A16 – Alvar Aalto Museum

The Site has allowed to work with a specific topography and the important legacy of two Alvar Aalto’s buildings. The renovated surrounding landscape due to significant urban transformations demands a new level of connectivity and relations yet the two museums need a continuity permitting an extensive use and new programs. Light and change of season strongly influence the use and the perception of the space, becoming fully incorporated in the architectural process. 

The Program is the chance to build a sequence of experiences forming a continuous circuit that completes different parts of the existing museums and extends to the landscape defining a renovated dialogue with it. Instead of a typical shopping experience we propose a total integration of the program with the spaces by means of programmatic areas that display the products in different ways activating new uses and paths connected to the museums and its flows; rethinking the museum shop like an attractor and an connector to the neighbourhood. 

The Building improves the link between the museums’ complex and the city, and the museums themselves. Autonomous yet connected, it’s conceived as an open spiral made of accurate proportioned areas, horizontal planes and ramps-stairs that generate a twist, a dynamic moment which activates the pre-existences; it enhances the use of outdoor spaces at the roof terrace level and the garden’s. It’s perceived as a compact and multifaceted volume precisely grafted, thus improving and assuring all the existing accesses. A clear corrugated glass covers all its faces allowing a direct dialog with the context, blurring and absorbing it.

The vision from outside results sharp and unexpected at the same time; a complete match between inside and outside is realised. 

Category
Museum / Extension

Year
2015

Status
international Competition

Location
Jyväskylä Ruusupuisto, Finland

Area
294 m²

Backer
Alvar Aalto Museum

Architect
MAR Office

Team Competition
Juarez Corso, Paola Mongiu con Daniele Bonetti, Federico Bettazzi, Giovanni Casalini

Maquette
Federico Bettazzi, Giovanni Casalini

Credits
Exterior visualization: Cristian Chierici, Philip Clemens
Interior visualization: Gabriele Boretti / Onirims

Credits
Photos: by MAR Office