Futuristic intervention. The Amos Rex museum, designed by JKMM Architects, was opened in Helsinki

/ Architecture /
The art museum of the Finnish patron and collector Amos Anderson solemnly celebrated the opening of its new underground space under the Lasipalatsi square.

The entertainment complex Lasipalatsi, or as it is also called the "Glass Palace", was built in the 30s of the XX century. An example of functionalism was the pride of the Finnish capital for a long time, but it gradually became worn out. The idea of ​​architects JKMM Architects, who received the order to design an extension for the Amos Museum, made it possible to solve two tasks at once - to bring back to life the modernist complex, the core of which is the Bio Rex cinema, and to create new exhibition spaces that stand out with an original futuristic exterior.

Photo: © Mika Huisman. Image source: jkmm.fi

On the territory where the bus station used to be located, a pit was dug, and then the galleries with an area of ​​2200 square meters (which is almost twice the size of the new underground gallery of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London) were covered with domes with expressive porthole windows.

Photo: © Mika Huisman. Image source: jkmm.fi

The construction of the facility lasted 5 years and cost 50 million euros. Long before the official opening of the museum, the new hilly landscape of Lasipalatsi became a public attraction of Helsinki and turned out to be unusually attractive for children. You can sit and lie on the artificial slopes, and young people use them as springboards, riding on skates and bicycles. The vertical dominant of the landscape remains the pipe of the old boiler house, which once heated the shopping and entertainment complex.

Photo: © Mika Huisman. Image source: jkmm.fi

Light windows allow you to look directly from the square into the snow-white exhibition halls of the bunker museum. Several of the portholes are now darkened, since the interactive exhibition Massless from the Japanese company was chosen for the inauguration of Amos Rex. leader in the field of digital design teamLab.

Interiors of the underground galleries of the Amos Rex Museum. Photo: © Tuomas Uusheimo. Image source: jkmm.fi

On the lowest level, works of art that were previously inaccessible to the public and stored in the storage rooms of the Amos Art Museum will be exhibited.

"Amos Rex is not just a museum, but a unique multipurpose experimental public space. The combination of galleries with a cinema, shops and restaurants creates a new experience for Scandinavian countries," says museum director Kai Cartio.

Entrance to the underground galleries is possible from the central lobby of the Glass Palace. The monument of modernist architecture was restored, the interiors and exteriors were recreated in accordance with the original. And after several years of oblivion, the neon signs of the Bio Rex cinema shone again.

Hall of the Bio Rex cinema. Photo: © Tuomas Uusheimo. Image source: jkmm.fi

Photo: © Tuomas Uusheimo. Image source: jkmm.fi

Site plan. Image source: jkmm.fi