the idea
The port. The contact line between the city and the water. How do you combine culture (the museum) with nature (the sea)? We looked for the answer in the local landscape. In Finland there is a multitude of typical stone islands with traditional wooden houses, often on poles, raised above the ground. The massive rock – nature, and the building hanging above it – culture. This motif is typical not only of modest houses, but it is also present in the majestic icons of architecture. To the north from the parcel where the Guggenheim
Museum is going to be situated, there is Senate Square (Senaatintori), dominated by a white, classical Lutheran cathedral (Helsingin tuomiokirkko). Its monumental body rests on a stone landing with wide steps. Here again culture is supported by a strong foundation of nature. Our project draws on it – it is an artificial topography. We create a landing – a rock, on which we put the body of the museum.
the area
We divide the elongated parcel into 2 zones. One of them neighbours on the intense buildings of the city centre, near the Market Square (Kauppatori) – this one will be the most developed. Here the body of the museum will be set and it will continue the block development. The southern part of the parcel, closer to the park Tähtitorninvuoren puisto, will hold the landing – an artificial landscape as a contact line between nature and culture. It creates an investment area with all the accompanying functions: passenger ferry terminal, cafes and restaurants overlooking the promenade by the quay, port and cargo unloading functions further towards the port.
The entablement is an undulating surface makes a roof for those functions. On the surface it forms a public square with a variety of attractions. It is laid with local stones, though on the southern slopes the floor is made of wood, which will attract those who like lying in the sun or sitting and admiring the panorama of the city and the port. The broken surface separates more cosy spots – valleys, bays, backstreets, which break the scale of the plan – from the vast space of the square. This will make people feel more intimate here than in the overwhelmingly large squares nearby in the city centre. Apart from the museum we would like to build a new square which would continue the public space around the port. The landing will be like a stone island, with the Guggenheim building towering over it.
the architecture
How do we dematerialise the huge body of the museum? What can we do to prevent it from cutting the city from the sea? How do we create a building with a distinguishable physiognomy, which will become another distinctive Guggenheim’s building? Our inspiration was once again Finland and its nature. This is one of few developed countries in the world with clean and clear air. In this air the white houses in Helsinki dazzle like the snow on a glacier. Also many modern Finnish architectural icons are white, among them the works of Alvara Aalto or Eero Saarinena. Finnland is also one of the largest metal exporters.
Considering this, we have decided that the museum would be whiter than white, more transparent than water. Such is the air here. The building is supposed to resemble hanging fog. We were looking for the materials. Glass is too reflexive, it lets too much sunlight inside, and the exhibits in the museum must be protected against excessive exposure to sunlight. Therefore we are covering the façades of the museum with hammered aluminium. This is a tribute to the natural resources of Finland and a resemblance of fog. The body of the museum rests on the landing, which combines various public functions. However, the actual body of the building has no contact with the undulating square – it is suspended over it like a traditional house. This contact line – the glazed ground floor, a kind of square under the building, is a vast reception area with two independent entrances: one facing the city and the other facing the port. Here, when the weather is bad, one can feel like on a square in the city, drink some coffee, look at the port. One is inside and a bit like outside the building at the same time. This is also the space for temporary exhibitions, which thanks to glazed surfaces encourage passersby to visit the museum. Through the glass they can take a peek at a part of the exhibition inside. It is an invitation to enter and explore the museum.
the museum
The actual body of the museum is raised above the undulating square. It levitates like the modern hotel Palace nearby. Its body is segmented and reaches more or less up to the cornices of the neighbouring tenements. The segmentation of the body reduces its scale so that it does not overwhelm the surroundings. From the glazed ground floor we move up to the first floor, which has the largest surface area. Here the sunlight is scarce. A small number of large windows overlook the bay, the city, or the inside of the atrium. The atrium functions as a central hall, it stretches from the ground floor to the roof. It spreads out over the floors, it is the inner square in the museum, the centre of activity in here.
Above the first floor there are three cubic bodies, two of them with large exhibition rooms, with sunlight coming through skylights, and the third one is the administration and office area. Between these bodies there are terraces, from where you can admire the view on the roofs of the city and the bay. The passageways around the museum allow one to access all the exhibition rooms while moving in a single loop, upstairs and back again to the hall on the ground floor. We want to make the Guggenheim Museum in Helsinki highly contextual, make it bland with the city delicately. We want it to reflect Finns’ modesty. It is like fog that has hung over the port unnoticed.
Status: Competition Entry
