The Sara Hildén Art Museum is a major cultural centre in the Finnish industrial city of Tampere. The project called for the relocation of the museum from the city’s periphery to the historic city centre. Our response was to create a contemporary brick structure that balances the practical and aesthetic nature of the museum. The building’s scale, brick expression and gravitas embed it to its locale, a former industrial setting, while the sculpted Great Hall is an invitation for all to come and be illuminated by art or alternatively, just hang out.
Experienced as a 21st century art cathedral – gathering people to reflect, feel and contemplate, the Great Hall, 13m high and 42m in length, is at the design’s centre. This grand space effectively acts as a giant bridge to transfer the loads of the galleries and auditoriums above, down to the ground.
Expand ContentArching over the historic visual link between Finlayson Palace and the Wilhelm von Nottbeck Park, the building boasts a foyer with transparent sides that activate both the park and the adjoining streets throughout the year. The building, moreover, creates an all-weather internal public space, with dissolved boundaries to the outside. The catenary vault appears carved from a block of masonry, which is scaled to the street-wall height of adjacent buildings. This visually and physically connects the museum to the city and forms the edge of the park, providing amenity and activation.
Directly engaged with the city, the provision of independent access to the café, bookshop, auditorium and workshop enables the museum to efficiently extend its operations without opening the museum. A separate servicing building for conservation, workshops and administration facilities, connected via a tunnel, enables the museum to be transparent and open on the ground floor. As a result, this space is liberated to be used for public and community functions.
Iconic interiors and circulation areas connect large, flexible white-box exhibition spaces. These three adaptable, column-free spaces house the museum’s significant collection of modern art and accommodate an ambitious exhibition program.
