This autumn saw the opening of not one but two new Scandinavian buildings by the American architect Steven Holl. The Herning Center of the Arts in Denmark combines visual arts with music, in a building that's spread across a flat field in a composition of white twisting long volumes, blending interior and exterior, building and landscape.
Meanwhile, the much smaller Knut Hamsun Museum in north Norway’s Hamarøy, just above the Artic Circle, has a more intimate character. Dedicated to the life and work of writer Knut Hamsun, Holl used traditional Norwegian material with a twist, adding a layer of long grass on the building's peak, a reference to local traditional sod roofs. Two fine reasons to head further north.

www.stevenholl.com