Steven Holl Architects has received international architecture awards for the Herning Museum of Contemporary Art in Herning, Denmark, and the Knut Hamsun Center in Hamarøy, Norway.

The awards, administered annually by the Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design and the European Center for Architecture, Art, Design and Urban Studies, recognise "new and cutting-edge design" and aim to promote "excellence in architecture and urbanism from a global point-of-view."

The Herning Museum, which opened in September 2009 and has a floor space of 5,600sq m (60,278sq ft), includes permanent and temporary exhibition galleries, a 150-seat auditorium, music rehearsal rooms, a restaurant, a media library, and administrative offices. Viewed from above, the roof resembles a collection of shirt sleeves laid over the gallery spaces, the curved roofs being designed to bring balanced natural lights to the galleries. The surrounding landscape, created by Schønherr Landskab, is partially shaped in the reverse-curve of the geometry of the roof.

The Chicago Athenaeum award follows the receipt by the museum in June this year of a 2010 RIBA International Award.

The Knut Hamsun Center, completed in August 2009 and with a stained black wood exterior skin characteristic of the great wooden stave Norse churches, is dedicated to the 20th century Norwegian novelist Knut Hamsun. Covering 2,271sq m (24,445sq ft), it features exhibition areas, a library and reading room, a café, and an auditorium.

The building recently received a 2010 AIA NY Honor award and the North Norwegian Architecture Award.

Image: the Herning Museum