The international design competition for Finland’s New Museum of Architecture and Design, set to be built in Helsinki’s South Harbour, has attracted 623 entries from architect-led teams from around the world. The competition kicked off with an open call for designs running from 15 April to 29 August 2024. The submitted proposals are available to view online and revealed during Helsinki Design Week on September 12, mark the first stage of the competition.
All entries were submitted anonymously and will now be reviewed by an international jury of leading architects, cultural experts and policymakers, who will select 3-5 proposals as finalists invited to progress to Stage 2 of the competition in December 2024. Stage 2 of the competition, beginning in February 2025 and concluding in May, will allow selected teams to redefine their concepts into viable proposals. The results of the competition will be announced in September 2025. Finalists will receive €50,000, with additional prizes of €50,000, €35,000 and €25,000 for first, second and third place.
Finland’s Minister of Science and Culture Sari Multala, highlighted the cultural significance of the project: “Our new Museum of Architecture and Design is landmark project that celebrates Finland’s rich legacy in design and architecture. This competition is an important step in creating a space that honours our strong cultural heritage in design and architecture, which is treasured by our people and admired worldwide. The Finnish government is deeply committed to supporting this project, recognising its significance in inspiring future generations.”
Mayor of Helsinki, Juhana Vartiainen recognizes the project’s potential to Helsinki’s reputation: “The architecture competition for the new Museum of Architecture and Design will introduce a new landmark to the cityscape of Helsinki in a hugely significant site on the waterfront of the city’s South Harbour. This is a project that will strengthen the appeal and ambition of the city of Helsinki as a design and architecture destination, and we are overwhelmed by the quality of the responses to the competition”
The new museum, scheduled to open in 2030, will combine the Museum of Finnish Architecture and Design Museum Helsinki. The combined collection contains over 900,000 artefacts, including objects, correspondence, models and photographs documenting the work of important practitioners such as Aino and Alvar Aalto, Eero Aarnio, Maija Isola, Eliel and Eero Saarinen, Paavo Tynell, and design brands such as Marimekko, Nokia and Fiskars. The museum’s central mission will be “democratising the tools of design”, drawing on the history and present of Finnish and Nordic architecture and design to guide a programme of public activities that will look at how design thinking and skills are relevant to the challenges we face as individuals and societies in a rapidly changing world.
The new museum is set to be a significant cultural landmark for Helsinki, providing a space for creativity, reflection, and engagement with design for generations. Kaarina Gould, CEO of the Finnish Architecture and Design Museum Foundation and member of the jury, concluded: “The competition brief for Finland’s new National Museum of Architecture and Design is an ambitious vision that embraces the museum’s civic role in democratizing access to the tools of design. We seek an architecturally unique building that meets high sustainability goals while being a welcoming and inspiring space—an active hub of engagement and creativity for many, and a place of calm and reflection for others. The jury has been deeply impressed by the thoughtful and innovative interpretations from architects and creative teams on how the new museum can best serve our communities.”
An open, international design competition has been launched to to find a feasible design solution and a design team for a new museum building on a site in Helsinki’s South Harbour.
The building will provide a home for the new museum of architecture and design formed through the merger of the Design Museum Helsinki and the Museum of Finnish Architecture.
The competition brief is published and the first stage of the competition opens on 15 April 2024. The competition runs in two phases, with the results being announced in September 2025.
An online competition seminar, open to all interested participants, will be held on 24 April 2024.
Three to five designs will be selected for Stage 2 of the competition, receiving an award of €50,000 euros each. In addition the jury will distribute three prize positions and two purchases totalling €150,000 at the end of the competition.
The Foundation for the Finnish Museum of Architecture and Design, Real Estate Company ADM, the City of Helsinki and SAFA the Finnish Association of Architects have launched an international, open design competition to find a design team for a new 10,050 sq m (GFA) museum building in Helsinki’s South Harbour.
The new museum of architecture and design in Helsinki, Finland, is planned to open in 2030 and will combine the Museum of Finnish Architecture and Design Museum Helsinki. These institutions were successfully merged in January 2024, and the new museum will retain and grow the staff of both its predecessors.
The central mission of the new museum will be “democratising the tools of design”, drawing on the history and present of Finnish and Nordic architecture and design to guide a programme of public activities that will look at how design thinking and skills are relevant to the challenges we face as individuals and societies in a rapidly changing world.
The newly-formed collection, focussed on Finnish architecture and design, will contain over 900,000 artefacts, including objects, correspondence, models and photographs documenting the work of internationally-famed practitioners such as Aino and Alvar Aalto, Eero Aarnio, Maija Isola, Eliel and Eero Saarinen, Paavo Tynell, and design brands such as Marimekko, Nokia and Fiskars.
The new museum is made possible through significant public and private funding. In February 2024, The Foundation for the Finnish Museum of Architecture and Design announced that it had secured €120 million in public funding, half from the City of Helsinki and half from the State of Finland, to bring this new building project forward. This is supplemented by €30 million to be raised from private donors, with a €20 million donation secured from the Jane and Aatos Erkko Foundation.
The competition is organized by the Real Estate Company ADM, owned by the City of Helsinki and the State of Finland, and the Foundation for the Finnish Museum of Architecture and Design, in collaboration with the City of Helsinki and the Finnish Association of Architects (SAFA). Strategic partners for the museum project are DVDL Cultural Planners (New York) and Haahtela Group.
An online seminar, open to all interested participants, will be held on 24 April 2024. Details and instruction on joining the seminar can be found at the competition website, alongside the competition brief.
Kaarina Gould, CEO of The Foundation for the Finnish Museum of Architecture and Design, said:
“Finland has a rich and fascinating history of design that is deeply embedded in both our national identity and our living culture. That culture is expressed fully in Helsinki – a former World Design Capital, where public policy and private enterprise have worked together to build a knowledge economy based upon high-value, innovative activities that have design thinking at their heart.”
“We want to democratise the tools of design. The new museum of architecture and design will engage the public in activities and experiences that broaden the understanding of design as a tool that empowers people to participate actively as citizen designers. Successful designs for the museum will need to embrace and advance the model of the museum as a site for active engagement with ideas and practice, as much as for the display and interpretation of artefacts.”
Mikko Aho, Chair of the competition Jury and Vice Chair of Real Estate Company ADM, said:
“Helsinki has an international reputation for architecture and design that reflects the strong belief in good design as a means for living well that is present in all Nordic societies. We’re delighted to launch this international open competition to find an architect for the new museum of architecture and design. The open competition is a strong component of the tradition of architecture in Finland that opens the commission up to exciting concepts from designers at any stage in their career – from undiscovered talent to established names.”
“This new museum will enhance Helsinki’s global profile as a capital of design by placing the subject at the heart of the urban renewal of the South Harbour, one of the city’s most significant waterfront sites. We’re delighted to bring this project forward to create social benefits, provide new employment, attract international visitors and generate commerce in Helsinki.”
The location for the new museum is a vacant former dockside site in Helsinki’s South Harbour, a historic waterfront area in central Helsinki close to landmarks including the City’s Market Square, Orthodox and Lutheran Cathedrals, and the busy Esplanade Park. The competition site and the area around it is a designated buffer zone of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of The Suomenlinna Sea Fortress.
The competition brief calls for a new 10,050 sq m (GFA) building, with a roughly equal split in area for public and back-of-house uses. The total budget of the project is around €105 million, with construction costs of the museum not to exceed €70 million (price level Sept 2023). Construction is timetabled to complete by 2030.
In line with the core proposition of “democratising the tools of design”, the museum is envisaged as a space to host exhibition activities that will be exceptionally diverse and dynamic, with space for the display of historical collections alongside contemporary design and architecture and a wide range of media. Spaces for events, conferences, workshops, a library and a water-front café-restaurant are also a key requirement of the brief.
The open stage of the competition, Stage 1, calls for participants to keep their proposals to a conceptual level, with a request for proposals that put greater emphasis on the overall concept, rather than detailed plans and sections or photorealistic visualisations. Deliverables for Stage 1 are limited to a maximum of 12 A3 boards. The deadline for Entries to Stage 1 is 29 August 2024.
An international jury of leading architects, cultural experts and policymakers has been assembled to judge entries to the competition. At the end of Stage 1 of the competition, 3–5 entries will be selected to progress to Stage 2, where concepts will be developed into viable proposals. The entrants selected for Stage 2 of the competition will be notified in December 2024, with Stage 2 opening in February and running until the end of May 2025. The final result of the competition will be announced in September 2025.
Each team selected for Stage 2 will receive a payment of €50,000 in two instalments: €30,000 at the beginning of Stage 2 and €20,000 on completion. At the end of the competition the Jury will award prizes of €50,000, €35,000 and €25,000 for first, second and third place, with purchase options of €20,000 for the remaining two designs.
The Competition Jury:
Chair: Mikko Aho, Architect SAFA, Vice Chair of Real Estate Company ADM
Vice Chair: Juha Lemström, Architect SAFA, Chair of Real Estate Company ADM
Gus Casely-Hayford, Director, V&A East
Beatrice Galilee, Architect, Executive Director, The World Around
Kaarina Gould, CEO, Foundation for the Finnish Museum of Architecture and Design
Salla Hoppu, Architect SAFA, Leading Architect, City of Helsinki
Beate Hølmebakk, Architect, Professor, Partner, Manthey Kula Architects
Riitta Kaivosoja, Director General, Ministry of Education and Culture, Department for Art and Cultural Policy
Matti Kuittinen, Architect, Associate Professor, Aalto University
Miklu Silvanto, Designer, AD Museum Ltd. (Member of the Board)
Anni Sinnemäki, Deputy Mayor for Urban Environment, City of Helsinki
Sari Nieminen, Architect SAFA, Architectural Office Sari Nieminen
Hannu Tikka, Architect SAFA, Professor, APRT Architects
Eligibility Requirements in Stage 1 of the competition:
Stage 1 of the competition (April 15–August 29, 2024) is open to individuals and design teams with the following eligibility criteria:
The lead designer must present the following personal qualifications:
A completed university level master’s degree in architecture.
Confirm that they have the right to practise as an architect in their country of residence.
The person must be a resident of European Union countries or a resident of countries that are parties to The WTO Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA 2012).
The design teams may also welcome members from countries that do not fall under the scope of the European Union and its procurement legislation.
In November 2022, an advisory group was appointed for the New Museum of Architecture & Design.
The advisory group consists of the following members: Paola Antonelli, Liza Chong, Caterina Fake, Eva Franch i Gilabert, Indy Johar, Nimco Kulmiye Hussein, Ervin Latimer, Linda Liukas, Kieran Long, Joar Nango, Héctor Noval, Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen, Johannes Suikkanen, and Teemu Suviala.
The aim of the group is to critically evaluate the project development, challenge the planning of the museum’s concept and profile, and push forward the future proofing of the new museum.
The fourteen visionary experts of the group are introduced below:
Paola Antonelli
Photo: Marton Perlaki
Paola Antonelli is Senior Curator of Architecture & Design at The Museum of Modern Art, as well as MoMA’s founding Director of Research & Development. Her goal is to promote design’s understanding, until its positive influence on the world is universally acknowledged. Her work investigates design’s impact on everyday experience, often including overlooked objects and practices, and combining design, architecture, art, science, and technology.
Among her most recent exhibitions are the XXII Triennale di Milano Broken Nature, and MoMA’s Material Ecology – on the work of architect Neri Oxman – and Never Alone, on video games and interactive design. The Instagram platform and book Design Emergency, which she co-founded with design critic Alice Rawsthorn, is an ongoing investigation on design’s power to envision a better future for all.
Liza Chong
Liza Chong is CEO and General Partner of Design Impact Funds, micro-VC impact funds investing in high impact companies with solutions designed to improve quality of life. The funds based in Denmark co-invests globally with investors across stages and sectors where transformational solutions are contextualised and scaled to benefit people and planet.
Liza was previously CEO of The Index Project a global non-profit advocating for sustainable design and innovation to improve life, widely known for the prestigious Index Awards. Her career spanned nearly 14 years at the organisation harnessing design-based techniques to create social and environmental impact in the Nordics, Asia, Latin America, and the US.
More recently her focus has been on connecting capital to ground-breaking designers, entrepreneurs and start-ups. An active mentor within for and non-profit, Liza builds confidence in leaders on a mission to create positive change through socially and environmentally focussed businesses.
She sits on diverse advisory boards ranging from public companies to design institutions and non-profits; they include the International Advisory Board of the Design Trust in Hong Kong to Orano SA’s Executive Stakeholder Committee in France advising the group executive’s strategy and vision on the future of nuclear energy.
A frequent speaker, panelist and educator Liza inspires a new generation of transdisciplinary talent embarking on their path to create purposeful contributions to society.
Photo: J.R. Mankoff
Caterina Fake
Caterina Fake is an investor at Yes VC and is the host of the #1 Tech Podcast Should This Exist? addressing the question of our times: how is technology impacting our humanity? And how can we build things that help us flourish as human beings? Yes VC invests in scalable social systems, brands that embody cultural movements, and founders who recognize the opportunity in the rising power and affluence of women.
Fake was co-founder at Founder Collective, and served for nearly 10 years as a Founder Partner. She was Director and Chairman of Etsy, serving on the board for nearly 10 years. She is the co-founder of Flickr, the photo sharing site and online community. Fake has received Honorary Doctorates from the Rhode Island School of Design and The New School. Time Magazine named her one of the Most Influential People in the world and she was awarded the Aenne Burda award for Creative Leadership. In 2018, she was given the Silicon Valley Visionaries award.
Caterina is an early creator of, and participant in, online communities and a long time advocate of the responsibility of entrepreneurs for the outcomes of their technologies. In her work she addresses the cultural impact of new technologies, how products can be developed for the best human outcomes and how to create environments for human interactions online. Caterina works to create cultures of innovation, creativity and civility, and believes we can all make the internet a kinder, more human place.
Eva Franch i Gilabert
Eva Franch i Gilabert is an architect, curator, and critic specialized in curatorial activism, alternative pedagogies and planetary practices. Franch is founder and co-curator of MODEL, a new annual experimental architecture festival organized by the city of Barcelona, the first event leading up to the Barcelona Architecture World Capital events and UIA congress in 2026. She is also the Head of the Future Architectures Platform at the Academy of Arts, Architecture & Design at UMPRUM in Prague.
Franch is the former Director of the AA Architectural Association School of Architecture in London and the Storefront for Art & Architecture in New York. Franch has taught at Princeton University, Columbia University GSAPP, The Cooper Union, Rice University School of Architecture, IUAV University of Venice, and SUNY Buffalo and has received numerous honours, research grants and awards. In 2014 she was the commissioner and co-curator of the US Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale with the project for collective practice OfficeUS.
Franch is currently working on the project Picasso: Without Title, an exhibition of 50 paintings from the late period of Pablo Picasso renamed by 50 contemporary artists to be presented in La Casa Encendida in Madrid in 2023 as part of the 50 year celebration of the death of Pablo Picasso.
Indy Johar
Indy Johar is focused on the strategic design of new super scale civic assets for transition – specifically at the intersection of financing, contracting and governance for deeply democratic futures. Johar is co-founder of darkmatterlabs.org and of the RIBA award winning architecture and urban practice Architecture00, a founding director of open systems lab (digitising planning), seeded WikiHouse (open source housing), and Open Desk (open source furniture company).
Johar is a non-executive international Director of the BloxHub, the Nordic Hub for sustainable urbanization in Copenhagen. He held Graham Willis Visiting Professorship at Sheffield University 2016–17. Johar was also Studio Master at the Architectural Association 2019–2020, UNDP Innovation Facility Advisory Board Member 2016–20, and RIBA Trustee 2017–20. He has taught and lectured at various institutions such as the University of Bath, TU-Berlin, University College London, Princeton, Harvard, MIT and New School.
Most recently, Johar was awarded the London Design Medal for Innovation in 2022.
Photo: Victoria Bennett
Nimco Kulmiye Hussein
Nimco Kulmiye Hussein (they/them) is a curator and writer working at the intersection of research, culture, and art. Their praxis draws from postcolonial and queer-feminist perspectives, focusing actively on participatory practices that bring people together through critical, timely and meaningful narratives.
Exploring the site of new media and digital visual culture, Kulmiye Hussein facilitates innovative operational modalities and practices together with artists, creative practitioners, and arts institutions.
Graduate of Aalto University and Central Saint Martins, Kulmiye Hussein is based in London and is currently Programme Director, Society at the Finnish Institute in the UK and Ireland.
Photo: Hayley Lê
Ervin Latimer
Ervin Latimer is an award-winning fashion designer and professor of practice in fashion at Aalto University. Latimer’s creative practice revolves around questions of gender, anti-racism, queer culture, and social sustainability. His acclaimed ready-to-wear label Latimmier which he founded in 2021, challenges the ways we use garments to perform masculinity. Beyond his design responsibilities, Latimer is actively involved in various cultural initiatives in Finland. He’s the co-founder and vice-chair of Ruskeat Tytöt (Brown Girls), an anti-racist and feminist non-profit organization, and a board member of the foundation for the Finnish Cultural Institute in New York, among others.
Photo: Meeri Koutaniemi
Linda Liukas
Linda Liukas is an author, illustrator and educator from Helsinki, Finland. With her Hello Ruby children’s picture book series and philosophy, she brings a Nordic playful perspective to the sometimes serious world of computer science.
Translated into nearly 40 languages, Hello Ruby books ask: what else is there to technology education than “Learn to code”? If computer code is the Lego block of our time – a tool of creation – how do we teach curiosity, joy, and wonder to our kids?
Currently Liukas is planning a playground, in Helsinki, where the kids can learn how computers operate – without a single screen.
Photo: Elisabet Toll
Kieran Long
Kieran Long is Director of Amos Rex in Helsinki since February 2024, having previously led ArkDes, the national museum of architecture and design in Stockholm, Sweden. Long has been a writer, teacher and curator of architecture and design for more than 20 years.
His career began as a journalist, writing for newspapers and magazines, and working as editor in chief of the Architects’ Journal and the Architectural Review. He was the host of television programmes for the BBC on architectural history and the architecture critic for the Evening Standard.
In 2011–12, Long worked with David Chipperfield and led his curatorial team for the Venice Biennale of architecture. After the biennale, he joined the Victoria & Albert Museum as Keeper of Design, Architecture and Digital. Long has taught architecture at London Metropolitan University, Kingston University, and EPFL Lausanne, and design at the Royal College of Art.
Photo: Knut Åserud
Joar Nango
Joar Nango works with architectural installations that explore the boundary between architecture, design, and visual art. His work relates to questions of Indigenous identity, often through investigating contemporary architecture. Nango has explored modern Sámi spaces through numerous projects.
Nango lives and works in Áltá, Norway. His works have been exhibited internationally in large venues like Documenta (Kassel/Athens), Chicago Architectural Biennale, and National Galleries of Norway and Canada.
Nango is a founding member of the architecture collective FFB. He is currently setting up a network of Sámi architects across Sápmi through the ongoing Indigenous architecture library project Girjegumpi, which is also selected for the Nordic pavilion in the Venice biennale 2023.
Héctor Noval
Héctor Noval has been practicing at the intersection of aesthetics and interaction across different countries and cultures for over 18 years. His practice, lectures, and writing have centered on exploring the professional practice of design, the generation of meaning, and the purpose underlying our use of non-verbal languages.
Noval’s career spans roles, titles and disciplines across the entire spectrum of the business of design. After his role as Global Head of Futures with Designit, Noval is currently exploring new frames to broader the way we practice; approaching emerging economic shifts, modes of interaction and their potential to shape the cultures we live in.
Noval’s academic career includes studies in Humanities and Computer Science and a Master thesis in new narrative structures for multidimensional environments. He enjoys swells and currents as much as a good conversation.
Photo: Kari Sarkkinen
Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen
Eeva-Liisa Pelkonen is a writer, curator and teacher who teaches architectural design and history-theory at the Yale School of Architecture. In her pedagocical practice she facilitates the interplay between verbal and visual knowledge, between thinking and doing with a goal of overcoming the artificial fault line between history-theory and design teaching.
Pelkonen’s scholarly interests cover 20th Century European and American art and architecture, aesthetic theory, and history of ideas. She has written and co-edited several prize-winning books, and curated exhibitions on contemporary Austrian architecture, Alvar Aalto, Eero Saarinen, and Kevin Roche. Her most recent book Untimely Moderns: How Twentieth Century Architecture Reimagined the Past was published in 2023.
Pelkonen’s scholarly and curatorial work has been supported by Getty, the Graham Foundation, the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, and the Austrian Ministry of Science and Research. She received Master of Architecture from Tampere University of Technology, Master of Environmental Design from Yale School of Architecture, and PhD from Columbia University.
Photo: Otso Kääriäinen
Johannes Suikkanen
Johannes Suikkanen is the co-founder of strategy consultancy Gemic where he works with social scientists, philosophers, futurists, and business strategists on a mission to solve some of the hardest societal and business questions global corporations and countries face in the 21st century.
A native of Finland, Suikkanen has a life-long interest in how global organizations can strike a delicate balance between the economic interests, societal development and the wellbeing of humans. Currently he lives in Berlin.
Kuva: Luke Fontana
Teemu Suviala
Teemu Suviala is an award-winning creative leader, with expertise spanning from the Fortune 500 corporate arena, design and lifestyle brands, and cultural and public institutions in America, Europe, and Asia.
Currently Suviala is Chief Creative Officer at global brand and design consultancy Landor & Fitch. Suviala is responsible for Landor & Fitch’s award-winning creative teams in studios across more than 20 countries worldwide, working with clients such as Apple, Netflix, Coca-Cola, LEGO and the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Before joining Landor & Fitch Suviala worked as the Global Head of Brand Design for Reality Labs at Meta. Suviala has led creative work at brand and design agencies Collins as ECD and Wolff Olins as CD in New York. He is also a co-founder of design agencies Kokoro & Moi and Syrup Helsinki, and a partner at Helsinki-based footwear brand Tarvas.
