“I’m building a village. You’ll move into this first house. There you’ll live your own life, which will become part of the village lore. The house will thus receive new content and new dimensions. Next year a new house will be erected in the village – and a new story will evolve.”

The Silent Village by Jorma Vennola

 

We have ever visited several major art museums. Mostly, there are many masterpieces of art stay in the same space which we feel that we could not fully appreciate the real value among those masterpieces.  Whilst, Mus?e de l'Orangerie, a small museum in the corner of the Tuileries Gardens in Paris still imprint in our memory. It's like the house of Claude Monet's Les Nymph?as Collection. Instead of creating a one big museum, We come up with the concept of “the village” that comprised of the cluster of the museums, the cluster of houses of the artists in the public yard.

The cluster of the houses for art.

 

Guggenheim Museum Village Helsinki

 

In the cityscape

    Since the site is previously public space , we intend to keep this norm, and enrich the public realm. The Guggenheim Museum Village will behave as the public place.

Respect to the site context and urban fabric.

The village stays open for everyone.

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PLANNING CONCEPT

- Settlement Pattern -

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   The planning concept is according to the settlement pattern of the village. The “building” spread throughout the site, the space in between as the yard or the common area for public.

Every building is “the house for art”, not only the exhibition galleries but also the retail, the kitchen which we provide the open kitchen to exhibit the art of culinary, or even the storage for art that will be visible by the visitor. For “the yard” or the common area, we will open for public as the relaxation area or the passage to the Olympia terminal from the city center or vice versa. The visitors only need the ticket for visit the house of the artist. Occasionally, this yard could be used for the public art exhibition. For the multipurpose house, we dedicate the upper floor for the public library or the children's workshop area. The size of the Guggenheim Village Museum Helsinki will be flexible according to how many artists present.

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ARCHITECTURAL DESIGN

- The Village -

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     Inspired from the simple timber vernacular building as the farmsteads with the yard.

The common area (the yard) will be covered with green roof to keep the continuity from the Thtitornin vuori park. The floor of the common area is the same finishing with the surrounding. The finishing will be changed when enter to each house. We use the clear double glazing for the perimeter of the common area, to provide the sense of “openness” to surrounding.

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  “The house” is the steel structure building cladded with various finish of timber. Whitewashing for exterior wall, natural color for the interior core area and .white paint timber for the interior gallery space. Possibly to use the recycled timber.

For upper part of the house (above the green roof) will be covered with the ice-look glass which inspired from the Finlandia Vodka bottle designed by Tapio Wirkkala. The effect of the ice-look glass will blend the houses to the surrounding. At night the houses will perform as the lanterns of Helsinki, warm light lantern effect in the winter time and cool light lantern effect in summer time. In addition, the houses will also behave as the art pieces in the outdoor exhibition. For the further meaning, we would like to “break the ice” among the Helsinki people and the visitors.

 

SUSTAINABILITY

 

    From the notion, “No need to waste the energy for the house that the artist does not present”, we provide the MEP space for every house.

Since the house is independently operated, the usage of energy for heating and cooling would be more reasonable.

We integrate the natural lighting in the village by provide the courtyard for the large common area. The shape of the courtyards are from the outstanding Finnish design, Aalto's vase and Wirkkala's plate. In addition, the ice-look glass will behave as light shaft for the space below. For the roof of the galleries, we propose the light shelf detail to bring the light in

For material selection issue, we use the local timber for major material. As mention before.

 

   In our point of view, the new museum should be more open to public. We try to represent this notion via the Guggenheim Museum Village Helsinki.

“A new house will be erected in the village – and a new story will evolve.”