Amos Rex Art Gallery was a two part project. The renovation and restoration of the famous Lasipalatsi building and the construction of new state of the art gallery spaces and facilities. Together comprising just over 13,000 m2.

Located in the heart of the city of Helsinki, the entrance to Amos Rex Gallery is through Lasipalatsi; a distinguished 1930s Functionalist pavilion comprising restaurants, shops and the Bio Rex cinema – which leads visitor underground to the new gallery spaces.

On ground level, the only visible façade of the gallery is the roofscape of the underground exhibition halls and their dome skylight windows. The structure of the these large skylights enabled a column-free 2,200 m2 black box-kind of exhibition halls to be built. The main hall’s scale is awe-inspiring with the ceiling domes, and it is fully modifiable and flexible for any form of art. The ceilings are covered with thousands of acoustic discs and floors are black hardwood block floors.

Inside, sloping stairs lead down to the airy and light lobby space that is designed to decompress senses before and after visiting the exhibitions. The lightning fixture, designed by Petri Vainio, covers the whole lobby ceiling and provides an ethereal combination with natural light from the sky lights above. All the functions are in matt black and are visually strictly separate from the lobby space.

The restoration of the modernist gem Lasipalatsi was done with great respect and eye for details. All the materials and colors are chosen to follow the original. The renovation celebrates the original design while new furniture is clearly contemporary.

From an architectural and a cultural perspective, Helsinki’s evolving urban identity has been paramount in conceiving the Amos Rex project, a truly exciting new centre for the visual arts.