NMAD New Museum of Architecture + Design

NMAD New Museum of Architecture + Design

Makasiiniranta, Helsinki | Sápmi (Sámi Peoples) | 2024 | Competition Entry A competition proposal for a 10,050-square-metre museum dedicated to architecture and design, located on the Makasiiniranta waterfront in Helsinki. The project engages with the particular environmental, material, and institutional conditions of contemporary Finnish architectural culture, whilst responding to the distinctive characteristics of its historic harbour location. The Makasiiniranta site occupies a significant position within Helsinki's waterfront regeneration, situated amongst nineteenth-century industrial buildings and storage facilities that have been progressively adapted to cultural and residential uses. The design approach acknowledges this layered history, responding to the landscape's existing grain and the material presence of adjacent heritage structures. Rather than attempting to dominate the context, the proposal sought to engage with the existing built fabric through considered material language and scaled interventions. Material expression was developed through engagement with Nordic timber traditions and contemporary sustainable building practice. Cross-laminated timber (CLT) serves as the primary structural and expressive material, drawing on Finnish forestry heritage and establishing acoustic and thermal properties suited to the climate. Timber materiality creates dialogue with the historic warehouse structures proximate to the site, establishing visual continuity whilst articulating contemporary approaches to mass timber construction. External cladding and interior finishes were conceived to weather authentically over time, acknowledging the particular conditions of exposure in a Baltic maritime climate. The design carefully orchestrated natural light conditions across the building's interior spaces, responding to the distinctive qualities of Nordic daylight: the extended summer luminosity and limited winter daylight that characterise Helsinki's latitude. Museum galleries were positioned to engage strategically with directional and seasonal light variation, whilst public circulation spaces captured views across Makasiiniranta harbour. Layered fenestration and material screening address the intensity of summer light whilst optimising winter illumination, creating internal conditions that shift perceptibly across the year. The spatial organisation accommodates exhibition galleries, collection storage, conservation facilities, and public programming within a structure that acknowledges the complexities of institutional operation. The design engaged with questions about what museum buildings contribute to broader disciplinary discourse: how a building dedicated to architecture and design participates in larger cultural conversations about the built environment itself, and what architectural responsibility such institutions might carry. Developed by CLAD the competition entry represents sustained engagement with institutional design, sustainable material practices, and the possibilities for contemporary architectural contribution to cultural infrastructure within the Nordic context.