The museum is composed of two spaces - one for exhibitions, the other a public forum - that come together in a dance involving art and the city, gradually engaging in multiple movements, from a pas de deux, to a pas de trois, etcetera.

One space of the museum is on the dock level of the port facility, acknowledging the site’s industrial function as a vital memory for the new ensemble. Part gathering place, part community center, part incubator for innovation, it is conceived as a social commons within the city.The other space of the museum houses art exhibitions. Hovering in the air, it offers a place for contemplation, with large open galleries, complementing its companion space below.

Greater than the sum of its parts, the museum generates multiple relations among people, architecture, and the arts. With this, the Guggenheim Helsinki can engage a broad constituency of stakeholders, benefiting not only the arts but the public at large.