Breaking news: French firm Moreau Kusunoki Architectes has been named as the winner of the Guggenheim Helsinki competition.
The winning design was selected from a shortlist of six, which were whittled down from over 1,751 entries in the anonymous international design competition.
The competition was the first to be organised by the Solomon R Guggenheim Foundation, which runs the Guggenheim museums around the world. The museums are known for their contemporary architecture.
“The scheme proposed a collection of linked pavilions, each orientated to respect the city grid, and anchored by a lookout tower,” said the jury of the winning entry.
“The building would cohere around a covered street landscape that expanded and contracted according to its interaction with the discrete pavilions and is animated by different activities. The jury found the design deeply respectful of the site and setting, creating a fragmented, non-hierarchical, horizontal campus of linked pavilions where art and society could meet and inter-mingle. The connections between the pavilions have been well considered to permit a continuous gallery experience, if required.”
The site proposed for the museum’s Helsinki output is in the city’s South Harbour area, close to the city centre.
The building is expected to cost €130 million to construct, and will have a floor area of around 12,100 square metres, with 4,000 square metres of exhibition space.
