Over 600 design proposals submitted for Helsinki Museum

More than 600 submissions to an open international competition for a new architecture and design museum in Helsinki have been revealed recently.
The first stage of the anonymous competition to design the £90m (EUR €105m) scheme on the Finnish capital’s South Harbour is understood to have seen several entries from UK practices.
The scheme, which is being designed for the Foundation for the Finnish Museum of Architecture and Design and state-owned real estate firm ADM, is expected to be among the most prominent civic buildings in the city.
Located on a waterfront site currently being used as a carpark where Helsinki’s old town meets the Gulf of Finland, it is aiming to be the largest bespoke design museum in Europe, and one of the largest in the world.
It will replace former plans for a Guggenheim museum designed by French-Japanese practice Moreau Kusunoki which were scrapped by the city council in 2016 after locals objected to such a significant site being given to a global brand.
Proposals for the new 10,050sq m scheme include what appear to be the upturned hull of a wooden ship, a giant black cube, a structure resembling a stack of saucers and a large wedge covered in trees. All entries were randomised in the competition gallery and the pictures of proposals displayed in this article were selected by Building Design.
The jury will now spend the next three months sifting through the entries, totalling 623 individual proposals. Three to five designs will be selected in December for the second stage of the competition, with each finalist receiving an award of €50,000 each to develop their concepts into viable proposals.
The second stage will then run until May next year, when the jury will distribute three prize positions and two purchases totalling €150,000 at the end of the competition. The final winner will be announced in September 2025.
Jury member Kaarina Gould, chief executive of the Finnish Architecture and Design Museum Foundation, said the jury had been “deeply impressed by the thoughtful and innovative interpretations from architects” submitted to the competition.
She said the jury was seeking an “architecturally unique building that meets high sustainability goals while being a welcoming and inspiring space – an active hub of engagement and creativity for many, and a place of calm and reflection for others.”
The building will combine the Museum of Finnish Architecture and Design Museum Helsinki into a single national museum for architecture and design. It will contain over 900,000 artefacts encompassing the history of Finnish and Nordic architecture and design, including objects, correspondence, models and photographs.
Finland’s minister of science and culture Sari Multala said the nation’s government was “deeply committed to supporting this project, recognizing its significance inspiring future generations.”
Helsinki mayor Juhana Vartiainen added: “The architecture competition for the new Museum of Architecture and Design will introduce a new landmark to the cityscape of Helsinki in a hugely significant site on the waterfront of the city’s South Harbour.
“This is a project that will strengthen the appeal and ambition of the city of Helsinki as a design and architecture destination, and we are overwhelmed by the quality of the responses to the competition”
The museum has also launched an international search for a museum director, who would be expected to start the role in autumn 2025.
The project will be part of a wider masterplan for the city’s South Harbour designed by a team consisting of K2S Architects, White Arkitekter and Ramboll.
Enabling works for the wider site are understood to be underway but construction of the new cultural and public realm district is yet to start.
Source: bdonline.co.uk