Image: Architecture & Design Museum, Helsinki
The Architecture & Design Museum in Helsinki is making a curated section of architect and theorist Juhani Pallasmaa’s personal library available to the public at Eteläranta 6, the museum’s new event and meeting space near its current site on Korkeavuorenkatu. The reference library will be accessible from September, with no closing date announced.
Pallasmaa donated his personal library in its entirety to the Architecture & Design Museum’s collections in 2013. The collection comprises approximately 12,000 volumes, of which the new presentation brings together around one tenth. The selection has been curated by Suvi Juvonen, the museum’s information specialist, in collaboration with Pallasmaa.
The books are intended to offer a view into the architect’s intellectual and cultural interests. According to the museum, the selection gathers works associated with important interlocutors, friends and sources of inspiration, while reflecting Pallasmaa’s broad engagement with cultures, the arts and philosophical thought. The books can be read on site but cannot be borrowed.
Pallasmaa describes the scope of his library in an essay published by the museum. His collecting began with architecture and art, he writes, before expanding to photography, film, philosophy, psychology, neuroscience, literary essays and poetry. The collection includes books bought in Finland, gifts and approximately 10,000 foreign-language books gathered during his travels. Pallasmaa also writes that the presence of books has influenced his architectural work, citing the paintings of Fra Angelico as an early and enduring point of reference.
The library occupies the middle floor of Eteläranta 6, a three-storey space designed by Studio Joanna Laajisto according to circular-economy principles. The building includes event and exhibition areas on the ground floor as well as workshop and meeting rooms on the upper floor. Museum collection objects and furniture are displayed throughout the premises, including in the library, where they form part of the setting alongside Pallasmaa’s books. The venue looks towards Helsinki’s South Harbour and the planned site of the new architecture and design museum.
Eteläranta 6 is being introduced as one of the official meeting places for Helsinki Design Week 2026, which runs from 28 August to 6 September. During the festival, the museum is presenting public events at the site, including an initial public programme on 31 August and discussion-guide sessions on 2 and 5 September. The library is also part of the space’s longer-term public offer, although Eteläranta 6 is open to the public during scheduled programming rather than as a continuously open museum gallery. The former Art Nouveau building is not fully accessible: it has stairs and no lift.
