Moreau Kusunoki Architectes win Guggenheim Helsinki design competition

Moreau Kusunoki Architectes has today been announced as the winner of the design competition for the Guggenheim museum outpost in Helsinki. With expected construction costs of approximately €130 million (or £92.5 million), the building will be located in the South Harbour area of the Finnish capital, and will occupy a floor area of around 12,100 square metres, of which 4,000 will be for exhibition spaces.

The proposal by the French architecture practice was selected from a shortlist of six, which were whittled down from 1,715 entries in an anonymous international design competition.

The competition’s jury described the scheme as “a collection of linked pavilions, each orientated to respect the city grid, and anchored by a lookout tower” and 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.”