Design competition for the Guggenheim Helsinki museum launched
The Guggenheim Helsinki Design Competition is the first open, international architectural competition to be organized by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. This initiative reflects the Guggenheim’s long history of engagement with architecture and design and its belief that outstanding original design can speak across cultures, refreshing and enlivening the urban environment.
Following a detailed Concept and Development Study by the Guggenheim Foundation, the City of Helsinki has reserved a prominent waterfront site for the architectural competition of the proposed museum. The site is located in the Eteläsatama, or South Harbor area, an urban space of great national and cultural significance, close to the historic city center and immediately visible to visitors arriving by sea.
It is envisaged that the Guggenheim Helsinki would organize and present internationally significant exhibitions of artworks from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries while also specializing in Nordic art and architecture. Within the Guggenheim Foundation’s international constellation of museums, including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao, and the future Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, the Guggenheim Helsinki would be distinctive in its active inclusion of design and architecture in its programming.
From a global perspective, Helsinki is emerging as a city to watch. Standing at the intersection of East and West, Helsinki has one of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas in Europe. The city recently has embarked on an ambitious yet highly sensitive program of renewal and development, initiating the greatest urban change in its history since Helsinki became the capital of Finland two hundred years ago.
An increasingly popular visitor destination, Helsinki serves as a standard bearer for Finland and a model for cities around the world, benefiting from an exceptional education system, entrepreneurial spirit, appetite for innovation, and success in international happiness indices.
