A+D Museum Helsinki

Commissioned by ATELIER 212, our studio was invited to develop the visual narrative for his Stage 1 proposal in the international competition for the New Museum of Architecture & Design in Helsinki — a future cultural anchor along the city’s harbour edge.

 

The proposal imagines the museum as a civic extension of the city: an “urban living room” that blurs the boundaries between built and public space. Connecting Tähtitorninvuori Hill to Market Square, it weaves a continuous landscape of plazas and green ribbons into Helsinki’s waterfront fabric. A reflective, layered façade dynamically engages the shifting Nordic light, acting as both a mirror and a lantern — transparent and open during the day, softly glowing at night.

 

Inside, the design offers generous, vertically open galleries and civic spaces, dissolving traditional thresholds between exhibition, gathering, and urban life. The sequence of rooms encourages fluid movement and new spatial perspectives, inviting visitors to inhabit and reinterpret the museum as an extension of the city itself.

 

Our work focused on translating these architectural intentions into compelling visual stories — capturing the project’s interplay of light, openness, and civic generosity. From contextual aerial perspectives to intimate interior views, each image was crafted to express not only the formal logic but also the atmospheric and experiential qualities envisioned by the design team.

 

The two-stage international competition launched in April 2024 and attracted 624 entries from around the world. Although this proposal was not selected among the five finalists advancing to the final stage, it remains a poetic investigation into the role of architecture as an open, evolving civic platform for cultural exchange.

Design: ATELIER 212

Visualisation: TMD
Location: Helsinki, Finland
Category: Competition
Status: 2025