Museum AD

The design competition for this new museum was organised by the City of Helsinki and the State of Finland. The new museum, located on the waterfront in Helsinki’s South Harbour, is an amalgamation of the Museum of Finnish Architecture and the Design Museum

Functional Evolution

Museums have evolved dramatically since their inception. From cabinets of curiosities and wide-ranging collections through iconic tourist destinations and more recently, to more inclusive and socially responsible institutions concerning themselves with social justice, community building and meaning making

Inspiring, Place-Based Catalyst

Museums are repositories for different eras and are places where matter, memory and imagination connect the personal, cultural and social. Museum buildings have the potential to create spaces of inspiring experiences and meaningful interactions, encouraging visitors to roam, thus curating their own journeys. By providing a fluid landscape of varied spaces that shift as visitors move through them, museum buildings can heighten the senses and trigger connection and reflection. Despite having highly diverse visitor profiles, museums are place-based. They are situated within communities, and it is the local that differentiates and grounds a museum, providing it with a unique identity. It is also the local communities within which the social functions of a museum are embedded, providing a springboard for engagement with, and understanding of the global

Open-Ended Spatial Structure

This proposal explores the notion of the museum as a profoundly social space, one in which accessibility and participation are enhanced, elitism reduced and representation is more democratic, inclusive and diverse. The tension between public space and exhibition space is foregrounded. Exhibition space takes the form of contemporary white boxes of diverse and versatile spatial qualities interconnected by fluid public space to form an archipelago or cluster of islands. The public space is multifaceted in function; a non-linear architectural promenade. Arranged around a large stair and vertical void it affords visitors the experience of the totality of the building, thus serving as an orientation device. As malleable space, it can also be appropriated for informal and temporary exhibitions, activities and interactive events forming a heterogeneous, open-ended landscape