Stephen Citrone / Constructing Space

Architecture before completion, where structure, systems and material logic remain visible.

Close-up, black-and-white pixelated image of a man's face, showing part of his right eye, nose, and beard.

I am a UK-registered architect and photographer based outside Oslo, Norway.

For more than twenty years, I have worked on healthcare, infrastructure and cultural projects across the UK, Norway and internationally. Alongside architectural practice, photography has remained a way of understanding how buildings are made, occupied and transformed over time.

My interest in architecture began during a childhood visit to Rome. Standing inside the Pantheon, I found myself less interested in what the building was than how it had been made. That curiosity about making, structure and transformation continues to inform my work today.

Much of my photography focuses on moments of transition. I am often drawn to buildings during construction, adaptation or decline, when their framework and organisation remain visible. Before finishes conceal them, construction reveals a building's structure, circulation and material relationships with unusual clarity.

Beyond construction itself, I am interested in thresholds, traces of occupation and the ways buildings change through use. These transitional states often reveal more about a place than its finished image. Photographing a building while it is becoming, rather than after it is complete, allows the work to engage with process as much as form.

Across both self-initiated and commissioned projects, the photographs explore architecture as part of a longer cycle of transformation: from construction and occupation to alteration, abandonment and renewal. The aim is not simply to describe buildings, but to observe how they are shaped by time, use and human activity.

Biography

My professional interest in photographing architecture developed through a commission from the engineering practice Halcrow Yolles for The Art of Engineering, a photographic project produced for the firm's 50th anniversary exhibition at the Delfina Foundation. The work documented buildings under construction at Canary Wharf and established a lasting interest in architecture as process rather than completed object.

In 2014, I moved to Oslo to work at Snøhetta during a period of significant urban transformation. Following the completion of the Oslo Opera House, regeneration of the Oslofjord waterfront accelerated, marking one of the most active phases of development in the city's recent history.

Since then, I have independently documented major projects across Oslo, including the National Museum of Norway, Deichman Bjørvika and the MUNCH Museum, observing architecture during construction and transformation. In parallel, I have worked with practices including Snøhetta, AL_A, VÅG and Momentum Arkitektur, documenting projects in development. This work has been published online and in architectural publications.

Recognition includes the Architects' Journal / Philips Light Shots Short Film Competition and finalist selection in the Building Design Architects' Eye Photography Competition. In 2019, I served on the jury for the Archiboo Photography Awards.