co-founder of the first Norwegian gallery for architecture, Gallery ROM, and an international lecturer in architecture. In 1989, he co-founded the multidisciplinary architectural practice, Snøhetta. Through Snøhetta, Thorsen has developed several architectural designs across the globe such as the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Alexandria, Egypt; the National September 11 Memorial Pavilion in New York; the King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithra) in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia; Under, Europe’s first underwater restaurant in Lindesnes, Norway; Shanghai Grand Opera House in Shanghai, China and Powerhouse Brattørkaia, the world’s northernmost energy-positive building in Trondheim, Norway.