Snøhetta opens cultural and educational hub Čoarvemátta with inspiration from Sami cultural heritage and traditional building customs

The name Čoarvemátta comes from the Sámi words for horn and root, after the innermost and strongest part of the reindeer antlers. This symbolizes different qualities and strengths and represents elements that unite, as Čoarvemátta will be a unifying force for the institutions that share the building; the Sami National Theatre Beaivváš, and the Sami high school and reindeer herding school.

The façade of the building is made of standing wood clad in ore pine. The massive roof measures 4930 m2 and is clad with 34,000 meters of kebony. The Alta slate stone on the theatre's gable wall has been reused from the village's old primary school, which has been demolished. Inside the vestibule and corridors, the polished concrete floors mimic the ground outside the building, with elements of locally mined stone, including slate and masi quartzite, in various shades of grey and green.

The center of the building, around the foyer, vestibule and theater halls, is painted in warm, red shades. Then the color scheme becomes cooler the further away from the source you get, with bluish tones at each end of the building's wings. Contrasts between door, wall and floor within the different color schemes have clear references to Sami use of color. This makes a strong contrast to the building's exterior, which is clad in white for the most part of the year.

The branching shape of the building naturally forms three outdoor spaces. The one facing south constitutes the main entrance and a space in front of it. The forecourt is an intimate and circular space with arrán, a fire pit, sitting stones and an amphitheater. The sitting stones are taken from the plateau just outside, and this flexible room can be used by both school and theatre. The Alta slate used here comes from a quarry near the construction site.

The outdoor area on the other side of the theatre wing is intended for the school's building trade workshops and is shielded both visually and from the prevailing wind direction and harsh weather at Finnmarksvidda. North of the building, large areas have been set aside for reindeer fences, which are directly linked to the reindeer herding department inside the building and have been built by local reindeer experts. On the east side, the plateau meets the building in a natural way, and the terrain and vegetation have been preserved as close as possible to the building.

Čoarvemátta meets the requirements for the designation Passive house, which means that the building is of very high quality, with a good indoor climate and extremely low energy requirements. The building is 90% self-sufficient in energy from wells and heat pumps thanks to 40 geowells drilled about 250 meters into the ground. The wells supply two heat pumps that both heat and cool the building, while exchangers for the energy wells dump surplus heat back again. On the coldest winter days, the system is supplemented with an electric boiler.

Over the entire construction site, soil that has had to be removed has been preserved, the top layer has been temporarily stored, and subsequently returned to all surfaces around the building, so that the seed stocks are intact. Restoring the plateau landscape takes time but is allowed as new plants with new roots prevent the original seeds from germinating. On the forecourt, a small amount of grass seeds has been sown that NIBIO has collected in Finnmark, this has been done exceptionally to allow forecourt to turn green faster.

Snøhetta has also also made the signage and wayfinding program that follows the project's visuality and works complementary to architecture, interior, and landscape design. It is primarily functional, but like the building, it also has subtle references to traditional craftsmanship and use of materials.

The signs are made of powder-coated steel and pine, and the graphic elements, including typography and pictograms, mirror the building's alignment. Iconography is used extensively for readability at a distance to meet the requirements for multilingualism (Northern, Southern, Lule Sámi, and Bokmål).

KORO, the Norwegian state's professional body for art in public spaces, has been responsible for the art procurement of Čoarvemátta. A total of six new works of art have been created for the new building. After a closed competition, Máret Ánne Sara (b. 1983) was invited to design the theatre's stage curtain. Britta Marakatt-Labba (b. 1951) is one of Sápmi's most renowned contemporary artists, and has created the embroidery Miin Duoddarat / Our Plains, with direct references to the history of the theatre, for the building's common room.

In addition to the new works, two larger, existing works of art by two of Sápmi's most famous and influential artists, Aage Gaup (1943–2021) and Iver Jåks (1932–2007), have been moved from the old school building to the new building.