INSTITUTIONS
Learning Space of the Year
AMOS REX BY JKMM ARCHITECTS
The seamlessness and playfulness
achieved in Amos Rex’s multifunctional
learning space appealed to the jury.
M
ika(^) H
uis
m
an
Jaaksi realized that to accommodate the
goals of the new art museum within its
compact site, the galleries would have to go
underground. ‘We wanted the exhibition
environment to be as open, adaptable and
flexible as possible: a large space that could
be continually rebuilt according to changing
needs,’ said Kai Kartio, director of Amos Rex.
The workshop area, complete with acoustic
panels on the ceiling and an open floor plan,
helps to foster creativity, exploration and
collaboration for young and old alike.
The architects’ black-box design
method, as well as the seamlessness and
playfulness achieved in the multifunctional
space, appealed to the jury, whose delibera-
tion raised questions about accessibility and
about how visitors could rationally use the
shared learning space. Amos Rex success-
fully answered all queries. The jury report
stated that ‘JKMM helped to update the
urban context with innovative, stimulating
content. Through the use of light, sculpture
and materiality, the interior has informed
a newly defined public exterior.’ – LGM
jkmm.fi
PEOPLE'S VOTE
Race Robotics Laboratory by Ministry
of Design
HELSINKI – Lasipalatsi Square in Helsinki
is home to Amos Rex, previously known as
the Amos Anderson Art Museum. The latter
half of the institution’s updated name comes
from Bio Rex, a cinema that was established
in the 1930s and is now restored in a neigh-
bouring functionalist-era glass building.
Visitors first encounter the museum’s
conceptual ‘roofscape’: large white domes
that erupt from the square. ‘You’re pre-
sented with sculpture before you go inside,’
said jury member Alex de Rijke of dRMM.
‘It’s abstract – but it’s warranted by human
scale and user concerns.’ When beginning
the project, JKMM founding partner Asmo
112 FRAME AWARDS 2019