Birch-scape Hill Guggenheim Helsinki by Budi Pradono Architects

Birch-scape Hill

Guggenheim Helsinki

On metsät Pohjolassa sankat, tummat,
ne ikisalat, haaveet hurjat loi.
Asunnot Tapion on siellä kummat,
haltiat väikkyy, hämyn äänet soi.

Wide-spread they stand, the Northland’s dusky forests,
Ancient, mysterious, brooding savage dreams;
Within them dwells the Forest’s mighty god,
And wood-sprites in the gloom weave magic secrets.

Jean Sibelius

Instead of creating a building I wanted to create a Guggenheim Helsinki as a contemporary landscape, like a pile of wood to resemble the contours of the land, as a medium for dialogue between the city and the sea, between the hills and the water. I want to create the museum into something ambiguous, could be reflecting Helsinki’s forest.

It should be poured into the exterior and interior. The outward appearances consist of kinetic façade that is able to move and respond and welcome the arrival of guests or anyone who come to the city of Helsinki. This new landmark is like a new city gate. Kinetic façade can vary dependent on the existing driven events throughout the year in the city of Helsinki. Finally the woodpile is a brand ambassador for the city of Helsinki, the Nordic culture and displays reflecting the spirit of Finland.

Public space

The Guggenheim Helsinki should be an active public space, which provides attractive outdoor spaces. If we are outside, we can easily sit down and look at the Tahtitornin vuori Park or otherwise we could see the bay with a beautiful view of the sea. The quality of this public space is complimentary to the digital society, in order to bring back the community close with nature, as a central gathering place and also social space.

Interior, the pine forest of Finland

The space inside this museum is a representation of the pine forest so that the entire wall can be changed dynamically. Thus allowing the exhibition hall and other exhibition spaces merger into one. Or even can be separated into several smaller, medium, or larger exhibition spaces. This makes the exhibition space is very flexible. All the walls are composed of trees made ​​of transparent balloons with smart films, which can be controlled so that the level of staining, darkness, and materiality, it all depends on the curator or visitor wish. The Flexible open plan can be defined by the interior wall made it from those balloon, with magnetic edge so that everyone can easily move it, separated it or compile it. These balloons of column can be arranged according to a certain criteria and the appearance can be changed, such as pine trees that exist in Helsinki or white color depend on the artist wish. Every visitor gets a device that have GPS in it, so visitors will not get lost in the forest of this museum, and also can be manipulated by augmented reality.  I wish people would imagine The Surreal Nature of Finland. On the other hand, visitors have the freedom to choose the exhibition area where they want to visit first, second or third. Visitors can freely unfold entire walls of the balloon that resembles trees like a contemporary forest, and they will find surprisingly the artworks displayed inside the forest. The entire floor is a large gentle slope, so people feel like not only in a garden of artworks, and also in the middle of the forest at the same time.

Masterplan

The main approach is established an imaginary line of Laivasillankatu Street to mirroring the Tahtitornin vuori Park, created a new hill; inside the hill is the exhibition space of Guggenheim Helsinki. Another approach is to create an imaginary line from the Observatory Tahtitornin Vuori on top of the hill to Uspenski Cathedral on the opposite site. This imaginary line was strengthening by creating a public space in the center of the museum as a connector. The urban fabric on the city created several box-shaped void. These voids serve as patios, which bring natural light into the building and also provide outdoor exhibition spaces. This hill is made of pinewood as a reflection of Finland and everyone can walk on top of it and sit around to enjoy the beauty of Tahtitornin vuori Park.

Programming and Diagram

The entire space program needs to be sorted and be arranged according to the parametric of zoning. Just below the public space in the middle of the site, consisting of: the Office for curatorial, administration, marketing and education office. This gives flexibility to the exhibition space on the left and right wings of the museum so that it can merge exhibition space between different sizes of the spaces. All programs related to the rapid mobility of the goods such as Art Storage, Shipping / receiving, Crate Storage, Staging, Shared Art Prep / Conservation Studio & Equipment Storage all placed beside the Laivasilankatu street, to facilitate the mobility of materials into the building. While the south sides of the harbor are all dedicated to public areas where people can enjoy the beauty of the sea.