Knut Hamsun Center
Steven Holl Architects

August 17, 2009 /

Hamaröy, Norway

Photo: Nordland County Council / Tore Schöning Olsen

Knut Hamsun, Norway's most inventive twentieth-century writer, fabricated new forms of expression in his first novel Hunger. He went on to found a truly modern school of fiction with his works Pan, Mysteries, and Growth of the Soil.

The recently inaugurated Hamsun Center, dedicated to Hamsun, is located above the Arctic Circle, near the village of Presteid of Hamarøy where the writer grew up.

Photo © Steven Holl Architects

Drawing courtesy Steven Holl Architects

The building is conceived as an archetypal and intensified compression of spirit in space and light, concretizing a Hamsun character in architectonic terms.

The concept for the museum, "Building as a Body: Battleground of Invisible Forces," is realized from inside and out. Here the wood exterior is punctuated by hidden impulses piercing through the surface: An "empty violin case" balcony has phenomenal sound properties, while a viewing balcony is like the "girl with sleeves rolled up polishing yellow panes."

Photo: Nordland County Council / Tore Schöning Olsen

Photo: Nordland County Council / Tore Schöning Olsen

Photo © Ernst Furuhatt - Salten Museum

Photo: Nordland County Council / Tore Schöning Olsen

Many other aspects of the building use the vernacular style as inspiration for reinterpretation. The stained black wood exterior skin is characteristic of the great wooden stave Norse churches. On the roof garden, long grass refers to traditional Norwegian sod roofs in a modern way.

Photo: Nordland County Council / Tore Schöning Olsen

Photo: Nordland County Council / Tore Schöning Olsen

The rough white-painted concrete interiors are characterized by diagonal rays of light calculated to ricochet through the section on certain days of the year. These strange, surprising, and phenomenal experiences in space, perspective, and light provide an inspiring frame for exhibitions.

Photo: Nordland County Council / Tore Schöning Olsen

Photo © Steven Holl Architects

Photo: Nordland County Council / Tore Schöning Olsen

The Center includes exhibition areas, a library and reading room, a café, and an auditorium equipped with the latest film projection equipment. Hamsun's writings have been particularly inspiring to filmmakers, which is evident in the more than 17 films based on his work.

Sketch courtesy Steven Holl ArchitectsSite Sketch

Sketch courtesy Steven Holl Architects