Haapio, Annex to the National Museum of Finland

Haapio, a competition entry for the Annex to the National Museum of Finland, creates a new icon for the museum complex – a wooden entrance pavilion. The name "Haapio" refers to an ancient boat type carved from a single wood log. Rustic materials and ambiguous character of the entry allude to Finnish identity and cultural heritage. Haapio won the shared 3rd prize in the Uusi Kansallinen architecture competition.

Haapio is a new interpretation of the ability of architecture to communicate Finnish values in our global world. It shifts from the stone castles of the old National Museum to folklore and wood, emphasizing the importance of wood as a Finnish building material in the past and in our own time. The competition proposal uses modern knowledge to refine the structural solutions of Finnish wooden churches or the insight of carving a boat from a log, reinterpreting these traditions and related stories.

The architecture of the annex is built around the appeal of the timber-framed entrance pavilion covered in tarred aspen shingles. The top floor of Haapio houses a high-quality museum restaurant and a courtyard-level café. The open space under the pavilion connects two different parks, providing weather protection for a variety of small events. Entrance to the underground exhibition spaces is also located under the pavilion.

Lahdelma & Mahlamäki architects: Rainer Mahlamäki with Pedro García Alcázar, Antti Canth, Taavi Henttonen, Tarmo Juhola, Mykolas Malskis, Katri Rönkä, Jukka Savolainen and Ilkka Syrjäkari

Advisor: Markus Lähteenmäki

Visualisation: Brick Visual

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