Architecture & Design Museum, Helsinki

About this site

The Design Museum, situated at the square on Korkeavuorenkatu opposite the Johanneskirkko church, attracts attention not only for its prominent location but also for its ornamental character. Through its rendered brick facade material the building is connected to the architecture of the Johanneskirkko church that dominates the square. The building's hallmarks in Neo-Gothic formal style are the large and tall windows and the roof equipped with decorative pointed-pinnacled towers. In the centre of four smaller towers with decorative incisions rises an interestingly articulated central tower. The building's first two floors follow the typical articulation of Neo-Renaissance, also visible in the normal school architecture on the opposite side. For the upper part of the building's central risalit, which continues as a third floor with attic spaces, the architect applied the Brick Gothic of the Baltic Sea region, fashionable at the time of design. The small window openings are decorated with pediment triangles. The building's plinth is granite, as are the steps to the main entrance, on both sides of which are wrought-iron lamp posts. The building is a Gesamtkunstwerk in which aesthetic and ideological aspirations are combined; the building was, after all, originally constructed as a school. Connected to the ideology are also the decorative paintings and aphorisms on the walls belonging to the school's original character, of which there originally appear to have been some only in the main entrance staircase. The formal language chosen for decoration is Neo-Gothic, which Nyström considered a kind of national style. The interiors have well preserved their original appearance. The original decorative paintings in the main entrance staircase have been reconstructed. The floor clad with ceramic tiles in the entrance hall is original. In the café a restored frieze painting can be seen; such existed in other rooms too. The second-floor banqueting hall has been joined to the corridor by pointed-arch openings supported by cast-iron and granite columns. The main halls and central foyer form a single space. In the renovation, tiled stoves, tile floors and panel ceilings were retained, some of which were painted white. Double staircases at each end of the corridors are still in use.

Official description (Museovirasto) — machine-translated from Finnish

The Architecture & Design Museum is a museum in Helsinki devoted to the exhibition of both Finnish and foreign design and architecture, including industrial design, fashion, and graphic design. The building is situated in Kaartinkaupunki, on Korkeavuorenkatu Street, and is owned by the Republic of Finland through Senate Properties. The building was completed in 1895 and originally built as a school building for the Swedish-language school Läroverket för gossar och flickor.

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Municipality

Helsinki