3GATTI's museum proposal in finland aims to be a landmark with its giant wooden blades

the concept for the new ‘tampere art museum’ in finland is inspired by one of the best and most famous local distinctions: wood. the nordic country is the largest producer of wood in europe and among the largest in the world. 3GATTI’s proposal with its giant wooden blades would like to create an important landmark that can be easily remembered by the visitors and create a clear identity of the area. the architectural object will be very powerful because of its simplicity, but will also let perceive from the exterior its enormous interior complexity. in fact, those huge walls distant only 1.2 meters from each other will let filter inside not only the light but also the view and the pedestrian’s flow that will drain freely through the lateral slits.

the project includes the pyynikintori square with a new underground parking area and office and residential towers

the interiors complexity and porosity will be forged not only by the parallel spaces between the wooden partitions but mainly by an abstract blob volume creating a cavernous continuous space to be subtracted from the wooden blades. the rome-shanghai based group 3GATTI creates this cavernous space as a continuous interstice that will magnificently represent and spatially stimulate the fluidity of the circulation stream.

the museum side view shows the almost complete transparency of the volume from the top and the west-east sides

from the entrance where the ‘flow volume’ will create a visible abstract tunnel that will dynamically become very high inside the foyer and then relatively narrow in the next space of the escalator. this continuous expansion and compression of the space will guide the visitor and define the importance of each area making also an incredible spatial stimulation during the visit. the path is studied so to have always the best views on the park, the old museum and pyynikintori square and to always encourage curiosity and create this longing to discover what’s hidden behind next partition.

the museum side has enough porosity to let the pedestrians pass trough at the ground floor

between the timber walls there will be a strip of glass letting an ethereal diffuse light both natural or artificial coming from all directions. this will also give the right quality of light to the exhibition galleries where also a system of metal grilles, blinds, and adjustable louvers will control the sunlight streaming into galleries letting possible also total obscurity for special exhibition needs. those wooden walls will be partly full, made with glulam structure or glued laminated timber, and partly empty, to give lightness to the septum and to make the shaping easier, especially in the areas where there are no structural needs.

view of the museum entrance on the left and the coffee shop on the right

the wall will be perforated not only to give space to the interior areas but also under the slabs where mostly of the HVAC systems will pass through. glulam is for sure an incredible green choice for the low transportation and handling costs, the great insulation properties and is made of timber, that basically grows out of the ground and does not need to be mined and subjected to the high energy demand manufacturing processes that steel and cement require; and even if the space is very abstract timber will create a warm and comfortable feeling.

the open air courtyard crosses all the museum volume dividing the staff area from the visitors one

the vertical wall will continue also on the ground with a strip of wood separated by other strips of cement floor. this zebra pattern will be constantly present in the main interior spaces and will flow outside the building occupying the more strategic points and paths of the surrounding landscape. the main striped flow will be the one from the bus station pedestrian island to the museum entrance and each stripe will be equipped with led system to let the ground path more significant in the night time.

the entrance hall shows from the left: the stairs, the ticket counter on the bottom and the coffee shop on the top

the same logic of fluid paths and blob subtraction will be applied also in the rest of the masterplan design, so to have everywhere the same architectural language. from the infill volumes to the pyynikintori square surface, everything will be perforated by those abstract volumes. in this way the square will have holes looking to the underground parking where trees plantation will be possible, and the infill facades will have suspended courts voids to let the horizontal light go deeper inside the buildings.

the exhibition area takes advantage of the framed timber structure to filter the daylight

the exhibition area escalator has a privileged view of the old tampere art gallery gardens

the exhibition area corridor has a filtered view of the exterior courtyard and the display areas

the entrance garden is an open air space closed inside the laminated wood structural frames

diagrams showing the complexity of the interior void

first floor plan

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edited by: apostolos costarangos | designboom