GUGGENHIM MUSEUM HELSINKI | Type: Open Competition | Year: 2014 |  Visualization: Damjan Minowski

Catalyst. Our vision for such an iconic and historically important foundation such as the Solomon R. Guggenheim originates in ideas and questions what architecture in general and a museum in particular can do in a broader sense for society, the city and the representation of art today.

How can we turn a building into a catalyst, and re-emphasize values such as transfer of knowledge, communication and history not only within the conventional spaces of art itself but on a grander urban scale. A museum needs to make art more accessible and represented in a manner that is connected to contemporary culture, while it also maintain urban landmark qualitites that  an art museum of the twenty first century deserves.

Museums can contribute to changing the way we see the world and perceive our environment. To conceptualize and design a building that implies not only great spaces but amplifies the notion of its content and of its implied values beyond it physical boundaries was our primary goal in this copmetition. We see the design scheme as an inverted museum turning the inherent internal qualities of the museum to the outside, and engage so in deeper way with the city and bring the arts closer to the people.