The RSA Metzstein Architecture Discourse 2020

Published by the Royal Scottish Academy, this volume looks at the work of Norwegian architectural firm Snøhetta, and was produced to accompany the 2020 Metzstein Discourse. It includes an introduction by Fergus Purdie RSA, an an extensive interview with Snøhetta founding partner Kjetil Trædal Thorsen and offers an in-depth look at the thought processes behind Snøhetta's substantial body of work.

The Royal Scottish Academy Metzstein Discourse was founded in 2014 in memory of Isi Metzstein (1928-2012), partner of the Glasgow architectural practice of Gillespie Kidd and Coia, Professor of Architecture at the University of Edinburgh, influential tutor at The Mackintosh School of Architecture at Glasgow School of Art, and Treasurer of the RSA. The idea has been to bring the very best architects and architectural thinkers in the world to Scotland, and to invite them to give a discourse. Isi Metzstein had very clear ideas about what architecture was, and could expound on it and other related subjects with profound insight, as well as with rabbinical rigour and wit. He was greatly loved by his friends and students, and he enjoyed informal debates with them in which he was highly entertaining. We hope that these discourses given in his memory will serve to continue and raise the level of architectural debate in Scotland.