Serlachius Museum Gösta

The competition brief for the expansion of the Serlachius Museum Gösta, was to design an extension, five times larger than the existing museum. The current museum is a solitary manor amidst a picturesque landscape next to Hopunselkä Lake. We proposed to integrate the natural beauty surrounding the museum it into the visitor experience, as they circulate along a glass wall looking out into the forest between gallery halls. Hidden amidst the forest, next to the existing building, the low-rise extension preserves the visible beauty of the existing landscape and the iconic view of the historic museum building. Cascading down the hilly landscape between the trees; the building fills in the forest clearings. Within the interior of the amorphous, fully glazed space are four closed rectangular exhibition rooms. The visitor route alternates between the exhibitions and the surrounding promenade. In this way the landscape becomes the fifth exhibition of the Museum.