Competition forthcoming for Finnish architecture museum

The City of Helsinki will soon launch an international two-stage design competition for a building that will house the New Museum of Architecture and Design.

The museum will be operated by a new organization established through the merger of the Museum of Finnish Architecture and the Design Museum Helsinki.

"This new museum is set to both enhance Helsinki's global profile and provide a new, meaningful incentive to visit Helsinki. The museum will provide a cultural heart for the rapidly developing South Harbour area and a new, inviting urban space in Helsinki's prime maritime location. It also represents a sustainable investment that will create jobs, generate commerce, and attract tourists to Helsinki. The museum represents an investment in the future, it is exciting to see the plans now coming to fruition," said Juhana Vartiainen, mayor of Helsinki.

In 2021 City of Helsinki held a competition for a development partner to transform the former ferry terminal in Helsinki's South Harbour, which will also be home to the New Museum of Architecture and Design.

Helsinki's South Harbour was also the proposed site for a Guggenheim Museum, which was the subject of a frenzied design competition that attracted 1,715 anonymous entries.

Paris-based practice Moreau Kusunoki (also architects of the under-construction Powerhouse Parramatta) won the competition, but it was ultimately scrapped by City of Helsinki councillors in 2016. The site, opposite the harbour from the proposed New Museum of Architecture and Design, is now occupied by a public pool, sauna and ferris wheel.

The competition for the New Museum of Architecture and Design will seek an "architectural unique" design that will be the heart of a new pedestrian-friendly precinct on the waterfront. The competition will be open and anonymous. The brief will be published on 11 April 2024 with the results to be announced in 2025.