Idea - TURKU MUSEUM

In asking ourselves where to begin, the most critical question always came back to one thought; how do we create a true cultural building and icon for the Museum of History and the Future in Turku? This has been the central point of architectural interrogation.

For answers, we paid close attention to Turku’s history and the elements that constitute its culture: the archipelago, its mercantile history with its ships and ports at heart, the richness of its natural environment, and its state-of-the-art industry and science. Our project aims to resolve multiple challenges with a singular strategy.

The needed flexibility of the program, the building’s collectivism and identity, its singular expression within the master plan, the need of an economy of assembly and pre-fabrication, and sustainability goals. The round form gives the museum its own distinct architectural identity as a new institution, recognizing it as an independent entity within the concurrently evolving district, with its cultural, civic, and business offerings.

We propose for the new museum to then assume authenticity, by a distinctive recognizable sculptural form -the circlethat can be identified with legibility from the other buildings that compose the masterplan. The building nonetheless remains at heart fully integrated and part of this masterplan by the sloping gesture of the roof, the shading offered by the canopy, by virtue of its lowrise architecture, the multiplicity of visual access points and views, the rich vernacular feel the tree trunks bring – all working in tandem to generate spatial and civic permeability.

These tree trunks come from various Finnish species, and are categorized within the building by the size of the species and the height of the roof, bringing a larger natural context of Finland to the project. The covered plaza under the roof shell, which appears to float above, creates urbanity for visitors who want to spend time or meet outside, and at the same time an entrance to the museum itself and a place for public art and cultural interventions in this new collective civic icon.

PROGRAMMATIC DIVISION

Programmatic flexibility has been a defining characteristic that we have searched for at all times in our design process.

The interiors of the exhibition halls are designed with the possibility to be hybrid spaces, not only questioning the boundaries between the exteriority and interiority of the museum, but offering the possibility to adapt with ease to a constantly changing program and the institution’s future needs. Nothing is one isolated function; the exhibition area is neither a predictable white box, nor a classical museum hall, but it can be if desired. Transformation is at the heart of this project with the possibility offered to be redefined by each curator, exhibition or artist.

The atmosphere of these spaces will radically change within the lifespan of the institution, with the program and the building redefining themselves accordingly; a resilient quality worthy of a museum of History and the Future. Given its porosity and permeability, as well as the spatial welcoming character of its roof overhangs, the museum offers different experiences and a diversity of social encounters: for tourists and also for the citizens of the city, for historians, for cultural enthusiasts, for creators, for the young and for the elderly.

The project operates at the scale of the street by the angling of the roof to receive the city at an approachable scale, to receive the block by creating welcoming environments for informal civic gathering, the neighborhood by its different possibilities for cultural activation, and the city by its offering a new cultural icon that is attractive for residents, and the community at large as a place of travel and destination. Architectural identity of the museum of History and the Future in Turk is addressed and solved in a single urban, historicist, and sculptural gesture.

All elements that connect the building to the community. The shapes of structural masts reminiscent of ships, convey a sensation of outreach, of embracing new horizons. The tree trunks, reminisce the history, a focus on the landscape and nature. The museum becomes both inward and outward, both natural space and urban space, history and future.

STRUCTURAL SYSTEM

The structural concept, finding its reference in the masts of sailing ships, reduces interior divisions and vertical supports for this large circular canopy, allowing for a variety of uses by holding the steel truss disk in place. A combination of compressive and tensile strength is created by the forest of Finnish trees that populate the perimeter and interior to both modulate yet aid in the carrying of loads. The trees in tension work to pull down on the roof, increasing the tensile rigidity of the cables above and sandwiching the compressed trees below.

This all works to create lateral shear moments, in combination with the perimeter wall, consisting of a series of prefabricated CLT wooden panels clad in cast aluminum. Overall, this structural perimeter combined with the distinct roles of the trees and masts create a harmonious balance that work in concert to create a beautiful spectacle of the forest. Where all structure seems to disappear and transform into spectacle, a dialogue between the elements of the city’s mercantile past, the country’s abundant natural resources, and its technological advancements in fabrication processes. It stands as a reminder that the past is a mirror for the future, that we should always be looking to our past in order to better inform and understand our future.

FACADE SYSTEM

The hall’s cube is sheathed in alternating glass plates and a metal skin to reduce the large format glass sheets as well as control daylight for desired levels inside. The metal panels mediating between outer and inner space appear softer, tree-like, by the process of casting in aluminum with resins mold that resemble finish bark In this way, it ties together the two materials, of otherwise contrasting appearance.

MATERIAL EXPRESSION

It is a quality of our times that natural space and urban space are no longer simply dialectic and in opposition to each other, their clean division are now often diffused and blended; we find urban space’s edges to have faded, its fortress like unity and density allow now for green, lush parks to traverse and enrich daily journeys. In the same way, nature’s space is measured, settled and equally traversed. In this spirit, the materiality of the museum tries to both honor the deep millenary history of the Finnish natural space, populating the plan with local tree trunks form different ages and sizes, and its urban space, industrial and modern, by creating a skin casten from resin molds of tree barks that have an authentic patina, with both freshness yet archaicism.

This urban forest catches an air that is truly authentic and different to a public park in the heart of a city. It stands to be appropriated, utilized. From a distance, there’s a pronounced feeling of verticality in the arrangement of the frontage through the forest of trees. At the closer approach, granularity appears and the overall impression of their appearance varies seeing the different tree types and sizes the project uses.

In the interior, the concrete floor homogeneously accentuates exhibits and creates a durable surface that ensures its longevity. In all, the durability of building materials selected in the project extends the life span of the building. The underside of the disk is made of metal paneling that incorporates venting, ducting and lighting for easy access and transformation.

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FORMAL LOGIC

The museum is at once archaic and modern. At dusk, the interior light below the pure circle emanates from the center like the bright light of a fire around which people gather together. A circular shape that is pure in plan but slanted in section, creates a recognizable silhouette appropriate to each of its elevations and facades. Central to a museum in the 21st century is the idea of openness, transparency, a forum-like space for congregation both within the cube and its periphery, providing a space for civic engagement and social spaces. It becomes a lively cultural destination, a truly public center filled with diverse exhibitions and activities where a high degree of visibility and accessibility, formal and informal, planned and accidental, will encourage interaction between different generations and scholars, cultural enthusiasts, as a progressive institution for the transmission of history and future. Indeed the geometry becomes a true “civic center” and is not simply a “museum in the city”. The proposal blurring the boundaries between interior and exterior, together with the programmatic flexibility built into the project, creates a resilient building, responding to the need for collective appropriation. The result is a building that belongs to all.

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