The art museum Gösta showcases several temporary exhibitions every year, including highlights from the collections of the Gösta Serlachius Fine Arts Foundation, one of the largest Nordic art collections.

An open architectural competition for the design of the museum’s extension was organised in 2011. The winning team of the Barcelona-based firm MX_SI architectural studio designed the implementation together with their local partner, Huttunen-Lipasti-Pakkanen Architects. The pavilion was opened in the summer of 2014.

The new Gösta is considerably larger than the adjacent old museum, Joenniemi manor from 1935. The architects have managed to construct a functional museum complex based on a difficult starting point. The old building’s brick façades and the building’s wood and glass façades create a unique, memorable milieu, together with the garden, which opens towards the lake.

The use of wood is contemporary while honouring the legacy of Gösta Serlachius, who built his fortune in forestry. The glulam mullions developed especially for this project form an orderly rhythm that ties together the design. Stripped of detail, the mullions and vertical boarding are contrasted by the slanted roof and the diagonal ‘gashes’ of the windows and gables.

Gösta is a milestone in the renaissance of wood construction in the 2000s. Its architecture reforms tradition and manifests the possibilities of using wood. In the big picture of Finnish architecture, Gösta is an engaging combination of internationalism, tradition and emerging design.

As an important public building, Gösta reinforces the public image of Mänttä. At its best, architecture can contribute to the identity of an entire city.

Sources:

The Finlandia Prize for Architecture 2014 shortlist

The Finnish Architecture Biennial Review 2016 catalogue