Location: Oulu, Finland

Design Team: OPUS Architecture + Simon Mahringer

Area: 9,540 m²

Year: 2026

Photography: Johan Dehlin

Design Features: Tiima Museum and Science Centre stands in Myllytulli, a former industrial district beside central Oulu. Designed jointly by OPUS Architecture and Simon Mahringer, the project extends the historic power station of the Åström Brothers' leather factory and brings the Oulu Museum, Science Centre Tietomaa, the Children's Museum and the immersive VISIO experience under one roof. The 9,540 m² complex grew from Loggia, the winning proposal in a 2022 open competition, and was completed during Oulu's year as European Capital of Culture 2026.

Rather than treating the museum as an isolated monument, the design begins by reshaping the public realm around it. Two enclosed brick volumes shift in response to the site's different directions of approach and form a calm museum square with the existing power station. A new tower marks the change between their geometries and enters into a distant dialogue with the old industrial water tower, breaking the large programme into parts that belong to the scale of the surrounding district.

The open loggia is the critical space between old and new. A dark ceiling holds together a sequence of brick piers and glazed edges, making the gallery both an all-weather route and a place from which to read the historic facade, entrance court and everyday city. Visitors move along it toward the old power station or the two new wings. Brick openings, vertical windows and a continuous floor bind different periods into one walk, allowing history to remain an active structure rather than an object behind glass.

The new volumes contain eight exhibition halls, an immersive interactive space, workshops, a restaurant, shop and offices. Neutral enclosed galleries support changing displays, while the loggia, entrance halls and old power station carry a more specific architectural character. Exposed brick, grey floors and black slatted ceilings establish a restrained material hierarchy. Large openings layer one room behind another, and concrete stairs and service areas remain quiet enough for both exhibition systems and the retained industrial fabric to stay legible.

Around 300,000 bricks reconnect the extension with Myllytulli's industrial memory. Deep windows, projecting brick piers and fine vertical shadows reduce the apparent weight of the new volumes. Durability and adaptability take precedence over spectacle: regular halls allow future change, while the directional loggia and square provide a stable civic framework. Tiima does not restore the past as a fixed backdrop; it establishes a continuing relationship among the power station, the new brick buildings and public life.

Design Team: OPUS Architecture was founded in Helsinki in 2017 by Paul Thynell, Matias Kotilainen and Tuomas Martinsaari. All three studied architecture at Aalto University and have worked closely together since 2013. The practice spans building design and urban planning, developing functional, structurally coherent and durable environments through active collaboration with clients, engineers and specialist consultants throughout the design process.

OPUS describes architecture as a balance between the general and the specific. The general supports adaptability, future use and construction economy; the specific turns space into a place capable of carrying memory. The studio also shares its work through public lectures and teaching at Aalto University and is a member of the Association of Finnish Architects' Offices. Tuomas Martinsaari was the partner responsible for Tiima, working with Benjamin Schulman, Hannes Teräsvuori, Jere Pääkkönen, Vepe Erikkilä, Matias Kotilainen, Paul Thynell and Valtteri Hautsalo.

Joint Design Team: Simon Mahringer is a Helsinki-based architect with a Diploma in Architecture from ETH Zurich and a university lecturer in sustainable construction at Aalto University's Department of Architecture. His work moves between practice, competitions and material research, with interests in low-carbon construction, reuse, circular economy and experimental materials. Mahringer has collaborated repeatedly with OPUS in Finnish architecture competitions. Their Loggia proposal for Tiima won first prize among 95 entries in 2023, and Mahringer was named Teacher of the Year by Aalto's Department of Architecture in 2024.