Turku New Museum.

Finland’s oldest city positions a new museum as a catalyst for its climate-neutral future.

The City of Turku initiated the Museum of History and Future as part of its broader vision to position the city as a global leader in sustainable urban development and cultural innovation. As Finland’s oldest city and a major cultural center in the Baltic region, Turku is undergoing a strategic transformation that aligns environmental responsibility, social wellbeing, and long-term urban growth. Central to this transformation is the regeneration of the Linnanniemi waterfront district, identified by the municipality as a key site for future civic life, public space, and cultural infrastructure.

The project is closely tied to Turku’s ambitious climate agenda, including its commitment to achieving carbon neutrality by 2029 and advancing a resource-wise future grounded in sustainable development and responsible use of natural resources. The city views cultural institutions as essential drivers of this transformation — platforms that can shape public awareness, strengthen community identity, and reinforce the relationship between people and place.

Within this context, the museum was conceived not simply as a cultural facility, but as a civic catalyst — an institution capable of reflecting Turku’s heritage while advancing its commitment to climate action, community participation, and adaptive urban development. The municipality sought a project that would operate simultaneously as a cultural landmark, a public gathering space, and a model for how architecture can participate in shaping the future of the city.

A civic instrument — an active platform for interaction, discovery and collective knowledge.

The design reimagines the museum as a civic instrument — an active platform for interaction, discovery, and collective knowledge. Rather than functioning as a static container, the building operates as a participatory environment where visitors engage with exhibitions, landscape, and one another through spaces designed for meeting, gathering, play, and reflection.

A layered sequence of environments supports this openness — outdoor terraces with playful topographies, water decks, community rooms for workshops and events, cafés and lounges for informal exchange, and quiet spaces for reflection and work. Flexible interior modules allow the museum to transform into maker fairs, markets, and seasonal installations, ensuring continuous relevance and year-round activity. The site adapts to seasonal change, exposing archipelagos during dry periods and expanding the waterscape during wetter seasons. Integrated stormwater systems — including a basin along the western edge and a shallow retention tank — function as visible infrastructure that supports ecological performance while shaping the visitor experience.

Through these strategies, the museum becomes both landscape and architecture, infrastructure and cultural platform. It does not simply preserve history — it participates in it, evolving alongside its environment and community while serving as a catalyst for Turku’s future.