Berlin has its Museum Island, while the Island of Culture was to be created in Bialystok. Ultimately, the project ended up in a drawer, although its echoes still resound in talks about the future of the complex on Węglowa Street. Recently, the Army Museum in Bialystok announced the construction of a new building, which will be located where the Siberian Memorial Museum, the Museum of Motorization and Technology and other institutions already operate. The {tag:pracownie} is responsible for the detailed design of the new building.
Węglowka is a modernist warehouse complex in the northern part of Bialystok. In the interwar period, the Intendant Material Depot No. 13 was established here, which served the 18th Infantry Division. For the next several decades, the space was used by the military, including as warehouses, medical or training units. Eventually, in 2005, the city bought a large part of the space from the Military Property Agency, attempting in the following years to realize the concept of a "Podlasie Cultural Center" there. - Its design was selected in an international architectural competition, which was won by the Bialystok-based Arkon studio led by Jan Kabac. The plans were ambitious, as the complex was to include a Music and Theater Presentation Center, a Gallery of Contemporary Art, the Army Museum, the Moto-Retro Gallery, the State Archive, a shopping mall and the new headquarters of the Podlasie Bookstore.
bialystok island of culture in the trash?
Quickly, however, the overall concept for the "island of culture," as it began to be called at the time, ended up in a drawer. Over the course of nearly two decades, the vision for Węglowka continually changed - among other things, a business incubator or, unsurprisingly, a storage center were planned here. In the meantime, however, the site began to take on the character of a multifunctional complex that serves the Bialystok community. A large playground, a skatepark, a Martial Arts Center, the Museum of Motorization and Technology or the Military Park appeared here, and for a while the Cross-Border Cultural Center also operated.
Siberian Memorial Museum, designed by Jan Kabac
photo: MPS editor © CC BY SA 4.0 | Wikimedia Commons
Material proof of Węglowka's transformation was a new building, which, after 11 years of effort, opened to the public in 2021. The Siberian Memorial Museum, which was designed by Jan Kabac, was created as an extension of one of the storage halls, developed on the basis of earlier plans for the Army Museum building. According to the project selected in the competition, a monumental edifice was then built, which with its silent, "cool" façade and the spatial installations around it foreshadows the difficult subject matter that is dealt with inside.
The new Military Museum Building in Bialystok
Courtesy of the Bialystok City Hall and the Army Museum in Bialystok © LEM Studio of Architecture
Army Museum on Węglowa Street
However, this is not the last element of the revitalization at Węglowa Street in Bialystok. There are still several sites to be developed - in January, for example, the city announced a tender to select an entrepreneur who will enrich the place with a catering offer. A much more important change, however, will be the relocation of the Army Museum, which has so far had its headquarters in an interwar building on Jana Kilińskiego Street in the city center. The building has served the museum for 50 years, 234 square meters of exhibition space and 600 square meters of total floor space are definitely not enough for its needs. And since the first voices about moving to Węglowa Street appeared as early as 2006, that's where the new investment is planned.
The Army Museum has had its share in the revitalization of the area on Węglowa Street for some time -in 2022 the Military Park was opened there. Now, however, the Army Museum is facing relocation - in March of this year the city announced that it was transferring part of warehouse number 10 on Węglowka into the Museum's hands. At the beginning of November, in turn, it was announced that the land on Węglowa Street had been handed over to a construction contractor, who will carry out a new project here. So what will be built on Węglowka?
Warehouse hall on Węglowka in Bialystok
Photo: Adam Ludwiczak, photo courtesy of the Bialystok City Hall
museum in the warehouse
Warehouse No. 10, which is currently at the disposal of the Army Museum, is currently in a condition that makes it impossible to use for museum purposes, so a comprehensive renovation is planned. It turns out, however, that the museum has greater ambitions, and two floors of the storage hall are not enough to satisfy them. So LEM Studio of Architecture from Krakow has created a detailed design, which envisages not only refreshing and adapting the modernist warehouse space for museum purposes, but also performing a superstructure. As we learned during a field conference held on November 5, the new parts of the building and appropriate development of the interior spaces will make it offer the Museum 2,300 square meters of usable space, 600 of which will be allocated directly for exhibition purposes.
New Building of the Army Museum in Bialystok
Courtesy of the Bialystok City Hall and the Army Museum in Bialystok © LEM Studio of Architecture
The superstructure will be constructed as a single-story, fully glazed block. The large-scale glazing will be obscured by light breakers, irregularly distributed on the transparent facade planes. The light breakers, both in the form of vertical slats and a broken cornice transverse to them, will be realized in red, referring to the color of the brick from which the warehouse hall is built.
New Building of the Army Museum in Bialystok
Courtesy of the Bialystok City Hall and the Army Museum in Bialystok © LEM Studio of Architecture
project lost
The visualizations do not promise architecture of a similar caliber to that of the Siberian Memorial Museum, which stands nearby. This is all the more unfortunate because the MPS project is, to some extent, based on the concept prepared earlier for the Army Museum, which will have to settle for a much more modest headquarters. A major role for the final shape of the building will of course be the level of workmanship - here we keep our fingers crossed that it will be as high as possible. However, presentation is not everything - the new building of the Army Museum will have, among other things, an exhibition hall, a collection storage room, a film education room, a diagnostic laboratory and a library. Of course, office space, sanitary hubs and adaptation of infrastructure to accessibility standards are also planned.
The new Army Museum Building in Bialystok
Courtesy of the Bialystok City Hall and the Army Museum in Bialystok © LEM Studio of Architecture
lost island
The cost of building the new Army Museum is estimated at more than 40 million zlotys - 3.5 million zlotys will be raised from the Government's Monuments Reconstruction Program. The contractor has 24 months to complete the building, so in late 2026 the move will begin. This, along with the installation of the exposition is expected to last until 2028. Will it be money well invested? That depends on one's point of view. The amount of 40 million zlotys by today's standards does not seem exorbitant. Much more valuable is the revitalized space in which the new Museum will appear. So far, its architectural and city-forming value has been increasing, as the architecture of the Siberian Memorial Museum standing next door is a great proof. However, Węglowka is far from the comprehensive development vision outlined by architects from the Arkon office in 2006. The Army Museum is a small step toward recreating that concept, it seems, but after twenty years of wandering around, getting there may be very difficult.
