Archinect - News

Helsinki-based JKMM announced winner of National Museum of Finland Design Competition

2019-12-05T17:41:00-05:00

The proposal, entitled "Atlas," designed by JKMM Architects, was selected for 1st place out of 185 entries. The project was in response to a two-stage anonymous design competition for the extension of the National Museum of Finland, which was organized by The Finnish Heritage Agency, the National Museum of Finland, Senate Properties.

Ariel view

Interior view

Building on the existing museum which opened in 1916 and was designed by the Finnish architecture firm Gesellius, Lindgren, and Saarinen, the 2019 competition brief called for additional exhibition space; workshops; a new restaurant in the museum's underused enclosed garden; and improved access including a new entrance for the Museum.

"Our entry, Atlas, reinforces our interest in how architecture can enable a sense of solidarity and belonging to a place," said JKMM founding partner Samuli Miettinen about the design approach. "The National Museum is a place that belongs to everyone and anyone in Finland and we thought its extensio...

Amos Rex, Helsinki's new underground (literally) art museum, to open this week

2018-08-28T18:29:00-04:00

In a vast expanse beneath the Finnish capital lies a soaring circus-top culture hub. Will the €50m Amos Rex art museum put the city at the forefront of Europe’s art scene? [...] “It is as if the museum didn’t quite agree to go underground,” says Asmo Jaaksi of local architecture firm JKMM, which masterminded the project, “and it’s somehow bubbling up into the square.”

"The architects hope their sloping landscape will become a spontaneous auditorium for outdoor concerts and events," architecture and design critic for The Guardian, Oliver Wainright, writes, "but even without any performances it has already become a magnet of activity in the middle of the city, whose oversized squares often feel a bit windswept."

Photo: Tuomas Uusheimo

Editor's Picks #262

2012-04-30T19:48:00-04:00

Archinect had the opportunity to speak with Tadao Ando. Check out the Interview: 20 Minutes with a Master. b3tadine[sutures] was so inspired that he posted three times and archaalto wrote "I sometimes imagine that millions of years from now when another intelligent species excavates the earth they find the ruins of Louis Kahn's and Tadao Ando's buildings, and maybe they'll think we had some grace and weren't just accidents waiting to happen.."

Archinect (including Orhan, Alex, Kaori and Paul) had the opportunity to speak with Tadao Ando during Ando's brief visit to Los Angeles to collect his 2012 Richard Neutra Award. Check out the Interview: 20 Minutes with a Master. I especially liked the final exchange wherein Ando revealed "As we all know, you can't make architecture by yourself. An architect needs to make everyone take ownership for the work. To be successful, you need to ensure that every carpenter, plumber, and so on, in every project, is doing their own project. Every time I go to the construction site, I try to take a photograph of every worker. It's a symbol that we're all working together with a shared goal. It's very important for me that everyone feels that way" b3tadine[sutures] was so inspired that he posted three times and archaalto wrote "I sometimes imagine that millions of years from now when another intelligent species excavates the earth they find the ruins of Louis Kahn's and Tadao Ando's building...