TAMPERE ART MUSEUM

Location: Tampere, Finland

Year: 2018

Status: Competition. Shared 2nd / 3rd prize.

Program: Art museum, extension to a historic museum, urban planning

Client: Tampere Art Museum, City of Tampere

Area: 4 800 m2

The city of Tampere organized an international open competition to add new facilities and to enhance the curatorial possibilities of its Art museum. The brief called for the creation of a unified and meaningful experience between the old and the new, while responding sensitively to the existing urban context. The site is located in the centre of Tampere, facing Pyynikintori, a grand urban space designed with a distinct forced perspective.

The proposed design is a singular volume consisting of interconnected rooms. The warped grid of the plan responds to the different co-ordinate systems of the surrounding urban fabric, thereby, the geometrical components of the surroundings are perceived spatially within the building. The continuous transformation of the geometry creates specific interior spaces but also unifies the building through movement into an organic and tangibly whole unit. No two rooms are the same and yet, every room affects the other.

The typology of the building is an interpretation of the old museum structure, an old storage silo. A hidden basement connection links the cores of the old and the new, creating a singular experience bridging different time periods. The introverted experience of the museum creates an abstract world within itself, distancing the visitor from the everyday, while framing specific views to its surroundings.