Helsinki Museum of Architecture and Design

At Helsinki’s beloved old park by the South Bay, the Museum completes a broader urban vision. A ‘house of houses,’ like a shoemaker’s shoe, holds great expectations, but remains a true footwear, honoring tradition and the city — blending in while standing out. As a community space, the Museum welcomes all. Reflecting Finland’s love for nature, its form seems shaped by water, sun, and wind, aging gracefully like rocks or trees. The park flows a green river to the bay. Urban life absorbs, programs spill out to the plaza, where people, stories, memories, and imagination intertwine in connected spaces.

The Museum provides space for varity of experiences evoking to a negative carbon handprint. deep impressions that resurface over time in the visitor, reliving and re-thinking, slowly evolving into concept. It is a space for the birth of thoughts and feelings that have not yet beenarticulated, for we have avoided emphasising forms in the design. Architecture is to counterbalance time spent in digital spaces by human presence; embracing imperfection and incompleteness, much like in craftmanship and nature. Differentiated Active-Contemplative spaces, designed to match the dynamics of reception, await visitors both inside and outside.The site will become a vibrant part of the future coastal promenade, with a fully open ground floor for locals, visitors and even those just passing through. People freely meandering the external terraces, separate from the exhibitions. Rooftop offers access the Museum functions or simply a place to soak in the never seen views of the cityscape andrecover. The setting respects the urban fabric and preserves the views of the national maritime landscape.The exhibition has the potential to be revealed immediately upon entry, extending all the way from the ground floor to the roof.