A real estate company has been founded for the construction project of the New Museum of Architecture & Design. The company will be operational in the coming weeks.

The real estate company will be in charge of the design and development of the AD Museum construction project, including organising a design competition for the museum building. The company ownership is divided in half between the City of Helsinki and the State of Finland, the main financiers of the project.

A board of directors has been appointed to the new company. The members of the board of directors have versatile expertise and knowledge regarding the execution of large projects. Juha Lemström, Architect (SAFA), has been appointed as the chair of the board of directors, and Mikko Aho, Architect (SAFA), who acted as the executive director of the City of Helsinki Urban Environment Division, as the vice-chair.

The other members of the board of directors are Antti Halm, Engineer, Head of Department at the City of Helsinki Urban Environment Division, Markku Inkeroinen, MSc (Tech), Project Manager at the Ministry of Education and Culture, Miika Kotaniemi, MSc (Tech), Director of Real Estate Investment at Rakli ry, and Stuba Nikula, MA, CEO of the Helsinki Events Foundation.

The new real estate company carries out close cooperation with the Foundation for the Finnish Museum of Architecture and Design, which was established in April 2022.

The AD Museum is currently in the project planning phase. During the autumn and winter, a plan will be finalised, including a contents concept, an operating and funding model, a design brief, a plan regarding the merging of the Museum of Finnish Architecture and the Design Museum, as well as other information that is needed for a funding decision. The objective is that the main financiers of the museum would make their decision during the spring of 2023. If a positive decision is reached, the design competition for the museum building will be launched later in the same year.

The new museum building would be located in the Makasiiniranta area in the city centre of Helsinki. A plot will be formed for the museum in local detailed planning. There is an ongoing international quality and concept competition regarding Makasiiniranta. The museum building is not included in the Makasiiniranta competition, but a separate competition will be organised on it, when the funding decision has been reached.