GUGGENHEIM HELSINKI DESIGN COMPETITION

Location: Helsinki, Finland

Client: Solomon R Guggenheim Museum and Foundation

Submission: September 2014

The proposal is to create a dynamic facade and interior that anchors the visitor, the artwork and the collective experience within a network of defined cultural links and views.

The building visually engages the city centre to the north, connects to the new ferry terminal to the south, reaches out with a direct high level link to the Observatory building in Tahititornin Vuori Park in the west, courts the harbour with a promenade to the east and visually connects across the water to other cultural references like the Uspenskin Cathedral and the international ferry terminals.

The building has been sliced and divided creating a diagonal glazed slash that connects a view from the Observatory to the Cathedral. The north half of the building steps back from the water and with a tiered public landscaped garden, provides an enclosed living room for the city in the winter while the southern half opens up to the park and the long summer days.

The gallery, break out spaces and voids are orientated within the building to visually connect into the network of cultural spaces and unique and distinctive features of Helsinki and vice versa. This will allow the art and architecture on display to be anchored within the unique context of the building and city.