Haapio, Annex to the National Museum of Finland by Lahdelma & Mahlamäki architects

Haapio, a competition entry for the Annex to the National Museum of Finland, creates a new icon for the museum complex – a wooden entrance pavilion. The name “Haapio” refers to an ancient boat type carved from a single wood log. Its material roots and ambiguous character refers to Finnish identity and cultural heritage.

Haapio won the shared 3rd prize in the Uusi Kansallinen architecture competition. Haapio is a new interpretation of the ability of architecture to communicate Finnish values in our global world. It shifts from the stone castles of the old National Museum to folklore and wood, emphasizing the importance of wood as a Finnish building material in the past and in our own time.

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The competition proposal uses modern knowledge to refine the structural solutions of Finnish wooden churches or the insight of carving a boat from a log, reinterpreting these traditions and related stories. Haapio adapts to the park of the National Museum and the open space underneath the pavilion connects two different parks.

Under the pavilion there is also an entrance to the underground exhibition space. The top floor of the entrance pavilion houses a high-quality museum restaurant and a courtyard-level café. The proposal emphasizes the autonomous role of a high-class restaurant in the museum complex. Source by Lahdelma & Mahlamäki architects.

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• Location: Helsinki, Finland
• Architect: Lahdelma & Mahlamäki architects
• Lahdelma & Mahlamäki architects: Rainer Mahlamäki with Pedro García Alcázar, Antti Canth, Taavi Henttonen, Tarmo Juhola, Mykolas Malskis, Katri Rönkä, Jukka Savolainen and Ilkka Syrjäkari
• Advisor: Markus Lähteenmäki
• Client: Finnish Heritage Agency, the National Museum of Finland and Senate Properties
• Total area: 4,875 m2
• Year: 2019
• Images: Brick Visual, Courtesy of Lahdelma & Mahlamäki architects

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