The New Museum of Design and Architecture Helsinki Concept is driven by the symbiotic relationship existing between the influence the world has on an idea’s genesis, [the ‘seed’ or ‘ALKU’ (in Finish)], and vice versa, how the ‘ALKU’ of an idea can change the world. The concept explores this Influence/Impact Relationship.
Rethinking The Future Awards 2025
Second Award | Cultural (Concept)
Project Name: New Museum of Design and Architecture Helsinki
Category: Cultural (Concept)
Studio Name: LITTLE
Design Team: Tomas Jimenez-Eliaeson, AIA; Ashley Spinks, AIA; Pedro Pinera, AIA, Nautica Edge
Area: 10,100 mt2
Year: 2024
Location: Helsinki, Finland
Consultants: User Expereince, Little; Landscape Architecture: Little, Engineering: Little; Brand Experience: Little
Photography Credits: N/A
Render Credits: BEN, China
Other Credits:
The core of the Experience explored through this Design deconstructs the patron-exhibit interaction. The rethink of the Museum experience can be summarized in 3 Acts:
Act 1: Starts at Home, at school, at a studio, reading a book, seeing an image. Seeing and learning about the work of certain artist, Aalvar Aalto for example, ignites further interest in the artist. Opening the National Museum of Architecture and Design (NMAD) App, a patron would book a customized “Session with Aalto”, A personalized, interactive, deep-engagement experience with the story, art, and architecture of Aalto, in an ‘Aalto Immersive Learningscape’.
Act 2: Upon the Patron’s arrival to the Museum, a personalized welcome experience with museum staff continues with an Immersive Learningscape visit: A multisensory storytelling experience bringing the artist’s work alive through digital arts, the work’s ALKU, the idea’s evolution and development, and the actual artifact selected during planning on the App on Act 1. The transformative idea behind this design is the artifact’s delivery to the Immersive Learnignscape via an ASRS (Automated Storage and Retrieval System): a robotic technology storing 9x the number of Museum artifacts in 1/7 of the area and with capacity to deliver a specific museum artifact to a patron via robotic channels and through pre-programmed pathways. This combination of customization, immersiveness, multisensorial storytelling, and personal engagement with highly valuable artifacts in a personalized Learningscape is a Museum Experience never before accomplished in the world.
Act 3: The Experience in the Immersive Learningscape was complimented with additional artifacts that were tangentially related to the Aalvar Aalto artifact. What is called the ‘Cluetrain Manifesto’: Intertwining what you selected for your visit with other artifacts that would have some connection to the original Aalvar Aalto artifact. A “if-you-liked-this-artifact, you-would-most-likely-be-interested-in-these-other-three” experience. Each of these artifacts would ‘arrive’ at the Immersive Learningscape preceded by the deeply engaging storytelling experience that transcends meaning and impacts people.
After the museum experiences, and upon arriving home, patrons would be inspired to take on new skills, rethink world challenges through design, and reconnect to discover new artists’ work with the NMAD App, potentially impacting the ALKU of a new idea.
