Hamsun center
The Hamsun Center (Norwegian Hamsunsenteret ) is a literature house and documentation center about the writer Knut Hamsun . The award-winning tower building was designed by the American architect Steven Holl and opened to the public in 2010. It is located on the Glimma tidal bay in Presteid in the northern Norwegian municipality of Hamarøy .
history
During the Hamsun days in 1986 the idea for a Hamsun center was born . The American architect Steven Holl was commissioned with the execution in 1994. He turned first to the life and work of Hamsun and explored Hamarøy. In 1996 he presented a tower building on watercolor sketches as an interpretation of Hamsun's character and literature. The New York Museum of Modern Art acquired his much-discussed model. In 1997 the architect received the "Progressive Architecture Award" for this. The center was financed by the province of Nordland , the municipality of Hamarøy, the Norwegian state and numerous private sponsors. In 2009 the building was opened with a grand opening ceremony on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Hamsun by the Crown Princess Mette-Marit . After completing the exhibition and interior furnishings, the center was opened to the public on June 13, 2010. The building was awarded the “International Architecture Award” in 2010 and the Norwegian Statens byggeskikkpris in 2011 .
The building and its special features
The tower building consists of six floors and is considered the world's largest literary house. The construction costs amounted to 20 million euros. The exhibition course begins on the top floor; there is an elevator in the center of the building to get there. The tour continues from above over different exhibition levels, whereby, according to Steven Holl, the modern architecture results in "strange, surprising and extraordinary experiences with space, perspective and light".
“ All interiors develop along a» promenade architecturale «around the elevator as open staircases that create air spaces over three floors. The lift is clad with perforated brass sheet, which, when illuminated from the inside, casts mysterious shadows into the exhibition rooms. The lines between reality and illusion are blurred, as in Hamsun's poetry. "
In one of the sections, the section “The respected and ostracized Hamsun”, it is shown how controversial the Nobel Prize winner and national writer Hamsun is viewed in Norway. The fact that Holl dealt extensively with Hamsun and Norway is expressed several times in the construction. The facade, blackened with wood tar, points to the old Norwegian stave churches , the bamboo sticks on the roof garden to the farmhouse roofs overgrown with grass. The cedar-clad balcony points to the figure of Johan Nagel from Hamsun's novel Mysteries , who always carried his empty violin case with him. Here is a sound installation created by Jana Winderen. The visitors hear sound recordings of the tidal currents in the Presteidstraumen from all seasons, of fish, insects or melting ice. From the “violin case” there is an entrance to the library, which combines art and functionality based on designs by Erle Stenberg and Elin T. Sørensen. The reception, bookstore and café are located on the ground floor.
literature
- Klaus Englert : The hair of this building stands on end . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of August 19, 2010, p. 30
- Daniel Rosbottom: Knut Hamsun Center . In: The Architectural Review . London, September 2009, ISSN 0003-861X
- Ulf Meyer: Hamsun Center . In: Deutsche Bauzeitung . [1] (Accessed: August 23, 2010)
- Agnes Bührig: For art and for Hitler. The controversial Knut Hamsun is honored posthumously . In: Deutschlandfunk. Culture today from August 4, 2009. [2] (Accessed: August 23, 2010)
- Øyvind A. Olsen: Hamsunsenteret ble undervurdert. Debates about the Hamsunsenteret have also been set up in an arena for å treat sårene etter 2. suspicious . In: Fremover of August 5, 2010. [3] ( Accessed : August 23, 2010)
- Katrin Hillgruber: The black tower of Hamarøy . In: Der Tagesspiegel from August 3, 2009
- Aaslaug Vaa, Nina Frang Høyum; Erik Fenstad Langdalen; Lars Müller: Hamsun Holl Hamarøy . With photographs by Iwan Baan . Lars Müller Publishers , Baden 2010, ISBN 978-3-03-7782-13-2 .
Web links
- Hamsun Center (Norwegian, English)
- Project description Steven Holl (English)
- Hamsunsenteret on snl.no in the store norske leksikon
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 68 ° 5 '5 " N , 15 ° 38' 44" E