The Museum of Finnish Architecture is located in Helsinki on Kasarminkatu. The classicist building was designed by Magnus Schjerfbeck and completed in 1899. The building was originally planned to fill the entire plot, but due to actual space requirements only its cube-shaped central section was realised. In style it represents the Neo-Renaissance that prevailed at the end of the previous century in relatively simple form. The facade is articulated with cornices and pilasters, between which the intervals in the second and third floors are almost entirely window area. The interior is dominated by an entrance hall and, in relation to the size of the building, an impressively grand and decorated staircase hall. Public spaces are on three floors. The ground floor contains ticket sales, a bookshop and a library. The second floor houses the spaces for temporary exhibitions. The large exhibition hall serves as a use space for the museum and also, at actual scale, as part of the museum's collections illustrating Finnish architecture. The third floor contains the permanent exhibition and archive as well as the museum's administrative spaces. The Museum of Finnish Architecture shares its plot on the Korkeavuorenkatu side with the Design Museum. Between the buildings there is a fairly large courtyard that has been used for various events; for example in 2012, when Helsinki was one of the World Design Capitals, a temporary award-winning timber pavilion was erected in the courtyard, later demolished. The building was restored for museum use in accordance with the thinking of the time in the early 1980s. In the ceremonial rooms, decorative paintings were reconstructed to match the originals, and the staircase hall's marbling was restored.
Official description (Museovirasto) — machine-translated from Finnish
The Museum of Finnish Architecture is an architectural museum in Helsinki, Finland. Established in 1956, it is the second oldest museum of its kind devoted specifically to architecture. The museum was founded on the basis of the photographic collection of the Finnish Association of Architects (SAFA), which was established in 1949. In 2024, the Museum of Finnish Architecture merged with the Design Museum to form the Architecture & Design Museum.