GUGGENHEIM HELSINKI MUSEUM
A new place to live in the city
The new museum is located at the focal point of the façade of Helsinki looking at its haven (an eye to the sea and a lantern from the sea), the ideal location for a place where people may meet each other and interact with the Four Elements and the City through contemporary Art, Design and Architecture.
A gentle wooden roof promenade responds to the park hill across Laivasillankatu and prolongs the long array of public spaces stretching out from the city to the quays. It is the roof of the large wooden barn that shelters the museum. Its low-rise curved shape smoothly guides the prevailing winds.
This new urban square is populated with an orchard of simmering mirrors that follow the course of the sun. They take an active part in the city life, sparkling rays and droplets of coloured light at January Lux Helsinki night and playing with the dancers at Summer Festival. The entrance faces the city centre. A large mobile LED canopy hovers over the roof edge, as an interactive sign of the museum in the city.
Ever-changing art requests extreme flexibility
Art is changing at a fast pace. It is of crucial importance that the building is able to provide, upon demand, a very wide variety of spaces. Flexibility is the key and this project extends the concept to the structure itself, in the form of wooden 9 x 12 m “caisson” floors resting on hollow wooden columns housing all services (HVAC, fluids, electricity and IT). Each floor module may be displaced vertically at any height in order to generate numerous combinations of spaces of various shapes. A more traditional column-free 36 x 24 m exhibition space is also foreseen. This “Lego-ïd” building system is sheltered under the monolithic roof, at the heart of the chest.
The peripheral spaces at the junction with the city, in close interaction with the outdoor exhibition space, may also be arranged in many different ways.
