NEW MUSEUM OF POLISH HISTORY

Under the thin ice

The Museum of Polish History is built as an hypogeum space, a silent presence that let the castle be the predominant architecture of the park.

Above the museum a vast water surface recalls the squared form and the measure of the Ujazdow Castle while asymmetrically expanding the geometry of the Stanislawowska axis through a gridded shape. The grid supports a network of pedestrian spaces that cross the water surface linking the diverse parts of the park while bridging the Trasa Łazienkowska.

The new Museum has the potential to redefine the whole area reinterpreting  the baroque axis  (Stanislawowska) from the river to the inner city. The presence of the axis is outlined by a  difference in the ground level (1.5 m)  and a canal is proposed to underline its extension towards the inner city. The paths of the park surface on the top of the plateaux are connected through the Museum surface. The promenade along the Skarpa became continuous and can also take diverse routes linking it with the Jazdow boulevard, for example.

Under the thin ice surface of everyday life, the acces to the museum emerges like a silent iceberg challenging the calm water of our everyday life.