Guggenheim Museum Helsinki

Around the globe, Guggenheim museums became symbols of their host cities with their meaningful presence and inspirational architecture. They bring millions of people to their host cities and create a context for public education and interaction.  

 

The South Harbor maritime setting of the new museum has the potential to become the gateway to this ‘Pearl’ of the Baltic Sea, extending the boundaries of the urban settlement in Helsinki and public spaces towards the South. Access to the most important artists of the world through its positon in the Guggenheim constellation, Guggenheim Helsinki will be the center for artistic creativity an exemplary institution of art and culture around the Baltic Sea.

 

Our building is conceived as an extension of the Tahititornin Vuori Park. We created two nods within the Park and the Kaivopuisto neighborhood, reinforcing the geometry of the 1816 Carl Ludwig Engels Neo Classical plan of the city. By allowing entrances from the hill and connecting the park to the current edge of the waterfront, our simple parti has emerged, creating a well-proportioned main courtyard connected to the hill at two levels and to the edge of the water.  

 

A new public plaza and a pool extending the presence of the water into the site, the front of the museum sets up an urban space with a powerful civic character, rejuvenating the area between the historic city and the docks. 

This proposal provides a flexible environment for display of art in traditional and contemporary/multidisciplinary forms, at times expanding into the main courtyard, providing a venue for the significant international exhibitions, Finnish design and artistic inquiry. Responding to and re-generating its context, the building invites the public to this waterfront with numerous public program spaces, cafes, and retail. The glass wall/promenade facing the water’s edge provides a symbolic gateway to the city from the Baltic Sea.