An exclusive look inside Helsinki’s experimental new landmark | CNN

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The Helsinki City Museum reopens in the heart of the city's historic Tori Quarters on May 13. The creative minds behind the renovation gave CNN Style an exclusive private tour of the renovated space, and the intricate design details hidden within.

"The idea was to create something that relates to the concept of the museum: time, layers, always changing because time is piling up constantly. After 15, 20 years, this (wall) will be completely green, but it is an ongoing process." Aki Davidsson, Main Designer at Davidsson Tarkela Architects

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"There are a lot of things in this space. It's not the point that you understand everything; the main idea is just to be a nice space, and if you want to take a closer look, then you can find out new things." Milka Tulinen, Interior Architect at Kakadu

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"The combination of these old buildings when you walk through them, that's already a museum. So many different periods of time. The oldest building, where the children's museum is, is from the mid-1700s." Aki Davidsson, Main Designer at Davidsson Tarkela Architects

Johannes Romppanen for CNN

"This is the oldest preserved stone house in Helsinki, and it's now dedicated to the youngest." Ulla Teras, Project Director at Helsinki City Museum

Johannes Romppanen for CNN

"There are a lot of children's museums in the world. They come with their parents, or their kindergarten groups or their grandparents. There has to be something that joins them, that they can do together." Tiina Merisalo, Museum Director at Helsinki City Museum

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"This is the jewel of the whole thing: on top of the museum, to create a small atelier space where one can do anything -- they could give it to a painter, or put just one object in the middle. I don't know where the limits of the space are." Aki Davidsson, Main Designer at Davidsson Tarkela Architects

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"The museum offers a platform for you to think, explore and get to know this city and its history -- and maybe even fall in love with Helsinki!" Ulla Teras, Project Director at Helsinki City Museum

"Rakastu Helsinkiin" is Finnish for "Fall in love with Helsinki."

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"This couch here, it was the idea that we wanted to have a timeline, wanted to show parts of designs from different decades." Milka Tulinen, Interior Architect at Kakadu

Johannes Romppanen for CNN

"The Museum of Broken Relationships was created by two Croatian artists -- Olinka Vištica and Dražen Grubišić. We chose this for our opening exhibition because we work with emotions, experiences... so this fits really well." Tiina Merisalo, Museum Director at Helsinki City Museum

"Half of these objects were collected from Helsinki. We had this open call for stories and objects, and people here got very excited. There were over 200 objects and stories." Ulla Teras, Project Director at Helsinki City Museum

Johannes Romppanen for CNN

"Museum contents, as we traditionally see them, are usually in exhibitions. We're shaking that system. The contents are already here when you arrive, from the lobbies and the courtyard to the interiors." Tiina Merisalo, Museum Director at Helsinki City Museum

Johannes Romppanen for CNN

"The idea of this space is it's better to have more than less. It's an overload, but I'm somehow already used to it. Maybe we should add some more?" Milka Tulinen, Interior Architect at Kakadu

Johannes Romppanen for CNN

"A little bit of modern architecture combined with the old architecture, that's something that we like very much. We like to add new pieces and create not a parallel situation, not a juxtaposition, but something where old and new work together." Aki Davidsson, Main Designer at Davidsson Tarkela Architects

Johannes Romppanen for CNN

"We don't just want to say this is a living room for everybody and this is their space -- this is very common in public institutions nowadays. We took this very seriously; we really want to make this space inviting." Ulla Teras, Project Director at Helsinki City Museum

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"The museum offers a lot for tourists but we really wanted to make it a place residents of Helsinki can come and visit over and over again.

This is everyday Helsinki history, with a little bit of a nostalgic feeling.'" Ulla Teras, Project Director at Helsinki City Museum

Johannes Romppanen for CNN

"There are some mainstreams in architecture that state that the exterior of the building should reflect the interior, so there should be a certain kind of connection. That was pretty much, I must say, a problem to be solved." Aki Davidsson, Main Designer at Davidsson Tarkela Architects

Story highlights

Helsinki City Museum is reopening in the capital's historic quarters

The new museum features interactive exhibitions and virtual reality displays

Helsinki, Finland CNN —

On May 13, Finland debuts a cultural experiment eight years in the making as the Helsinki City Museum reopens in the capital’s historic quarter.

“The museum is the core of Helsinki history,” said project manager Ulla Teras ahead of the opening. “It’s been our goal to make this unlike any other museum space or public place.”

The new museum – which combines five buildings dated from the 1750s to 1920s – is an interactive, informal institution where touching is not only allowed, but encouraged, and the past is in constant conversation with the present.

In place of foreboding glass cabinets and velvet ropes, the museum features tableaux from Helsinki life, virtual reality tours of the city over the decades, and an exhibition of stories and objects sourced from heartbroken locals.

The heart of Helsinki

The reinvention started in 2008 when the city granted the 110-year-old museum – which has multiple, smaller outposts throughout Helsinki – a rare opportunity to relocate its flagship to the historic Tori Quarters.

Walking-distance from designer boutiques and all four of the city’s Michelin-starred restaurants – as well as the historic port market and whitewashed Helsinki Cathedral, tourist favorites – the new location is located in what has become Helsinki’s cultural hub.

But what started as simple relocation turned into an opportunity for the team to reassess their mission, and work toward becoming a true community destination.

“The core has remained the same: we have to tell the story of Helsinki, and document and record the history. But of course the ways, the means, the methods to do this are completely different,” says museum director Tiina Merisalo.

Local firms Arkkitehdit Davidsson Tarkela and Kakadu were enlisted to weave hallmarks of what Teras calls “everyday Helsinki history” into the architecture and interior design respectively, whether through the inclusion of vintage Finnish design details in the lobby furniture, or the preservation of Art Deco-era bannisters in a stairwell.

“The museum offers a platform for you to think, explore and get to know this city and its history, and then relate to that and have a personal relationship with it – and maybe even fall in love with Helsinki,” Teras says.

“Of course the museum offers a lot for tourists, but we really wanted to make it a place residents of Helsinki can come and visit over and over again.”

A private tour

Earlier this week, while some corridors still awaited light fixtures and the smell of paint and plaster hung in the air, CNN Style was given an exclusive opportunity to tour the space with the designers, architects and organizers who know it better than everyone.

Check out the gallery above for an exclusive sneak peek at the new museum, and the clever design details hidden within.