Oulu Museum and Science Center

The museum freely interprets the aesthetics of industrial construction and creates a new layer in the historical milieu. The heavy, metal-clad mass hides a sacred wooden staircase and flexible exhibition spaces. Architecture offers the visitor strong experiences in multiple stages. The bevel that avoids Nahkurinpolku binds the mass to the intersecting coordinate systems of the area and creates the illusion of a floating mass. The pedestrian transport route to be preserved is the red thread that binds the area, connecting Myllytulli, the museum center and the Oulu Art Museum to the built cultural heritage area of the Oulunjoki estuary. The landscape architecture of the proposal creates rich street space and large-scale preserved tree areas soften the gradient between the new and the old. The wooden proposal represents a bold vision of sustainable museum architecture.