Rooted in the scent of salt, the AD Museum titled “Fishing Net” is born from a simple gesture of memory: the harbour as a living archive. Its form grows from sails, market awnings and nets cast at dawn; rather than imposing a foreign monument on Helsinki’s South Harbour, the museum folds into the city’s seam, preserving views, the human scale of Market Square and the textures of the shore.

From afar it reads as a glowing lantern, an urban beacon; up close it becomes a net: a porous, embracing skin that filters light, frames movement and invites gathering. At the core lies the Agorà, a covered, piazza-like heart where indoor and outdoor dissolve. Three intersecting gallery monoliths rise like bastions, heavy and grounded yet punctured by framed views and terraces that return the gaze to the city. Inspired by coastal cliffs and fortifications, their weight signals refuge and endurance.

“Fishing Net” is therefore both an idea and an instrument, a building that remembers the harbour and adds a new layer of activity to it: an observatory of the city, a shelter for culture and a filter through which the rhythms of Helsinki can be seen, heard and shared.

Competition of a New Museum of Architecture

Location: Helsinki, Finland
Client: City of Helsinki, Finland
Area: 5000 sqm
Budget: € 45.000.000,00
Project development: 2024
Architecture: AACM
Images: AACM