New design and architecture museum complex may be built in Helsinki

The Design Museum and the Museum of Finnish Architecture foundations, the Ministry of Education and Culture and the City of Helsinki research possibilities to establish a new design and architecture museum complex.

The research project sets to provide guidelines for reforming the operations of the Design Museum and the Museum of Finnish Architecture. Its basis is to enforce the role of the museums and the objective to increase local, national and international impact and attraction. The project will identify the museums’ needs, strengths and possibilities for synergy.

Design Museum director Jukka Savolainen considers the project significant. “Finnish design and architecture are internationally acknowledged. There is huge interest, and it would be wonderful if we could use the new complex to meet the demand and promote Finnish expertise.”

The objective is to create a museum and tourist destination that would serve various communities and cooperation networks in a versatile way. The project relies on the internationally notable collections and data resources of Finnish design and architecture, long experience in providing museum facilities, museum expertise and cooperative networks.

The Ministry of Education and Culture, the City of Helsinki and both museums see a shared museum building as an essential part of the solution. However, this new building will not completely solve the development of the museum facilities by generating a destination of high international quality and contents for the visitors.

“The research project is an important step towards developing the design and architecture museum facilities and creating a museum complex of high international quality as part of strong, progressive cultural offering in Helsinki and Finland,” Savolainen says.

The research work starts 20 March 2018, and the project group will submit the final report by 15 June 2018.