The new Sara Hilden Art Museum
is placed as the final piece in the spiral-shaped development of Finlayson. The museum is designed to integrate itself in several neighbouring contexts and typologies. The competition site is a border between the Park and the City, between past, present, and future, and between buildings at various scales, from several architectural periods.

The compact rectangular footprint of the building is a geometrical result with reference to the intention of the competition organiser to preserve the tree-lined periphery of the competition site. The part of the competition site, south of the ‘Finlaysoninkatu’ street, is designed as outdoor space with access to underground parking facilities and manoeuvring space for delivery vehicles to the loading dock of the museum.

Façade
The architectural design of the new museum is a reinterpretation of the industrial typology combined with the classical museum of a central atrium, and an east and a west wing for exhibition spaces. The arches and the wood tile façade are inspired by the Finlayson industrial architecture, built brick by brick, and with finer detail around the windows and entrances. At the same time, it is a manifestation of the current times, where wood is central in solving issues of climate change as a sustainable material capable of storing large amounts of CO2, a sign of the new industrial age where nature is in centre.

Internal organisation
The Sara Hilden Art Museum is a compact building volume, matching the height of the neighbouring buildings. A large arch opening from the ‘Fynlaysoninkatu’ street and the ‘Wilhelm von Nottbeck’ Park leads into an atrium. The atrium is conceived as a circulatory organ regarding its internal organisation and urban context. It is the heart of the building, and it is open to the public. Here is where visitors can buy their tickets, or may just walk through, take a rest, and enjoy the experience of the architectural space; they can see what the museum shop has to offer, go to the café, or take the elevator up to the green roof for a public exhibition, or enjoy an outdoor event and the framed views of the city.
Contemporary art reflects our society, sometimes realistically portrayed, but other times distorted or abstract. The atrium is covered with recycled rippled polished aluminium with small perforations for acoustic performance. The rippled aluminium distorts the surroundings reflected onto its surface; it washes out the detail and shows a composition of larger areas of colour from the sky, outdoor areas, neighbouring buildings, and the activity in the foyer. All in a 3d experience for the visitors, like a large scale 360 degrees experience of Erik Enroth’s Kaipunki – Staden from 1961.

Structure and roof garden
The new Sara Hilden Art Museum is designed with a key focus on a sustainable construction. Its combined structural weight comes 90% from wood. A clever solution combining glue laminated beams and columns with cross laminated timber (CLT) walls allows the complex shape of the atrium construction to be built in wood. The façade, made entirely from 25cm x 25cm end-grain wood tiles, is tactile and interesting to view from different angles. Every tile is unique in its grain pattern, like a never- ending wall of individual paintings.

The green roof is the last stop of the museum’s visit. It is an extension of the ‘Wilhelm von Nottbeck Park’, a park at the end of the park, and an open space to the public. Ivy walls create various spaces for different outdoor events, and framed views of the surrounding can be enjoyed.

Like a garden maze for the people to explore. The new Sara Hilden Art Museum is an added landmark of Tampere city, bold in its gesture while being subtle, respectful, and inclusive in its context.