Jerome Delaunay, Marine Rouanet and Anthony Thevenon: a French Architectural Collaborative based in Melbourne, Australia.

• Project Description:
Guggenheim Helsinki Museum is a new icon for contemporary art in Helsinki, Finland and Europe.

DYNAMIC INTERFACE FOR HELSINKI
Located along Eteläsatama, at the crossroads between the historical city, Tähtitorninvuoren Puisto, the Guggenheim is a key element for the improvement of Helsinki’s harbour.
Enhancing this latent potential, the museum is imagined as a continuous pedestrian network.
The new destination is an epicentre of Helsinki waterfront promenade. The porous organisation of the museum creates diverse urban spaces, which will attract international and local art fellows. New social interactions are conceived and museum activities will inspire art perception for community involvement. 

Fluid pedestrian arteries create strong connections with the harbour’s existing program’, sewing together the urban fabric.This knitted landscape becomes an extension of the city centre, park and water’s edge.

The permeable configuration celebrates human scale while offering to the visitor an intimate “art experience”.

ART VILLAGE - NEW URBAN ENTITY
The proposed pedestrian routes and social interactions of the Guggenheim will create a new vibrant hub for Helsinki - an “art village”.
On the north-west side, the glowing Multipurpose space marks the entry. This urban totem anchors the Guggenheim’s presence and intensifies the relationship with adjacent city. The visitor’s journey is sequenced by the experience of two major open plazas.
The northern plaza is oriented towards the historical centre and welcomes visitors by leading them to the Lobby. A Cafe-Gallery, a Finish Design Shop and an Art Bookstore, activate the plaza.
Heading south, through the museum’s translucent mass, a quieter moment is experienced by Artist’s Ateliers and Cafe-Gallery, before entering into the southern plaza. A Cafe, Restaurant-Belvedere and independent Performance Space are orientated towards the bay. The centrally located ice ring illuminates the space during winter, while becoming an entertainment water basin during summer.
The south plaza allows direct access to Tähtitorninvuoren Puisto via a footbridge over Laivasillankatu. The axis of the pedestrian promenade connects directly to the city grid.

AERIAL GALLERIES
Visible from the northern plaza, the interlacement of the lobby and gallery volumes materializes physical connection and celebrates the start of the art journey.
A central gathering space links the 4 major galleries and frames views of city landmarks. The Guggenheim offers a variety of exhibition spaces, ranging from double height volumes, large flexible spaces and intimate galleries.
The diversity of spacial opportunities, offers multiple atmospheres and exhibition configurations.

FILTRATION & PERCEPTION
A common language of grated panels across the facade unifies the Guggenheim and expresses a strong identity. The grated panels act as a game of successive filters. Its simplicity allows an organic adaptation of the envelope to accommodate each program of the museum. Exhibitions and museum activities glow from the exterior, building a visual dialogue with exterior public spaces.
Between opacity and transparency, hidden and revealed spaces, the spectator looses perception of the geometry and discerns a certain abstraction of the overall mass.
The continuous timber flooring accentuates the interior warmth of the building and the facade filters generates different perceptions/illusions of the surrounds.
Between evanescence and contextual reality,
Disappearance and appearance, the art operates…