The architects on the Guggenheim’s six-firm shortlist for its proposed (but not yet government-approved) Helsinki facility are neither starchitects nor Scandinavians.
The names and designs of the six finalists were released today at 4:14 a.m., NYC time (a more civilized hour in Helsinki). As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, the architectural firms have now been publicly identified, but their names are not connected to their designs. Even the jurors still haven’t been told which project belongs to which architect.
Below is definitely the most photogenic of the six contestants:
Image courtesy of Malcolm Reading Consultants
Below are the Helsinki Six. (The third on the list wins the award for most inventive name.)
—AGPS Architecture Ltd. (Zurich and Los Angeles)
—Asif Khan Ltd. (London)
—Fake Industries Architectural Agonism (New York, Barcelona, Sydney)
—Haas Cook Zemmrich STUDIO2050 (Stuttgart)
—Moreau Kusunoki Architect (Paris)
—SMAR Architecture Studio (Madrid and Western Australia)
According to the jurors’ statement:
The single theme, which linked the chosen six and united the jury, was the impulse to expand the idea of what a museum can be. How can this new museum create a vital, meaningful, public, and intellectual presence within Helsinki?
The jurors’ statement also revealed that they summarily “put aside” designs that seemed “derivative of other Guggenheim museums, or other major museums”—the un-Bilbao Effect?
Here’s how the competition is expected to proceed:
The six finalists will be invited to visit the site of the proposed museum in January 2015, receive additional briefing to further develop the potential that the jury has identified in their initial designs, and produce physical models by March 2015. The winning design will be announced in June 2015, with an award of €100,000 (approximately $136,000) for the first-place team and €55,000 (approximately $75,000) for each runner-up.
Finalist designs for Stages One and Two of the competition, and a selection of honorable mentions from Stage One as noted by the jury, will be presented in a public exhibition in Helsinki in spring 2015. Images and brief descriptions of all 1,715 submissions are online at the competition website.
What is still not known is whether Helsinki’s government, which had rejected a previous iteration of the Guggenheim’s proposal, will go for this one.
The lukewarm statement provided by Mayor Jussi Pajunen for today’s press release seemed less than encouraging:
The designs provide a good understanding of the vast potential that the South Harbor site holds. I am also excited about the lively discussion regarding the role of design and architecture in city development around the competition.
What the mayor didn’t say was whether he is “also excited” about realizing the Guggenheim’s current proposal.