Together with independent arts organization Checkpoint Helsinki and labor rights initiative, G.U.L.F., Terreform launched The Next Helsinki, a call for ideas to highlight the effect of the Guggenheim sponsored design competition for a museum in Helsinki. Our aim was to elevate the debate about the fantasy of a high-concept museum by giving voice to bold and thoughtful alternatives.
 
We called on the design and urbanist community and also poets and musicians to imagine how Helsinki and its South Harbor could be transformed for the maximum benefit of residents and visitors. We received a range of ideas and interesting provocations (over two hundred!) addressing issues such as sustainability, the formation of neighborhoods, movement systems, boundaries and other urban issues that a large, “starchitect” designed museum may not prioritize.
 
Through The Next Helsinki, we continue the various strands of discussions about how a city—the greatest collective work of art ever conceived—builds for the future. And yes, we mean to be provocateurs!

Explore the results of this project in The Helsinki Effect: Public Alternatives to the Guggenheim Model of Culture-Driven Development (UR, 2016).