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

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
See all awards

Published

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
Press

The Financial Park

Featured in an article on Archdaily

Excerpt from the article: “This is an example of the future workplace and one of Europe’s largest office buildings in timber. To make a large-scale bank in timber challenges the notion of a strong, robust bank, while breaking ground for the use of structural timber.”

Read the article here
See all publications

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