Visiting the newest sections of the Amos Rex Museum in Helsinki is a prodigiously positive experience—even though they’re underground.
The above ground portions of the Amos Rex art museum are relatively conventional in a modern Scandinavian sort of way. The newly completed underground areas of the museum silently, but directly, send the message that time spent in Amos Rex is not like time spent in many other museums. The architecture signals that the people running Amos Rex have a unique perspective on, well, apparently, everything.
Natural light is plentiful in the underground sections of the museum and the incredible, fanciful skylights that provide that light emerge above ground in Amos Rex’s plaza with forms that bring Dr. Seuss to mind. The natural light does wonders for the cognitive wellbeing of underground art museum patrons and also boosts mood—which is very important in a below ground space, subterranean spaces often seem somewhat ominous. Humans have a tendency to feel trapped and tense underground if they loose visual contact with the world above. The in-plaza sections of the skylights are wonderful places to climb and play or ponder life.
The underground sections of the Amos Rex feature many curved lines, in the skylights themselves, the lines that define the volumes of the underground rooms, etc. The lighting fixtures in the underground lobby are enveloped in swirling whorls. All these curves make the underground space an even more comfortable place to be. The material used to create the lighting swirls seems to have an organic origin and humans have positive responses to natural materials, as audits of biophilicly designed spaces make clear.
Being in the recently completed subterranean sections of the Amos Rex Museum is enchanting. “Enchanting” is an often used word, but in this case, it is the only appropriate term. The below ground areas cast a spell on visitors that lifts their hearts and heads for many moons.