The extension of the Gösta Serlachius Contemporary Art Museum is located next to the forest and it creates an access plaza near the Joenniemi manor. The building of the museum designed by Mara Partida, Boris Bezan and Hector Mendoza, of MX_SI architectural studio, respects the existing architecture while maintaining its own identity.
They have created a modern and adaptable space for exhibitions that are permanently connected to the outside through the fissures and cuts opened in its envelope. The new building, located in a park on the shore of a lake, is accompanied by the design of a bridge that connects the area of the museum with the island Taavetinsaari, achieving an increase in the outdoor exhibition space.
Description of the project by MX_SI architectural studio
As a starting point, the place is understood as a large green canvas with the imposing monolithic figure of the Joenniemi Manor House at its highest point. A landscape which together with the old house comprises a heritage with cultural significance for the citizens of Mänttä and the Serlachius family. The project strategy is to establish a dialogue between the new and the existing by positioning the new construction so that Joenniemi continues to take centre stage, and at the same time the new museum does not lose the opportunity to express its character and contemporary presence. The solution was therefore to arrange the new volume parallel to the axis established between the house, the garden and the lake. An access plaza to the building was created, where the Joenniemi building continues to dominate the vistas of the area, and as the land descends and approaches the lakeside the new building becomes higher and more prominent.
The project is conceptualized as an abstract and dense forest. A forest that represents and translates into a series of parallel wooden frames that define the geometry and structure of the new building. On the outside, the building presents a series of vertical mullions that follow and emphasize the rhythm of the interior structure.
To reduce the visual impact of a building in such a sensitive environment, the building seeks to decompose into smaller fragments. The volume is interrupted by certain cuts, or irregularly shaped incisions, which are covered with a reflective glass surface. The result of these incisions is the perception of spaces of infinite mirrors; doors or forest walkways optically subdividing the building transversely.
Inside, the building is organized to continue with the path which starts from the outside. This path is crossed by a sudden and surprising invasion of light caused mainly by the incisions in the volume of the building that also offer exterior views. These invasions transform what would have been a lineal path into an emotional one, thanks to the rhythm of the constant repetition of the structural frames and interruptions that allow external spaces to penetrate inside the building.
