The Gösta Pavilion, the new extension to the Serlachius Art Museum in Mänttä, contains three exhibition halls of different sizes, an assembly hall, a restaurant, museum shop and space for storage and conservation. The new building is joined to the Art Museum, built in 1935, by a glass link corridor.
The building, which descends towards the shore of the lake in a long curve, shows great respect for its surroundings. Special attention has been paid to the protection of the important park and its trees. Architectonic aims include the relationship between interior and exterior space, and the interaction between the existing buildings and the environment.
The Pavilion is 135 metres long and 17 metres high at its highest point. The load-bearing structure consists of a framework made up of around one hundred laminated-timber columns and beams which can be seen both internally and externally. The frames carrying the upper floor, which is in concrete, articulate the interior space and give the building its unique character.
The facade material varies between glass and wood, with the irregular geometry of the glass surfaces reflecting the surrounding landscape. The spruce boarding used in the external cladding is treated with a transparent finish and the fields of spruce boarding are higher in one corner. The rhythm between the boarding and the laminated-timber structure carrying the cladding generates a three-dimensional surface which looks extremely lively in sunlight.
Floors are in oak, suspended ceilings between the laminated beams are in spruce boarding, or spruce battens in work spaces. All wooden surfaces are fire-proofed, but the interiors are not equipped with sprinklers.
The design includes standard products combined with custom-made details. There are effectively no right angles in the building, something which sets very high requirements for the manufacture and installation of the timber components.
The Gösta Pavilion has been awarded the Spanish International Architecture Prize and is one of the candidates for the Architecture Finlandia Prize.
Art museum gösta
The manor-house, which was built in 1935, was designed by the architect Jarl Eklund for the industrialist Gösta Serlachius and has been used as a museum since 1945.
Work on the extension began in November 2012 and the renovated museum was reopened in June 2014.
Wood Award 2014 winner