The architectural competition for the development of a concept for the revitalization and development of Kazimierz Park and the "Agaton" square in Warsaw has been cancelled. Although several months have passed since the results were announced, the organizers had to abide by the decision resulting from the ruling of the National Board of Appeals. What was the reason for the cancellation and will Warsaw decide to hold another competition?
The last major transformation of the green space located on Browarna Street in Warsaw took place in the late 1960s, when the Kazimierzowski Park was arranged in the area of the former zoological garden, located in the past at the back of the baroque palace of Jan Kazimierz. The concept for the new arrangement was prepared at the time by Longin Majdecki, one of the capital's most important landscape architects, responsible, among other things, for the designs of the Park of Marshal Edward Rydz-Smigly, Agrykola and Arkadia Parks, or the garden arrangements for Królikarnia and the Royal Castle in Warsaw.
After more than half a century that has passed since the creation of Kazimierz Park, the time has come for its revitalization. With the end of March 2025, the Greenery Board of the Capital City of Warsaw has announced a limited, one-stage competition for designs for the development of the Kazimierzowski Park area and the nearby "Agaton" Square.
One of the water reservoirs in the Kazimierzowski Park area in Warsaw
Photo: Wistula © CC BY-SA 3.0 | Wikimedia Commons
Results of the competition for the design of Kazimierzowski Park
Six works were accepted for evaluation, and the jury, working under the chairmanship of Grzegorz Stiasny, awarded three prizes and an honorable mention. As we read in the notification of the results of the competition, dated September 12, 2025, first place went to the RS Architektura Krajobrazu studio, which, in addition to a cash prize, received an invitation to negotiate on a negotiated basis. The next two places went to conscorcjum Regio Sp. z o.o. and Pracownia Architektury Krajobrazu Katarzyna Kwiatkowska and PALMETT. An honorable mention was awarded to the Marek Piwowarski Landscapes studio.
Kazimierzowski Park in Warsaw
Photo: Wistula © CC BY-SA 3.0 | Wikimedia Commons
The awarded works were not made public online by the competition organizers, and it is in vain to look for them on the websites or social media profiles belonging to the winning studios. The information vacuum was to persist for several more months.
KIO orders cancellation of competition results
The joy of the winning studio could not last long, because already on January 13, 2026, the Competition Court published a notice of invalidation of the action of approving the competition settlement and omitting from the evaluation of the works submitted by the RS Architektura Krajobrazu Dorota Rudawa studio and the consortium Regio Sp. z o. o. and Pracownia Architektury Krajobrazu Katarzyna Kwiatkowska. Three days later, on January 16 of this year, a message appeared on the public procurement portal announcing the cancellation of the entire competition.
On 13.01.2026. The Procuring Entity carried out the actions ordered by the National Board of Appeals and turned to the Competition Tribunal for further decisions. On 15.01.2026. The Competition Jury passed a resolution, from which it follows that, seeing no possibility of re-evaluating the competition works and selecting the best work from among the remaining works, it recommends cancelling the competition. The Competition Jury did not make a re-judgment and decided that this is contrary to the Competition Regulations, the Competition Jury Regulations and the Public Procurement Law, due to the fact that at this stage the authors of the works are identified, and the competition can only be resolved before the works are identified.
- reads the notice.
Stanislaw Jankowski "Agaton" square in Warsaw
Photo: Adrian Grycuk © CC BY-SA 3.0 pl | Wikimedia Commons
disappearing evidence
But why the aforementioned order of the National Board of Appeals?
As it turns out, the potential violation of the principle of anonymity took place already at the stage of submitting the competition works. An appeal to the results of the competition was filed by the PALMETT landscape architecture studio, whose work won second place, pointing out that among the materials submitted by two other studios there was information that could make it possible to determine their authorship at the evaluation stage. The ruling, published by the National Board of Appeals, reads:
The competition work in pdf format of the Accession1 [RS Architektura Krajobrazu - ed.] consisted of a file named "PLANSZA_05". When opening this file, a visualization (image) appears in the upper right corner: which after some time was no longer visible. The aforementioned visualization (image) was in the competition work that the Accession1 [RS Architektura Krajobrazu - ed.] submitted in another competition conducted by the Ordering Party with the title "Architectural and urban planning competition for the development of a concept for the reconstruction of streets in the area of Stara Praga in Warsaw", and which was selected as the best competition work in this competition. The aforementioned visualization (image) was published on websites, including the Contracting Authority's website, prior to the deadline for submission of competition works in the Competition.
An inconsistency with the guidelines of the Competition Regulations was also found in the work submitted by the consortium Regio Sp. z o o. and Pracownia Architektury Krajobrazu Katarzyna Kwiatkowska. Among the materials was a file with a description of the concept, containing metadata that could have made it possible to identify one of the entities participating in the competition.
Due to the violation of the principle of anonymity, the National Board of Appeals ruled:
[...] In view of the foregoing, Appeal1 should have been upheld, ordering the Contracting Authority to cancel the action of approving the competition's outcome and omitting the competition entries submitted by the Adherent1 and the Adherent2 from the evaluation, and Appeal2 in part, ordering the Contracting Authority to cancel the action of approving the competition's outcome and omitting the competition entries submitted by the Adherent1 from the evaluation.
The costs of the appeal proceedings were charged to the Contracting Authority, in this case the City of Warsaw.
Kazimierzowski Park in Warsaw
Photo: Adrian Grycuk © CC BY-SA 3.0 pl| Wikimedia Commons
What's next for Kazimierzowski Park?
According to the Warsaw branch of Gazeta Wyborcza, at this point it is not yet known whether the competition will be re-launched. According to Magdalena Młochowska, director-coordinator of Green Warsaw, who is also a member of the competition jury, an appeal has been filed with the National Board of Appeals against the aforementioned ruling. As of the date of publication of this article (18.2.2026), the National Board of Appeals has not yet referred to the submitted appeal. It can be expected, however, whether the same studios will decide to participate in the competition again?
