Honourable mention to Ahlava and Sotamaa in Guggenheim competition

The proposal Kissing Helsinki by Antti Ahlava and Kivi Sotamaa from Aalto University, Finland, has received an honourable mention in the Guggenheim Helsinki Design Competition.

Kissing Helsinki by Antti Ahlava and Kivi Sotamaa is on show at Kunsthalle Helsinki.

The proposal is based on a new kind of concept of the art museum as a social forum. The public and the city become active authors and producers of art. A central space at the museum has been reserved for this interaction. The design language of the building also supports interweaving the building into its environment. 

Antti Ahlava is the vice president of campus development and professor at the Aalto University Department of Architecture and Kivi Sotamaa is the artistic director of the Aalto University Laboratory of Digital Design (ADD). Architect Fredrik Lindberg is the third author of the competition entry. 

The Guggenheim Helsinki Design Competition searches for proposals for the design of an art museum in the southern harbour area of Helsinki. The competition has been organised by the international Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. A total of 1,715 submissions were received, the largest number of entries ever recorded for a competition of this kind.

Kissing Helsinki and the other top submissions to the Guggenheim Helsinki competition will be presented to the public at Kunsthalle Helsinki from 25 April to 16 May 2015. Free admission.

More information:

• on Kissing Helsinki and the other designs that received honourable mention at Design Guggenheim Helsinki website
• on the design competition (guggenheimhki.fi)