Knut Hamsun Museum

Steven Holl – Knut Hamsun Center , Hamaröy, Norway, 1994-2008

The Knut Hamsun Centre (Norwegian: Hamsunsenteret) is a museum and educational centre in Hamarøy in Northern Norway dedicated to the life and work of the writer Knut Hamsun.

The architect Steven Holl was first contacted about designing a centre for Knut Hamsun in 1994. He traveled to Hamarøy and made a watercolour of the centre's design that looks quite similar to the building today. Holl was inspired by the Hamarøy nature and scenery, by Norwegian building tradition with stave churches and sod roofs, and by Hamsun's literature-especially the early works Hunger (1890) and Mysteries (1892). Steven Holl has described the Knut Hamsun Centre as "concretizing a Hamsun character in architectonic terms", and he continues: "The concept for the museum, 'Building as a Body:Battleground of invisible Forces,' is realized from inside and out." This concept is a quote from the 1974 translation of Hunger by Robert Bly. The buildings' design has generated considerable attention and debate, and the Knut Hamsun Centre has received several national and international architecture awards.
Source: Wikipedia