Guggenheim Helsinki

On June 23 the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation announced the winning concept of the Guggenheim Helsinki Museum Competition: a design that invites visitors to engage with museum artwork and programs across a gathering of linked pavilions and plazas organized around an interior street, developed by Moreau Kusunoki Architectes.

Clad in locally sourced charred timber and glass, the environmentally sensitive building would comprise nine low-lying volumes and one lighthouse-like tower, connected to the nearby Observatory Park by a new pedestrian footbridge and served by a promenade along Helsinki’s South Harbor.

“Moreau Kusunoki has titled its proposal ‘Art in the City,’ a name that sums up the qualities the jury admired in the design,” Jury chair Mark Wigley said. “The waterfront, park, and nearby urban area all have a dialogue with the loose cluster of pavilions, with people and activities flowing between them. The design is imbued with a sense of community and animation that matches the ambitions of the brief to honor both the people of Finland and the creation of a more responsive museum of the future.”