Serlachius Museum Gösta | Alessandra Abbondanza

Initial approach and idea. The scope of the program, along with the area's extent and remarkable landscape features conveyed the concept towards the idea of an architecture which should strive to dialogue with the surroundings and with the potential of becoming a distinctive sign at a land scale, complementing and not overwhelming the environment of which is going to be part of. These early assumptions led to the thought of a project which would develop itself along a path, a primary axis that would allow a diffusion of the needed functions on the area rather than a concentration on a limited part of it and, in doing so, would foster the needed dialogue with the surroundings. The path's concept. The path is a fundamental element in the shaping of the architecture. Beyond its mere functional meaning of connecting the different parts of the project, and above all, it is intended to play an active role in the visiting experience. It aims to become an exhibition space itself, allowing the visitor to witness the beauty of the museum's surroundings from a privileged sequence of points of view, running from the manor through its park and across the lake to the opposite side of Taavetinsaari island, continuously finding a direct relation with the landscape, and between that and the various project's elements. The path's functional role. From a functional point of view, this generating axis collects the main distributive routes both at the public and at the service level, ensuring that their way through the project's parts is optimized, in particular by avoiding the mixing of those levels. This is obtained by organizing the axis itself on two floors for most of its length, with the lower one being an open vehicular service route, while the upper one serves as public path and access to the museum's parts. This setting-out permits an optimal use of the service connection, particularly between the collections' treatment and storage facilities and the exhibition spaces, while keeping it separated from the public walkway, which can thus provide an uninterrupted and continuous visiting experience. The extension's elements. Along the path's route, and tied to it, all the extension's needed premises are organized by function in a sequence of facilities, like stops between the stages in the visitor's metaphorical journey. A common language. All the main elements of the project, namely the path and the functional premises, aspire to communicate with the site through their design, shapes, distribution and materials, all of which are composed together in a common language that gives the intervention a consistent appearance while retaining and maintaining readable all of its parts' differentiations. Beams. The most evident unifying aspect is represented by the laminated wood beams that define the shapes of all of the project's sections. Each one of the functional premises is framed in a close array of these main structural elements, whose profiles shape and give identity to every single facility. Under the external structure, the various functional needs dictate the differentiations between glazed and opaque roofing (metal sheets) and external walls (wooden sidings), introducing variability within the overall language's consistency. Similarly, the main path is equipped by a row of beams along its south-west side, acting as structure and shield for the glazed passage, as well as a communicating element with the nature and part of the extension's unified appearance.