Lecture with Architect Steven Holl at Scandinavia House

Renowned Architect Steven Holl. Photo courtesy of Steven Holl Architects.

The Knut Hamsun Centre opened in Hamarøy, Norway, in August of this year to coincide with the 150th anniversary of Hamsun’s birth. Architect Steven Holl, who designed the centre, will delve into the concept behind it: “building as a body; battleground of invisible forces” and the process undertaken to actualize the building at Scandinavia House on Oct. 5 at 6:30 pm.

Influenced by Hamsun’s explorations of the intricacies of the human mind, the building was conceived as an archetypal and intensified compression of spirit in space and light, and as the realization of a Hamsun character in architectonic terms.

Knut Hamsun, Norway’s most innovative writer of the 20th century, fabricated new forms of expression in his first novel, the ground-breaking Hunger (Sult). With the publication of later novels such as Pan, Mysteries (Mysterier), Growth of the Soil (Markens Grøde), he established the foundation of a truly modern school of fiction. Hamsun’s work has been particularly inspiring to filmmakers, which is evident in the more than 17 films based on and inspired by his writings. His brilliant literary career was offset later in life by political turmoil. Hamsun’s long-standing admiration for Germany made him sympathetic to the Nazi invasion of Norway in 1940, and consequently one of Norway’s most controversial figures.

For further information visit: Scandinaviahouse.org