When news of the demolition of Votum Aleksa, the youngest monument in Poland, circulated through the media in April 2024, architectural circles were in an uproar. The building, noticed not only in the country, but also abroad, was doomed to oblivion. However, it turns out that this is not the end of the story of the building designed by Marta and Lech Rowiński, and its next chapter is being written jointly by the Museum of Architecture, the National Institute of Architecture and Urban Planning and the Jerzy Grotowski Institute. Will Votum Aleksa return?
Alex's Votum was founded by Alexander Rowinski as an object of thanksgiving for the healing of his wife. The wooden chapel, which was built between 2007 and 2011 in Tarnow, near Garwolin, quickly attracted attention, becoming the subject of articles in the press and earning nominations for the "Polityka" Architecture Prize and the 2011 Mies van der Rohe Award . Although the chapel was never ultimately consecrated, it lasted intact until 2022, when the specter of demolition hung over the building. To prevent it, the Mazovian Regional Historic Preservation Officer, Prof. Jakub Lewicki, decided on an unprecedented move - listing the then 11-year-old building in the Register of Historic Places.
Workshop around the future of Votum Aleksa - day 1 of the workshop - seminar session
Photo: Iga Bałchanowska, courtesy of the Museum of Architecture in Wroclaw
The new incarnation of Votum Aleksa
However, his efforts were in vain, as just two years later, after several unfavorable administrative decisions, the entry was revoked and the demolition of the monument began. Even then, the Museum of Architecture was interested in saving the building. When we managed to reach the owners of the building, the demolition was at an advanced stage, so action had to be taken as soon as possible:
When we arrived in Tarnów and saw the site for which the chapel was designed, we understood that moving the object on a 1:1 scale would not make sense, even if it were possible. In view of this, we began working with Marta and Lech Rowinski of the BETON studio, authors of the original Votum Alex, on an alternative strategy that would allow us to preserve the memory of this building in a completely different form. The idea of transferring the matter and transforming it into a completely new object, which appeared at the time, seemed so interesting to us that we decided - as part of a project carried out together with theNational Institute of Architecture and Urban Planning and the Institute of Design in Kielce - to invite designers, architects and architecture students from Poland and Norway to work together on a new incarnation of Votum Alex.
- says Michal Duda, director of the Museum of Architecture in Wroclaw.
Workshops around the future of Votum Aleksa - Day 2 of the workshops - a trip to Karpacz.
Photo: Iga Bałchanowska, courtesy of the Museum of Architecture in Wroclaw
wood and clay are the past and future of architecture
The project is jointly organized by the National Institute of Architecture and Urban Planning, the Institute of Design in Kielce and the Museum of Architecture in Wroclaw. "Of wood and clay. Natural Materials for the Architecture of the Future" is an international project to explore the use of traditional construction techniques and locally available materials in contemporary architecture. The whole project is divided into two modules, dedicated to the title wood and clay.
Workshop around the future of Votum Aleksa - day 2 of the workshop - trip to Karpacz
Photo: Iga Bałchanowska, courtesy of the Museum of Architecture in Wroclaw
The part devoted to wood took place between March 3 and 7 this year, and was organized by the Museum of Architecture. During the four-day workshop, a group of male and female students from Poland and Norway had the opportunity to learn about the history of Votum Aleks and the design team behind it, visit the Church of Peace in Świdnica or the Wang Temple in Karpacz, and pay a visit to the forest base of the Jerzy Grotowski Institute in Brzezinka. On the last day of the workshop, work continued on the concept of transforming elements of Votum Aleksa into a completely new facility.
Workshops around the future of Votum Aleksa - day 2 of the workshops - a trip to Karpacz
Photo: Iga Bałchanowska, courtesy of the Museum of Architecture in Wroclaw
Polish-Norwegian cooperation is all the more interesting in the context of the transformation of Votum Aleksa, as a similar story linking the two countries took place in the past, when a 12th-century wooden church was brought from Vang to Karpacz in the mid-19th century to save it from destruction.
- notes the director of the Museum of Architecture in Wroclaw.
Workshops around the future of Alex's Votum - day 3 of the workshop - visit to Birkenau
Photo: Iga Bałchanowska, courtesy of the Museum of Architecture in Wroclaw
A new place for Votum Aleksa
Votum Aleksa will find a new home in Brzezinka near Oleśnica. The small village was where Jerzy Grotowski pursued his theater practice in the 1970s. In the solitary place, in the middle of the forest, there are several buildings that were a background and integral part of Grotowski's work - the ruins of a miller's house, a barn, a granary or a wooden shed.
Workshops around the future of Alex's Votum - day 3 of the workshop - a visit to Birkenau
Photo: Iga Bałchanowska, courtesy of the Museum of Architecture in Wroclaw
In Brzezinka we met with Przemek Blaszczak, the caretaker of the place on behalf of the Jerzy Grotowski Institute, who showed our international company around the place and told us about the figure of Jerzy Grotowski. Not everyone in our group was well acquainted with his legacy; in fact, no one outside of Poland had heard of Alex's Votum story. Later, during the workshop, we managed to combine these two stories into one story about our past and present.
- reports Michal Duda.
Workshop around the future of Votum Aleksa - day 3 of the workshop - visit to Birkenau
Photo: Iga Bałchanowska, available courtesy of the Museum of Architecture in Wroclaw
Two buildings that were part of the forest base complex caught the team'sattention. The first was a small wooden shed, which was in a state of deep decay. It formerly served as a tea pavilion and a place for intimate meetings between Jerzy Grotowski and his actors; today, in accordance with the artist's wishes, it remains unused. The second material catalyst of social situations, present in Grotowski's Birkenau, is the long table at which the theater's creators met, ate and discussed together. Both of these elements were to become part of the architectural concept developed in a key stage of the workshop.
Workshop around the future of Votum Alexa - day 4 of the workshop - summary.
Photo: Iga Bałchanowska, provided courtesy of the Museum of Architecture in Wroclaw
What will happen to Votum Aleksa?
As Michal Duda reveals, Votum Aleksa will not return in its original form - its fragments will be used to create a pavilion in a completely new form:
The concept of the pavilion refers to two elements that physically exist in the Birchwood to this day. A wooden "house" measuring 2.5x2.5x2.5 meters, a metrazone based on Grotowski's idea in the 1970s - whose primary function was intimate gatherings with a few people - around a fire, around a table and overlooking the surrounding nature. The second anchor point is the large, five-meter table around which social life in Birkenau bustled. Its reflection appears in several copies, as a module forming elements of the pavilion, allowing the tabletops to be used as tables, platforms, footbridges, performatizing both the architecture itself and the users' relationship with it.
- explains the director of the Museum of Architecture in Wroclaw.
Workshop around the future of Votum Alexa - day 4 of the workshop - summary.
Photo: Iga Bałchanowska, courtesy of the Museum of Architecture in Wroclaw
a difficult battle for architecture
The Museum of Architecture is currently in the process of acquiring elements of Votum from the owner, who has decided to demolish the building. If all goes according to plan, the pavilion will be built later this summer.
It is hoped that someday, decades from now, someone will be able to tell the story of how this strange, "modern" pavilion of 2025 contains traces of the chapel, whose extraordinary architecture was recognized in 2012 not only in Poland, but internationally. It will be a story about how we didn't quite manage to fight to preserve it in its original context, a story about the power of values in architecture, which proved insufficient when confronted with market mechanisms and legal regulations.
- Michal Duda concludes.
Workshop around the future of Votum Alexa - day 4 of the workshop - summary.
Photo: Iga Bałchanowska, provided courtesy of the Museum of Architecture in Wroclaw
The salvage campaign for Votum Aleksa is another project implemented by the Museum of Architecture in the spirit of re-use. The building-manifesto, which was designed for the institution by Michal Sikorski's studio TŁO, will also be built from materials obtained from demolition. Read more about the circular economy, re-use architecture and reuse of materials in the latest April issue of A&B.
