Type: Museum
Location: Helsinki – Finland
Leader architect: Marinos Panagi
Design members: Panayiotis Rotsides, Melina Stamatiou
Research members: Panayiotis Rotsides, Melina Stamatiou, Evi Michael, Marina Sofocleous, Marios Georgiou
Structural Engineering: Manolis Georgiou
Area: 12,890 m²
Site Area: 18520 sqm
Budget: euro 120,000,000
Year: 2014
Museums are places that hold and display natural objects or objects shaped by human intention, where people are encouraged to learn and reflect upon them.
The building is shaped as an environmental sculpture, an art form that encompasses the spectator in an organic integration between art, structure and space. Located between Tahtitorninmaki Park, offering some of the city’s best panoramic views and the Gulf of Finland, the most important shipping route for the Baltic countries justifies the purpose of the 8m-height path created in the middle of the building volume. The structure is formed in such a way that views from the park to the sea and reverse are not vanished but strengthened with the covered public space at the heart of the building. In this context, a transportation network is created for either pedestrians or cyclists to enjoy while transferred from Laivasillankatu and Etelaranta or through Tahtitorninmaki Park to the openness of the sea. The route allows the visitor to experience a memorable journey coming from the high-paced lifestyle of the city, to be educated in the art world ending the odyssey with a stroll at the water edge. With the main entrance of the site in the centre, it activates the street and creates space for outdoor installation around the perimeter.
The public functions are organized along a main vertical axis, that is a structural ramp, allowing the building to merge with its surroundings creating views from and to the park and sea, access to daylight, snow avoidance and optimizing internal connections. The building is divided into two distinct forms. The lower levels that accommodate all the public necessities: lobby, restaurant, museum shop, main entrance, offices, storage spaces and performance hall are shaped with a solid structure that works as a continuation of the city’s building. The solid structure at the bottom of the building functions as a base that the sculpture is being attached to and designed to be very plain in order to embellish or enhance the sculpture, as if created for display independently. In the contrary, the top floors house the artworks of the 20th and 21st Nordic design and architecture in the movable exhibition spaces within a wooden sculpture influenced by the natural environment located across the street, the Tahtitorninmaki Park, but also from the Finnish identity as one of the world’s leading wood producers. The alucobond spectra roofing reflects the city buildings multicolored ceilings. The building provides a public parking area of 42 spaces, including disabled and VIP parking spaces, on the north side of the building right across Laivasillankatu.
The main focus of the design is to create optimal and varied spaces for the display of art; Spaces that display the Finnish character, but all offering extensive lighting possibilities and ample wall space in order to provide artists and curators with the optimal conditions in which to display their work and communicate their ideas. The design further incorporates high levels of circulation space through the exhibition corridor, each route guiding the varying visitor groups around themed sequences of art and additional cultural programs.
The building will be constructed using local and salvaged materials for the cladding and furniture always having the local climate conditions in mind. The soft, curved shapes of the façade performance inform the environmental solutions and allow the reduction of any other systems required. Most interior lighting is provided by high-efficient LED fixtures integrated into the steel joists. An underfloor HVAC system is used as a personal comfort controller that operates at much lower pressure and warmer temperature than a traditional ducted overhead system. These features help improve energy efficiency through the reduction of mechanical equipment. It further improves the life-time sustainability of the facility.
GUGGENHEIM ART MUSEUM May 23rd, 2020Admin
