We are architects. Our firm was founded in Stavanger, Norway in 1996, and now has offices in Stavanger and Oslo. We are a collective of 26 people from many different countries and cultural backgrounds.

 

Helen & Hard work with a wide range of project typologies and scales. These include individual private dwellings, large mixed-use commercial schemes, public cultural buildings, transformation and urban development projects. Throughout our architecture we strive to engage with and respond to the unique potential that lies within the local conditions of a place.
Helen and Hard team photo

Awards

Storebrand Eiendoms Bærekraftspris 2023 – Innoasis
Storebrand Eiendom
2023
Holzbaupreis Tirol 2023, Housing – Vindmøllebakken
proHolz Tirol
2023
Kvam Herad byggeskikkpris 2022 – Tyrvefjøra
Kvam Herad
2022
Aftenbladets kulturpris 2022
Stavanger Aftenblad
2022
Mies van der Rohe Award, shortlisted – Vindmøllebakken, nominees – Finansparken og Samling Nord-Odal
European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture
2022
Innovation Award for Universal Design, Architecture Category – Vindmøllebakken
Design og Arkitektur Norge (DOGA)
2021
Statens pris for byggkvalitet, commended – Samling i Nord-Odal
Norwegian National Award for Outstanding Build Quality
2021
Byggeskikkprisen 2021 – Tou
Stavanger kommune
2021
Byggeskikkprisen 2020 – Financial Park
Stavanger kommune
2020
Statens pris for byggkvalitet – Vindmøllebakken
Norwegian National Award for Outstanding Build Quality
2020
Building of the Year – Financial Park
Byggeindustrien
2019
Timber Building of the Year – Financial Park
Byggeindustrien
2019
WAF Award (Office – Future Project), commended – Financial Park
World Architecture Festival
2018
Lifetime honour to be part of RIBA’s 2017 International Fellowships
Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)
2016
Building of the Year, nomination – Flekkefjord Cultural Centre
Byggeindustrien
2016
Architizer A+Award (Multi Unit Housing – High Rise) – Rundeskogen
Architizer
2015

Published

Press

Geopark, Down to Earth at MoMA

The plan sketch and scale model from our project Geopark are now on view at MoMA in New York.

Geopark is a playground of transformed technology, formed by the recycled remnants of the oil industry in Stavanger, Norway’s oil capital. Elements waiting on the landbases outside the city and that are no longer needed, such as bright orange buoys, salvaged pipelines, and recycled drilling platforms, are moulded into a miniature recreation of the vast natural gas and oil field reservoir known as Troll. The geological layers hidden under the seabed are revealed through the playful topography of the park.

The transformation project was initiated by Helen & Hard and completed back in 2008. It was intended as a one year installation only. Yet today, 17 years later, this playground of oil industry artefacts still stands strong. It is a groundbreaking exploration of how Stavanger could transition from an oil-fuelled past into something more sustainable. A tangible and interactive example, Geopark sets a precedent in showing how all the technological innovation and expertise that the oil industry has provided can be reused to create a greener and more meaningful future. The design process involved workshops with the community and brought children on board. The aim was to invite a sense of curiosity and wonder, and to encourage involvement in shaping one’s own environment.

The works can be viewed as part of the Down to Earth exhibition, on Floor 2, Room 216, MoMA.

216: Down to Earth, MoMA
Helen and Hard In conversation with Louisiana Channel, We Are Firm Believers In Community
Video

We Are Firm Believers In Community

“Wood can connect the simple and the sublime.”

Louisiana Channel introduces – “We went to Norway to meet one of the rising stars in international architecture, Helen & Hard. With their insistence on community, sustainability and predominant usage of wood, they not only try to renew architecture itself but the way we live.

Siv Helene Stangeland and Reinhard Kropf were interviewed by Marc-Christoph Wagner at various locations in and around Stavanger, Norway, in August 2022.

Camera: Simon Weyhe
Edited by: Simon Weyhe
Produced by: Marc-Christoph Wagner
Copyright: Louisiana Channel, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, 2022

Louisiana Channel is supported by Den A.P. Møllerske Støttefond, Ny Carlsbergfondet, C.L. Davids Fond og Samling and Fritz Hansen. This film is supported by Dreyersfond.

Watch the video here

Gaining by Sharing

Gaining by Sharing is a model based on principles of sharing that Helen & Hard has developed together with Indigo Vekst and Gaia Trondheim. It shows how human, social and environmental needs can be met in a sustainable and symbiotic way.

gainingbysharing.no

See the Vindmøllebakken project