Capstone Studio 2026 has started: reimagining the Architecture and Design Museum in Helsinki

The course began with site visits to both existing museum buildings. Students explored the buildings and their surroundings through photography, paying attention to their architecture, spatial qualities, movement, atmosphere and relationship to the city.

Photographer Marc Goodwin has also led the first teaching sessions, introducing photography as a tool for observing and thinking about architecture. Rather than treating photography simply as a means of documenting existing buildings, the studio uses images as a starting point for architectural design.

The first assignment focused on analysing the existing site and its context through a photo montage combining photographs from the site with other images. The students are now moving from photographic montages into physical and spatial exploration. In the second assignment, they are developing scale models based on the spatial ideas explored in the first montage. The models are then photographed and transformed digitally into new collages.

Alongside the photography-based work, the groups are developing their architectural concepts and programmes, considering how existing and new parts of the site could accommodate different uses and users.

The studio will continue to develop these ideas throughout the autumn semester, gradually moving from photographic observation and speculation towards architectural proposals for the future of the museum site.