Herman Munthe-Kaas was a Norwegian architect. He studied at the Christiania Technical School and the National School of Craft and Art Industry until 1912. In 1916, he became an assistant to architect Arnstein Arneberg, where he met his future partner Gudolf Blakstad. In 1918, he continued his studies at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and then became an assistant to Gunnar Asplund. After a study period in Copenhagen, he returned home in 1919 and was commissioned to create the New Home Exhibition for the Crafts Association.
Munthe-Kaas started his own architectural practice in 1921, but the following year, he established the architectural firm Blakstad and Munthe-Kaas with Gudolf Blakstad. They gained recognition among the foremost practitioners of the new trend of neoclassicism. In 1922, they won the architectural competition for the town hall in Haugesund, but their neoclassical project was not completed until 1931. In Oslo, they designed buildings such as Kunstnernes Hus, erected in 1930 after winning a design competition in 1928, and the Odd Fellow Building, completed in 1934 after a competition in 1931. In 1940, the Commercial High School was completed but was requisitioned by the Germans and not used as a school until 1946. Among their well-known later works is the Alfaset Chapel from 1972. Bodø Cathedral stands as one of their prominent works from the post-war period.
His works in the field of applied arts, especially furniture designed for exhibitions organized by the Crafts Association and the Oslo Craft and Industry Association, also held a strong position.
For their collaboration, Munthe-Kaas and Gudolf Blakstad were awarded the Houens Foundation Diploma and the Concrete Award in 2004 for the Elgeseter Bridge.
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