Thirty-six works were submitted for last year's competition to design the reconstruction and expansion of the Museum of Architecture in Wroclaw. What do they have in common and what sets them apart?
Read more: Results of the competition for the expansion and reconstruction of the MA
Although the proposal of the Wroclaw team from the P2PA studio was missing from the competition podium, the leitmotif of their vision was not to obscure the historic monastery complex. Developing the corner of Bernardyńska Street and Juliusz Słowacki Avenue, and thus obscuring the existing buildings, was one of the main objections of those critically commenting on the awarded projects. However, as Michal Duda, Director of the MA, noted during the post-competition debate, this space was built up before the war, so locating the planned warehouse building in this place means restoring the pre-war spatial layout.
competition board
© P2PA
at the heart of the architecture
Designers from the Wroclaw-based studio P2PA (composed of: Aleksander Blicharski, Urszula Jędrzejak, Łukasz Kaczmarek, Jakub Kozaczenko, Jakub Podgórski and Maciej Popławski) reached for two rather traditional architectural solutions, through which they built a new block - both physically and symbolically. Their goal was primarily to open up the walls of the Museum of Architecture in Wroclaw. To achieve this effect, they introduced columns - representative structural elements known for centuries in a modern version - into the design. The circular brick supports surround the newly designed building and visually lead to the entrance.
The second important element in the project is the viridarium - referring to the existing, but hidden inside space of the former post-Bernardine monastery, the architects proposed its external version. As the authors of the project write, it is intended to be the reverse of the historic cemetery emphasizing the openness of the museum to the outside.
ground and 1st floor plans
© P2PA
[Column] connects the threads of the newly constructed building with entrances on the east and west sides. For the new building it becomes an inverted cemetery, for the western courtyard a point supporting the roof shaping the road, for the café a detached, abstract element, a sign. The simple gesture with a repetitive rhythm is also intended to merge the new elements with the additive but compact volume of the post-Bernardine complex
- explain the authors of the project.
first: don't obstruct
What distinguishes the P2PA project from other competition proposals is the decision not to obscure the existing museum building.
Such an idea becomes the guiding principle for shaping the new development, which [...] should not overshadow the most valuable exhibit, which is the historic Bernardine monastery complex
- say the designers.
The corner of Slowackiego Avenue and Bernardine Street is built up with only a one-story block - an arcaded plinth, on which a narrow "tower" has been placed on the eastern side, next to the park, to house, among other things, a reading room and warehouses on the first floor, conservation laboratories on the first floor and digitization laboratories on the very top. This procedure, the architects point out, made it possible to preserve the view of the height gradation of the monastery complex's roofs and the historic church tower.
The zone of the main entrance to the Museum of Architecture in Wroclaw
© P2PA
The main entrance to the MA was planned from the west, on Bernardinskaya Street. Through the open courtyard it is directed by an intriguing, gently profiled canopy guided by an arch and supported by a massive column - a pillar intended to be a clear sign in the context of the street. The second entrance, also highlighted by a canopy supported by a massive column - is located on the opposite side - straight from the park you can reach the public cafe in the east wing pavilion. The architects decided to open up this space to the inner girdle, thus integrating the heart of the museum with its surroundings. The unification of the museum area with the park is also supported by the introduction of semicircular green terrace steps, whose amphitheater-like layout intuitively leads visitors inside.
entrance from the park
© P2PA
visible / invisible
The project seeks to reinterpret the assumptions of the new building, so that the inherently closed and invisible worlds (conservation studios, digitization zone, deliveries) become an element that enters into integration with users
- explain the idea to the architects.
The P2PA studio team made sure that it is possible to look into various parts of the museum without entering the edifice - from the park you can peep into the work of conservation and digitization workers, and from the intersection - events organized on the roof of the first floor platform.
elevation from the park side
© P2PA
The created points of contact are to shape the meetings between the users and the creators of exhibitions, conservators and museum employees. The blurring of boundaries is to create conditions for interaction, debate, participation and realization of the vision of a contemporary, open museum
- the designers add.
The aforementioned "tower," or newly designed building, is a compact block on a rectangular plan with three above-ground and two underground floors. The first floor of the building is an extension of the column-supported, glazed pavilion. The higher levels of the facade on three sides are devoid of windows - they are formed by uniform brick-finished walls. On the park side, meanwhile, the sizable windows are separated by massive columns of gradually decreasing diameters, blended into the facade. The architects used a similar motif in the competition design for the County Office building in Toruń.
