Helsingborg Arts Building

£15m museum, gallery, performance and educational facility competition, 1997

The port city of Helsingborg is Sweden's closest contact with continental Europe, clearly visible from Elsinore, its Danish twin.
The building is to act as the cultural and public component as part of a large scale and mixed use harbour-front development, and will house a variety of uses including permanent exhibition space, temporary exhibitions, music school, ballet school, performance space, teaching facilities and workshops, as well as administrative functions, underground parking.
The proposals take the form of the pan-cultural emblem of arrival, the portal, alluding to the dock-side infrastructure of cranes and gantries. Within this 'frame' coexists an interlocked assembly of spatial entities and interstitial space, contained as though they were precious objects.
The lower surface is articulated with water courses, planting and sculpture and extended to become an inclusive platform where outdoor performance and markets can take place.