Extension of the Gösta contemporary Art Museum
The site is understood as a green plateau where the manor’s monolithic figure stands
imposingly along a landscape axis, sloping gently to the banks of Lake Melasjärvi.
The strategy consists in placing the building out of the zone in between the manor, the
plateau-park and the Taavetinsaari island, in mimicking the new building within the forest,
and finally in respecting the recently renovated park, as well as the formal garden design.
The new premises are located in parallel to the access, manor and garden axis, on
the west side of the principal axis. It uses the parameters of topography and distance
to accommodate the program. In this sense the Joenniemi Manor keeps being the
dominant built structure of the area.
The location of the new entrance reinforces the existing spacious access yard as access
plaza of the whole intervention.
The outside spatial quality is brought inside the new building. The heart of the building -
foyer and restaurant - have the best view towards the lake and the island similar to the
existing house main areas.
The simple horizontal body of the extension building gathers all main areas in one great
plateau: entrance, foyer, connection and exhibitions which facilitates visitors’ orientation.
The new building is organized by a spacious foyer, placed at the same level of the
ground floor of the manor. This space obtains visual continuity between outside and
inside by introducing incisions of landscape to the main building body.
To allow flexibility of exhibitions layout, the structure of the building is part of the facade
liberating the whole space. All walls in the exhibition zone can be used for exposing.
The project as a densified abstract forest. The forest in the placement where the new
building will be constructed is conceptually transformed in an abstract way of parallel
frames. In one hand they define the overall geometry of the new building, but at the
same time they also allow transversal permeability. The result is that the parallel pattern
of the structural frames is maintained from outside and inside structuring the whole
building. The use of wood is a reference to the local industry’s history.
