The design serves as a symbol for a dynamic 21st-century city by shifting the boundaries between open and closed, urban and art, and by creating new opportunities to display, link and create arts within the city.

This proposal concept aims to function as a translator between the urban condition, the public, and the museum spaces. The existing urban edges of the city context define a triangular building mass. Lifting the main exhibition space allows the public and the museum programme to float freely underneath, creating a continuous connection between the urban fabric and water. A 24-metre high atrium in the raised exhibition space generates a T-shaped hybrid space, combining the qualities of a horizontal exhibition space with those of a vertical one and making three dimensional displays possible. The grid structure (in Finnish wood) shapes diverse spaces – galleries, atrium-like spaces and informal exhibition spaces beyond the physical confines of the building.