What should a new Museum of Architecture in Helsinki be like? We remembered our childhood fascination with construction sites – places of imagination, mystery and possibility. A building under construction goes through transformation similar to a caterpillar, becoming a cocoon, into a chrysalis, and into a butterfly. During construction, the future building is imagined collectively – by the architects, engineers, builders, and the passersby. The end result may often be disappointing simply because there is nothing left to imagine.

We propose that the Museum of Architecture remains in the state of continuing re-construction (työmaa is Finnish for construction site). The crane on top never goes away but instead becomes part of the building, and the city skyline. The structure below is partially filled to create necessary enclosed spaces but there is enough open space to bring in huge exhibition pieces or even make another, temporary building. It is an active construction site that people enter with their admission tickets, excited all over again like when they were children. And children get to see building transformation in action! Ordinary things can become magical with the city as a backdrop: communal dinners outside, gardens where friends can meet year round, outdoor movie screenings, and many more.

The Museum is also surrounded by a “fence” – a Log Grid, inspired by the traditional Finnish pisteaita. This wooden diagrid envelopes the Museum as skin enwraps the body. It defines the overall mass of the museum without completely describing it; it allows the viewer to imagine what the building can be.

There is a prototype for our museum: the Mastekranen. Our Mastekranen – the Crane – is a working piece of infrastructure, a poetic metaphor and a utility: it will lift artifacts, move objects, rooms, even small buildings in and out of the museum. The Crane is the Museum’s main vertical circulation route; it is also a viewing device: a multitude of cameras attached to the crane’s boom will bring videofeed of the city outside into the galleries for future Museum installations. The Crane itself, along with other building steel, will be re/up-cycled from one of the Baltic ports. The Crane will become a beacon of the Museum of Architecture and Design, signaling the arrival of the new important public institution to the city of Helsinki.