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Groundbreaking ceremony for Steven Holls Knut Hamsun Center took
place on 26 May 2008 in Hamaroy, Norway.
In 1994 Steven Holl Architects was commissioned to design a center for
Knut Hamsun, Norway's most inventive twentieth-century writer. The Knut
Hamsun Center will be located above the Arctic Circle near the village
of Presteid of Hamaroey, close to the farm where the writer grew up. The
center is to open on Hamsuns 150th birthday August 4th 2009.

The ground breaking ceremony takes place on May 26th at 2pm.
Steven Holl will be attending the ceremony. The Chair of County Council
in Nordland will lay the foundation stone for the Knut Hamsun Center,
and the New York based puppet theatre Wakka Wakka Productions will take
the old Knut Hamsun back to his childhood wonderland.
Knut Hamsun fabricated new forms of expression in his first novel Hunger,
and founded a truly modern school of fiction with his works Pan, Mysteries.
In 1920 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature for the novel Growth
of the Soil.
The center includes exhibition areas, a library and reading room, a caf»,
and an auditorium. The Knut Hamsun Center will tell many contrasting tales
and will constantly revitalize Hamsuns writing.

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 center, Building as a Body: Battleground
of Invisible Forces, is realized from inside and out. Strange, surprising,
and phenomenal experiences in space, perspective, and light provide an
inspiring frame for exhibitions. The design won the 1996 Progressive Architecture
Award and a model of the building was purchased by Museum of Modern Art.

We are happy to welcome you to attend the groundbreaking ceremony, and
also to the grand opening in August 2009. Please dont hesitate to
contact us at the Nordland County Council if you need assistance in organising
your trip. More information about the grand opening in 2009 will be sent
later.
Knut Hamsun Centre: Building PR from Steven Holl Architects 23/270508
Knut Hamsun Center: PR from Steven Holl Architects 6 Mar 2007

view from the north
Steven Holl Architects reports: Norwegian Council votes to build Knut
Hamsun Center

concept sketch exterior
New York City In 1994 Steven Holl Architects was commissioned to
design a center for Knut Hamsun, Norway's most inventive twentieth- century
writer. The building mired in years of controversy, but it recently came
back alive. It has been approved, the funding is almost complete, and
in order to open the building at Hamsuns 150th birthday in August
2009 the project will break ground in spring 2008.

concept section
The Knut Hamsun Center will be located above the Arctic Circle near the
village of Presteid of Hamarøy close to the farm where the writer
grew up. The center includes exhibition areas, a library and reading room,
a café, and an auditorium. The Knut Hamsun Center will tell many
contrasting tales and will constantly revitalize Hamsuns writing.
Steven Holl hopes to create place of focus for the writers work:
The problem today is that theres so much information, theres
so much thrown at you, that its very hard to connect things that
have plausible likenesses and tenuous connections. You need a certain
solitude and silence and coalescence. It can happen in the authentic place,
on the unique site on earth.

east facade
Knut Hamsun, fabricated new forms of expression in his first novel Hunger,
and founded a truly modern school of fiction with his works Pan, Mysteries,
and Growth of the Soil. In 1920 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for literature.
During World War II, he was naively sympathetic to some of Hitlers
activities, which created a considerable blemish on a long career of creative
writing. When commissioned for the Knut Hamsun Center Steven Holl carefully
considered all of this and stated: I think that all those things,
good and bad, can be shown in a museum dedicated to the life of one person.
You can include that stain in the exhibitions. Life isnt all clean.
It has some messy corners.

north facade
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. On the green roof a garden with long grass
refers to traditional Norwegian sod roofs in a modern way and the tarred
black wood facade is characteristic of the great wooden stave Norse churches.
This skin is punctuated by hidden impulses as an empty
violin case-balcony with phenomenal sound properties, or a girl
with sleeves rolled up polishing yellow panes-balcony. The rough
white-painted concrete interiors are characterized by diagonal rays of
light changing throughout the year.

south elevation
These strange, surprising, and phenomenal experiences in space, perspective,
and light provide an inspiring frame for exhibitions. The design won the
1996 Progressive Architecture Award and a model of the building was purchased
by Museum of Modern Art.

overview panoramic
Steven Holl Architects is currently working on several competition winning
projects in Scandinavia. Besides the Knut Hamsun Center the office is
working on the Herning Center of the Arts (Herning, Denmark), and Meander
(Helsinki, Finland). In 1998 The Kiasma Museum of Contemporary Art (Helsinki,
Finland) opened its door to the
public. This museum, considered as one of Steven Holl Architects
major works, received the National AIA Design Award in 1999.
Knut Hamsun Centre: Building PR from Steven Holl Architects 060307

west facade
Knut Hamsun Centre - Image credits: Courtesy of Steven Holl Architects
Knut Hamsun Center
- Steven Holl Architects
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Comments / photos for the Knut Hamsun Centre page welcome:
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Knut Hamsun Centre Norway
Building - page: adrian welch / isabelle lomholt
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