GUGGENHEIM
Guggenheim, Helsinki, Finland
smar-architects.com
35 Stirling Highway, 6008 Crawley
Western Australia
Guggenheim
Helsinki, Finland
by Smar
The right to the City:
A Museum for 2 Helsinkis
The Street has been vital for the basic function of society and imperative for a true democracy to function. Against the abstraction of architectural space, space is to be understood as the
product of social structure.
The street is the place where always is
something happening. A Space of Action where
inhabitants continuously reinvent themselves.
Climatic link: 2 Helsinkis
Due to its particular extreme climatic conditions.
There are 2 Helsinkis in Helsinki. 2 different cities in
1 city. Summer Helsinki and Winter Helsinki.
A lot of Open Air Activities could happen
in Public Space but most of them are not possible
during the 6 cold months of the year. That means
that the City Streets can only be used 100% as a
Public Space half of the year.
We propose a Strategy that could offer back to the City of Helsinki a Street, a Public
Space at no additional cost able to be used also
the 6 cold months of the year.
A New Interior Street through the Museum could
allow Public Activity in winter when
the cold external conditions leave the city streets
empty. In summer the Interior Street is open, deploying its creative content into the public realm
redefining public space.
Guggenheim Helsinki
A critical shift, from the idea of a building
as a static object, to a building that can accommodate the flux of daily life. The life of Street Art.
Guggenheim Helsinki
Images SMAR
The Paranoid-critical Museum:
The Aura of Monumentality vs the Performance of Instability
While an increasing unofficial art was
blooming in the streets from the second half of the
XX Century, Museums have been historically focused in Gallery Art, excluding Street Art and more
importantly, excluding Public Space production.
Like an unresolved conflict the desire of permanence of Museums and the changing nature of
the Street Art have been incompatible.
But what if this paradox could be solved through a
binary architecture that blends the aura of monumentality with the performance of instability?
The Museum:
Towards an Inclusive Museum
The History of Museums has been the History of Monumentality. The Architectural expression
of the Monument is the Icon as the representation
of a Top Down philosophy.
Museums have changed from institutions
where information was directed in only one way:
towards the viewer into institutions that are increasingly creating conversations with the user.
Non-iconic architecture strives to prioritize the human scale of a space over its merely sculptural
value.
Street Art:
The Other Art
The use of Street Space forms the basis for
basic social discourse, from political gatherings to
Art creation or community expressions. The Street
has been vital for the basic function of society and
imperative for a true democracy to function.
Guggenheim Helsinki
Street art is created in public locations,
outside of the context of traditional art venues like
Museums. The term gained popularity during the
graffiti art boom of the early 1980s and continues
to be applied to subsequent incarnations.
Guggenheim Helsinki
Images SMAR
Concept
Guggenheim Helsinki
Guggenheim Helsinki
Images SMAR
Occupy Guggenheim
The Street Lab:
The Incubator
The Street has been always an Experimental laboratory. The Street Lab isnt so much about
best artists of today, as with possible best artists of
the future, is a Lab whose main interest is in incubating new forms of art.
Its a Lab, and in a Lab by definition you
cant be sure what could happen, you dont want
to be sure.
The Street Lab:
The Chameleonic Space
Guggenheim Helsinki
The Chameleonic Space implies an open
identity in which artists and citizens are free to
take on different roles, adapt to ever-changing
needs, and build communities and networks independent and facilitated through technology.
This transformative Space mitigates the inability of
Museum infrastructure to respond rapidly to their
needs.
Guggenheim Helsinki
Plan
The Interior Street
Extra Space
We propose an Interior Street, an additional un-programmed space, which is not included
in the original brief, which opens the building up to
citizens appropriation.
We propose a Strategy that could offer
back to the City of Helsinki an Extra Space at no
additional cost. An added value for the City that
transcends traditional Exhibition Spaces.
A Interior Street as a Field of mediation between social groups and institutions.
Crossing the museum allows pedestrian,
bikers, skaters to go through an intense experience of Art at different speeds in their way to the
city.
The Interior Street, Extra City Space, proposes a set of Unique Spaces that contains an
almost unlimited number of conditions and situations that Public Space could offer to present,
to study, (re) contextualize, or even provoke the
people that enters it, whatever form it takes.
A critical shift, from the idea of a building
as a static object, to a building that can accommodate the flux of daily life. The life of Street Art.
In Helsinki there are empty Living Rooms and
Streets full of Art.
Raoul Grnstein. Korjaamo Museum
Date: 2015
Architecture: SMAR
Client: Guggenheim Foundation
Description: Museum
Area: 12500 m2
Guggenheim Helsinki
Images SMAR
Status: Competition
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Guggenheim Helsinki
Images SMAR
