Continuum
"Nothing is as dangerous in architecture as dealing with separated problems.
If we split life into separated problems we split the possibilities to make good building art."
Alvar Aalto
The conception of an extension between the Alvar Aalto Museum and the Museum of Central Finland requires a proposaladdressing to multiple issues; which resolves the functional requirements of both museums while establishing a mutual, convivial and respectful relationship with the two existing architectural entities.Therefore the design process must initiate with an analysis of Alvar Aalto's notion and a clear definition of all design problems.
Levels
The new building adapts itself to the natural slope of the site with a dynamic multileveled configuration, ensuring the minimum impact on the topography and the maximum accessibility of several levels. Instead of having many circulation elements to connect all the different quotes, the space itself becomes a device of circulation composed of steps that serve also as display and seating units. On the outside the same concept of declivity continues in form of terraces.
The extension block connects different levels both inside and outside: in the interior it links the different floors of the two museums via the new space and the renewed existing elevator; in the exterior it connects with the Café Alvar, adding value to the existing landscaping elements and contributing also to the use of outdoor areas.
Landscape
The flow between the two museums is ideally north-south oriented, on the opposite the external forces as the natural setting has a flux in east-west direction. As a result, the overall form of the block reflects a combination of these two routes, as if the tectonic forces physically push the building envelope towards the interior. The envelope of the building is modified so that a courtyard is inserted in the center, as an open-space filter between the surrounding volumes. The courtyard as an innermost component not only helps to regulate the circulation around it, but also establishes a visual connection and permeability between the museums and the new shop. This composition of open and closed spaces which occupy the area in-between the two museums, allows visitors to perceive the context efficiently, without interrupting the continuity of natural setting.
Interior and exterior relationship
In terms of functional distribution, the extension block contains an open-space museum shop arranged on two main levels (the second floor of the Alvar Aalto Museum and the entrance level of the Museum of Finland), both are provided with utilities spaces and workstations and are accessible via the renewed existing elevator. In between, the three intermediate levels/steps form a scenographic space combining display and circulation. Underneath the upper shop level is located the technical and storage floor, connected with the service spaces and the workshops of the entrance level of the Alvar Aalto Museum and also accessible via the renewed existing elevator.
In terms of functional distribution, the extension block contains an open-space museum shop arranged on two main levels (the second floor of the Alvar Aalto Museum and the entrance level of the Museum of Finland), both are provided with utilities spaces and workstations and are accessible via the renewed existing elevator. In between, the three intermediate levels/steps form a scenographic space combining display and circulation. Underneath the upper shop level is located the technical and storage floor, connected with the service spaces and the workshops of the entrance level of the Alvar Aalto Museum and also accessible via the renewed existing elevator.
The exterior finishing consists of vertical elements made out of larch wood placed with varying intervals and orientations, allowing the regulation of transparency and the adaptation of outer skin with curvilinear forms of the threshold. The verticality of elements finds a natural connection to the surrounding façade by Aalto, but the materiality differentiates the new and the existing. Building envelope becomes rather solid with closely placed elements in north-south axis, whereas the east-west axis is much more transparent .The new block does not provide a frontal entrance from the exterior, but a lateral opening is located on the lower level and is to be an exit, linking the shop with the café of Alvar Aalto Museum through a system of descending levels.
Given the importance and specificity of the intervention, the new extension block has an important role: It is a dialogue between the two epochs of Aalto’s architecture, a converter in the middle of interior and exterior, a continuum travelling among different levels, spaces and functions.
Relationship with the existing
The connection between the Alvar Aalto Museum and the shop is kept to a minimum, while the Museum of Finland is adjoined with the new block by means of an interface covering a larger area. The former, helps to keep the exhibition space of the Aalto Museum more intimate and less interrupted while the latter provides a spatial opening of the hall towards the new connecting gateway. The existing façade of the 1989-90s extension of the Museum of Finland is partially replaced with a new translucent partition which helps the two spaces to evolve into one continuum.
