Back to the future: Helsinki City Museum’s impressive new home
Last week’s party to celebrate the reopening of the Helsinki City Museum set the tone for the people’s cultural destination. The museum, which relates life in the old days in the Finnish capital, has just moved to a new, bigger premises designed by local firm Arkkitehdit Davidsson Tarkela.
With its free access, super-generous public spaces and user-friendly exhibits, the museum feels decidedly non-elitist. Likewise, the buzzy launch party comprised a broader spectrum of guests than most such events, with local families outnumbering city officials and art world professionals.
HCM’s new €11m home in the city's historic Tori Quarters is a collection of five buildings dating from the 1750s and positioned around a courtyard. Architect Aki Davidsson was tasked with providing as much exhibition and public space as possible. 'It was quite a headache to work out how the buildings would connect,' he says. Part of his solution was to replace a poorly built 1960s wing and remove a set of stairs, which allowed him to install a lift with access to all floors.
The museum’s entrance is an expression of accessibility, with the large lobby furnished by interiors agency Kakadu Oy to encourage visitors to dwell. Outsized carved wooden animals by artist Jasmin Anoschkin are interspersed with a melange of modern and vintage seating. The piece de resistance is Kakadu’s 15m-long ‘timeline’ sofa, a knitting together of different periods of banquette seating along the back wall.
Throughout the buildings, which had formerly been government offices, Davidsson Tarkela stripped the interiors of partition walls and false ceilings, working with 1960s additions put in by brutalist Aarno Ruusuvuori, the architect of Helsinki’s City Hall.
However, architect Taina Laine’s 1961 Falkman building remains, complete with its stylish spiral staircase and wall of hollow bricks. The disparate structures are further unified by a new identity with symbolic heart reference, and three smart bespoke typefaces created by local branding firm Werklig.
INFORMATION
For more information on the design visit the Davidsson Tarkela website
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox
-
Get to know Issey Miyake’s innovative A-POC ABLE line as it arrives in the UK
As A-POC ABLE Issey Miyake launches in London this week, designer Yoshiyuki Miyamae gives Wallpaper* the lowdown on the experimental Issey Miyake offshoot
By Jack Moss Published
-
Eurovision unveils its 2024 stage, designed by Beyoncé's Renaissance Tour creatives
This year's stage design aims to bring the audience into the performance more than ever before.
By Charlotte Gunn Published
-
Ikea meets Japan in this new pattern-filled collection
New Ikea Sötrönn collection by Japanese artist Hiroko Takahashi brings Japan and Scandinavia together in a pattern-filled, joyful range for the home
By Rosa Bertoli Published
-
National Portrait Gallery reopens its refreshed home
London’s National Portrait Gallery reopens with a design by leading architect Jamie Fobert and conservation specialist Purcell
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Aalto2 Museum Centre opens, fulfilling Alvar Aalto’s vision in Jyväskylä
The Aalto2 Museum Centre opens, connecting the Alvar Aalto Museum and the Museum of Central Finland in Jyväskylä, the legendary Finnish architect’s home town
By Naomi Moriyama Published
-
Help save the Church of The Three Crosses by Alvar Aalto in Imatra, Finland
The Church of The Three Crosses in Imatra, one of master modernist Alvar Aalto's works, is in danger; Tiina Laakkonen has set up a fundraiser to help save it
By Pei-Ru Keh Published
-
Welcome to Chappe: Finland's 'pocket sized' house of art
Chappe, a new art house in southern Finland designed by JKMM, punches above its weight
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
The Museum of Amazonian Science offers global hope and sustainability
An environmentalist’s ambitious project includes the Museum of Amazonian Science in Brazil and fulfils his vision of powering up the local bioeconomy and saving humanity
By Scott Mitchem Published
-
Sydney Modern opens its doors and reveals immersive SANAA architecture
SANAA’s Sydney Modern opens its doors to the public in Australia
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Refreshed Gainsborough House in Suffolk gears up for reopening
Thomas Gainsborough House in Suffolk reopens to a design by architecture studio ZMMA
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Etruscan Galleries at Fondazione Luigi Rovati by Mario Cucinella just flow
In Milan, the Etruscan Galleries at the Fondazione Luigi Rovati, designed by architect Mario Cucinella, open to the public
By Ellie Stathaki Last updated