The project we propose for the Guggenheim museum in Helsinki is firstly a representation of the Museum of the XXI century. The concept of museum, as a container of art to be exhibited, needs to become a space that is, first of all, a public space of the city, open to the community. What allows the representation of this idea is the construction of a covered plaza, in this case, the focal point of a journey that starts from the old city to the Olympia Terminal. The inclusion of the civic place par excellence (the plaza) inside a building resumes the search of the greatest Finnish architects in the design of the covered plaza intended as a main lobby, a filter between the city and the functional space of the building itself. It is a new direction in thinking the museum that introjects innovative experiences attached to it, example, by Atelier Bow Wow. The plaza creates a space within the building that might be called “civic art space”, like the historical squares of the city: the Market Square, the political square, the religious square, where civic life meets art and culture.
