GUGGENHEIM MUSEUM HELSINKI COMPETITION
Helsinki, Finland
Following a detailed study for a new Guggenheim museum in Finland, the Guggenheim requested that the City of Helsinki reserve a prominent waterfront site near the historic center for an architectural competition and eventually the proposed museum.
​
The museum would host internationally significant travelling exhibitions; generate its own exhibitions; and foreground Nordic heritage, Finnish design, and artistic inquiry.
PUBLIC ART-PROMENADE
A public promenade connecting the Market Hall, the Palace Hotel, the main museum entrance and Tähititornin Vuori Park carves a transparent glass canyon though the new museum, thus providing natural flow and strong integration of outdoor and indoor exhibition spaces. From this promenade the public can view all major features and exhibitions of the museum without even accessing the building itself.
In the spirit of Finnish openness, transparency and accessibility, the new Guggenheim will not hide its art behind solid walls; it will rather become a beacon of equality and a symbol for a successful symbiotic relationship between the museum and the people of Helsinki.
The new Guggenheim will be a horizontal building with all major museum spaces on one single floor level. This will preserve all important views of the harbor from the park, and extend the public space of Tähititornin Vuori Park onto the museum’s roof landscape.
ORGANIZATION
The main entrance to the museum lies at the center of the glazed public art promenade as it carves through the museum.
Retail, dining and auditorium, while internally connected to the museum, are designed to host independent events with different opening hours.
A second entrance to the south at Laivasillankatu provides access for visitors arriving from the public deck and the Olympia terminal.
Support functions and loading are located at the ground floor and all offices will enjoy views of the harbor.
EXHIBITION GALLERY
The visitors' circulation extends along the glazed perimeter of the building affording ample, uninterrupted views of city, harbor, park and horizon.
The column-less, skylit exhibition galleries are designed for maximum flexibility and viewing comfort. Located at the center of the museum, each of them has multiple access points from the perimeter visitor circulation.
Doorways are designed to be interchangeable with information and/or food kiosks, thus allowing exhibition designers to use different access points for each show. There will be a system of modular movable exhibition walls that transforms the exhibition space according to curatorial requirements.
SUSTAINABILITY AND MATERIALS
The new museum will be a net zero energy building.
1500 m2 of combined photovoltaic and thermal solar panels in the roof are designed to harvest solar power towards the south and form skylights for the exhibition galleries to the north.
An accessible green roof will harvest rain water and provide additional thermal insulation and refuge for local fauna and flora. Graywater will be collected throughout the building and used for the irrigation of the roof landscape.
The facades of the main museum floor will be protected by vertical silkscreen fritted glass fins that are specially shaped to provide solar shading during warm seasons while maximizing daylight throughout all public spaces.
Exterior finish materials consist of locally sourced white granite finished at different surface textures. All public circulation space ceilings as well as the outer walls of the exhibition galleries and cores are clad with Finnish laminated timber panels and other wood products. On the museum level, there are wood floors throughout.