JKMM Architects' extension for National Museum of Finland to open in 2027

The National Museum of Finland in Helsinki will inaugurate a new extension designed by JKMM Architects in spring 2027. The original museum, completed in 1916 in the National Romantic Style by Herman Gesellius, Armas Lindgren and Eliel Saarinen, had expansion plans that never materialized. A brutalist extension by Aarno Ruusuvuori in the mid-1980s also failed. JKMM won an anonymous competition in 2019. The extension includes a glazed entrance pavilion with a 43m-wide saucer-shaped roof, 600 sq m in area, which appears to float above 5m-tall glass walls. About 90% of the new structure is below ground. The pavilion's bowl roof weighs 1,400 tonnes and has the same diameter as the Roman Pantheon. Inside, a suspended ceiling features 5,000 handmade white ceramic tiles shaped as hearts, clovers and crosses, each weighing 20kg. The material palette includes brass, bronze aluminium, and timber. Integrated art includes two mosaics by Tuula Lehtinen with 92,000 handmade tiles. Bespoke pendant luminaires designed by Milla Vaahtera in collaboration with JKMM are made at the Nuutajärvi glass factory, active since the 1790s. The extension also adds two black box exhibition spaces (840 sq m and 270 sq m), a restaurant, and public spaces accessible without a ticket.