Carl-Viggo Hølmebakk was born in Horten, Norway in 1958. He studied at the Oslo School of Architecture 1978-84 and at the Cooper Union, New York 1984-85. Worked at the architectural office of the Norwegian State Railways 1986-88. He has taught at the Oslo School of Architecture and at the Rhode Island School of Design, and lectured at other schools of architecture. He has maintained a private practice in Oslo since 1992. He was nominated for the Mies van der Rohe Pavilion Award for European Architecture in 1996 and 2001 and received several Norwegian architecture prizes.