Sámi Museum and Nature Centre Siida gains beautiful updated facilities

Located in the centre of Inari, Siida is one of the most beloved museums and nature centres in Finland. The renovation and expansion project provided new facilities for the main exhibition and the internationally valuable Sámi collection.

Owned by Senate Properties, Siida is the northernmost Museum Card museum in Finland, housing the Sámi Museum, the Northern Lapland Nature Centre maintained by Metsähallitus, and Restaurant Sarrit. An extensive renovation and expansion project was launched in the centre of Inari in 2020, and it resulted in Siida gaining two new wings and approximately 1,400 additional square metres. The long-awaited expansion project kicked off when the National Museum of Finland decided to repatriate, i.e. return, its entire Sámi collection to Sámi Museum Siida.

“The Sámi Museum is a museum with national responsibility, and the internationally significant collection of more than 2,000 Sámi items has now been returned to it,” says Eija Ojanlatva, acting Museum Director or the Sámi Museum. The expansion was necessary for the Sámi Museum in any case. The museum’s old collection facilities were complete full. “Additionally, items made of different materials require different storage conditions, which is why we had a great need for both new storage facilities and modern and secure conservation facilities.”

The renovation was also necessary in order to update the customer service, exhibition and office facilities of the more than 20-year-old building. “For example, we were able to separate the customer service of the Nature Centre from other customer service operations, which brought much needed privacy to the processing of permits,” says Kirsi Ukkonen, Recreational Amenity Specialist from Metsähallitus and Project Manager in charge of the project.

Supports were installed under the old building’s walls

The Siida expansion and renovation project was carried out in two phases. The new wings at each end of the existing building were completed first, followed by the renovation of the old facilities. “The site was particularly interesting with regard to its location, operations and size,” remarks renovation expert Henri Koukkari from Sweco.

Supports were placed under the old lightweight exterior walls because false stem walls had been used in some places. In the original design, the roof was ventilated through the cold glass panes of the skylights, which caused condensation issues. To alleviate this situation, the frame structure of the skylights was changed so that ventilation air would no longer flow inside the skylights. “The skylights with architectural value were retained, but the ventilation of the roof was redirected to flow through the raised frames of the windows,” Koukkari says.

The unreinforced foundation walls of the building had to be supported during the repair of the French drains, and room alterations and seal repairs were also carried out in places, including in the junctions of the base floors and exterior walls. “All surface structures were also renewed.”

Exhibition items are stored in precise conditions

Sweco’s building services professionals designed subtle HVAC, building automation and fire extinguishing systems for the site. The building had to ensure absolutely permanent humidity and temperature conditions for the priceless collections in the display cases and storage and conservation facilities alike.

“The conditions are of critical importance for the preservation of furs and other organic exhibition items, for example,” says Building Services Team Manager Esa Myllykangas from Sweco. The right conditions were created with the help of ventilation machines equipped with cooling and humidification systems as well as dedicated standard ventilation machines that take care of the conditions in different rooms.

Sensors connected to the building automation systems are used to monitor and regulate the conditions in different rooms as needed. “The items are also protected by a modern gas suppression system that reduces additional damage and clean-up caused by fire extinguishing,” adds Sprinkler System Team Manager Henri Mainio from Sweco.

The structural engineers and building services designers made sure, together, that the correct preparations for the second phase were already made in the solutions used in the first phase. “This is how we got all of the technology and structures to work together,” Koukkari says.

Siida’s original main exhibition was updated in conjunction with the renovation, and Kirsi Ukkonen believes that it was worth it. “It took a lot of work to coordinate the contracts, but we also gained technology that could not have been installed in the exhibition space without construction work. And the old wooden doors were also replaced with transparent glass sliding doors, for example.”

The updated Siida opened on 1 June 2022, which Ukkonen thinks is just as important to the locals as to travellers from near and far. “I would like to say that Siida is the most amazing museum and nature centre in Finland! We have 120,000 visitors per year, even though the village of Inari only has 700–900 residents.”

The locals use Siida actively, and it is an important meeting place for all of the Sámi in Finland and Finns. “We provide information on local nature and culture alike, and Siida also hosts a lot of events as well as cultural and nature education for the schoolchildren of the Sámi homeland.”