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Design

The Newest Guggenheim Will Be a Black Lighthouse

The black building, 'Art in the City,' wins the design competition to become the new Guggenheim Helsinki.
Rendering A. "Art in City” courtesy Moreau Kusunoki Architectes

Moreau Kusunoki Architectes has won the year-long international competition to determine who will design a new Guggenheim Museum satellite to be built in Helsinki, Finland. With its victory announced today, the Paris firm's design, Art in the City, is an environmentally-concious lighthouse made of locally-sourced charred timber and glass. Selected from 1,715 submissions from 77 countries during two rounds of judgment, the building beat out designs by Haas Cook Zemmerich Studio2050, Asif Khan, and more in the competition's final round.

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The design was selected for its coherence with the surrounding area and Helsinki's heritage, according to an official statement: "The Jury found the design deeply respectful of the site and setting, creating a fragmented, non-hierarchical, horizontal campus of linked pavilions where art and society could meet and inter-mingle." In observance of European Union and Finnish procurement rules, all submissions were kept anonymous throughout the contest, so today's announcement reveals both the winning design and that architects Nicolas Moreau and Hiroko Kusunoki were behind it.

Moreau describes the design in the video above, saying, "Architecture has to bring some emotion, it has to bring poetry to the society, to bring people together." Founded in 2011, their previous projects include the Théâtre de Beauvaisis in Beauvais, the House of Cultures and Memories in Cayenne, and the Paris High Court Plaza. In a joint statement, the duo says, "This great adventure brought us energy, joy, and dreams. The adventure now continues with the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, the people of Helsinki, and lovers of architecture and art.”

Moreau Kusunoki Architectes' Guggneheim Helsinki joins Frank Gehry's Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain, and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection's occupation of the repurposed Palazzo di Leoni in Venice, as the New York institution's third satellite. While the design will grow and change between now and when the first ground is broken, you can check out Art in the City's current design in the images below:

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Rendering C

Rendering B

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Read the full announcement and check out the other design submissions on the Guggenheim Helsinki website.

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