2011-06-12T03:29:00.000-07:00

Our proposal for the new addition of the Serlachius Museum Gösta Extension is centered, around an architectural heart that is solving all demands of a modern museum building. The tremendously light and generously spacious central gathering space hosts the foyer, shop, ticketing, the assembly hall, the open circulation towards the exhibition spaces and a direct connection to literally every part of the new museum especially the restaurant facilities and the surrounding park. This very strong and beautiful space will serve as a central hub and powerful identification point for visitors and staff alike. The glass roof creates a beautiful open space that almost appears as an outdoor area. Trees blur the relationship between inside and outside. Views and access points to the surrounding park will emphasize the buildings relation to its beautiful landscape surrounding. It is like a market place or a spacious living room for any museum activity imaginable. All other spaces are attached to this heart, like building wings. With this very simple concept, we aim to solve all functional demands a modern museum building is facing in the 21st century.

From the beginning one of our main objectives was to intertwine the building and the delicate environment. Through the “heart and wings” concept we are breaking up the large building mass of 4700sqm. The new building is therefore split up into a number of squares that form a dialectic relationship towards the site and the existing Museum building minimizing the overall impact of the site and keeping the important visual axis’ from the existing building towards the island intact. These square like building wings are arranged in a circular manner to form the central space, “the Heart” of the new Gösta Museum. Joenniemi Manor the existing museum building becomes a very particular one of these wings as the tallest and oldest, its sublime presence is still untouched and engages in an interesting dialogue with the new clustered building addition that is cautiously connected by a barely visible underground passageway.

The new addition to the Serlachius museum keeps its respect to its environment by creating a clustered and animated volume, that places itself naturally within the context of the landscape, thus creating spectacular interior spaces in a very simple manner. These spaces are perfectly organized for any given exhibition activity within the building. This allows for a number of up to date museum didactics and contemporary exhibition layouts. The spatial worlds that are created by this architecture and the mysterious and at the same time confident cubature in the park stimulate an attraction that is appropriate to the buildings content. The differentiated spatial sequences that render themselves perfect for a number of sophisticated and efficient exhibition designs also allow the visitor to experience multifaceted and impressive spatial encounters of high diversity. Even though, the building represents a humble but self-confident reaction to its environment, it has the power to exceed above the boundaries of Finland and therefore represents a perfect fit for the importance of the Serlachius collection and any museum concept at this site.

Building’s scope information:

useable floor area 4497sqm
gross floor area: 4961sqm
net area: 3146sqm
mechanical eq: 312sqm

FRAMA Architects & Juliane Demel
Principals: Mark Mückenheim, Juliane Demel
Model: Anikó Krén

Serlachius Art Museum Gösta