Archinect - News

Thomas Phifer and Partners completes new MSN Warsaw museum project in Poland

2024-11-12T10:52:00-05:00

An opening for the forthcoming new Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Poland (MSN Warsaw) from Thomas Phifer and Partners is right around the corner, timed to the 20th anniversary of its founding early next year. The commission, says the museum's director Joanna Mytkowska, helps the MSN Warsaw "take on a new role as a centre for conversations animating contemporary art of all kinds.'

Image: © Nate Cook, courtesy of Thomas Phifer and Partners

The firm has provided a preview of its 213,000-square-foot concrete addition to the city’s cultural fabric, which recaptures the heart of the city’s Parade Square. It represents Phifer and Partners’ first completed project in the EU as well as the first purpose-built home for the institution whose operations had been spread throughout different temporary spaces in the capital for many years.

Image: © Nate Cook, courtesy of Thomas Phifer and Partners

Phifer describes: 'Our mission with this project was simultaneously to recognize the legacy of Parade...

This modern, looping farmhouse seems to effortlessly grow from its natural surroundings

2024-09-29T08:00:00-04:00

The latest project by Polish firm Mobius Architekci is a contemporary farmhouse-style home, designed to have a harmonious relationship with its natural surroundings.

Image: Paweł Ulatowski

Taking the shape of a loop, in which the structure is seemingly both closed yet fluid, the home is aptly named the Loop House. It is situated on a large plot of land, appearing to naturally emerge from the landscape.

Image: Paweł Ulatowski

The main compositional axis is the nearby lake, which becomes a natural extension of the living space. The building’s form allows each of the rooms to open up to the surrounding environment through gentle folds.

Image: Paweł Ulatowski

Despite spanning over 8,600 square feet, the home appears to be very subtle and delicate. Looking from the street, the structure seems to disappear into the landscape. As one moves closer, the body of the building looks like it is levitating above the site. Its position above ground creat...

Polish transport center with tree-trunk inspired columns completed by Tremend Architecture Studio

2024-02-22T11:47:00-05:00

Warsaw-based Tremend Architecture Studio has completed a transport center in the Polish city of Lublin, described by the team as “one of the most environmentally friendly developments of its kind in Poland.” In addition to its signature canopied platforms for urban and regional bus transport, the scheme contains underground car parking, taxi bays, cycle infrastructure, and a public roof garden.

Image credit: Alek Malachowski

Located near the city’s historic 19th-century railway station, the design approach for the new transport center sought to “blend in with the urban and architectural context of the place” while also serving as an act of renewal for the post-industrial area. The resulting project was envisioned as a simple, modernist pavilion to contrast with the eclectic style of the railway station, “remaining unchallenging of it, thanks to its clearly different architectural language.”

Image credit: Alek Malachowski

Image credit: Rafal Chojnacki

The s...

SLAS architekci designs colorful multifunctional public park in Poland

2023-07-07T15:06:00-04:00

Polish firm SLAS architekci has injected an eye-catching multifunctional public space into a university campus in the southern Polish city of Chorzów. Called “Activity Zone,” the project was a nominee in the 2022 European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award.

Image © Michał Kopaniszyn

The park was completed in 2019 for the University of Silesia. It is located at the former site of a demolished military building where there were a number of pre-existing trees.

Image © Michał Kopaniszyn

The main goal of the project was to transform this neglected, wooded area where the campus is located into a lively, leisurely location for the public to enjoy. It aimed to promote the university and establish a new green space for the city.

Image © Michał Kopaniszyn

“Activity Zone” was designed as a perforated concrete platform that hosts a diverse program, including a student leisure zone, children’s play devices, fitness areas, individually des...

Construction underway in Poland on one of Europe’s largest museum complexes

2023-05-30T11:48:00-04:00

Construction is underway in Warsaw on a new complex for the Polish History Museum and Polish Army Museum, designed by the Warsaw-based architectural design studio WXCA.

Located at the Warsaw Citadel, on the site of former 19th-century fortifications, the museum and an associated park are intended to create “a place of culture, remembrance, and recreation.”

Polish History Museum. Image credit: WXCA

Three structures are to be built on the site: the headquarters of the Polish History Museum, and two buildings for the Polish Army Museum. When combined with the already-existing Museum of the 10th Pavilion of the Warsaw Citadel and the Katyń Museum, the “park of museums” is expected to become one of the largest museum complexes in Europe.

Polish History Museum. Image credit: WXCA

For the Polish History Museum, WXCA imagined the scheme as a monolithic body expressed through a minimalist stone form. Within the s...

In a Polish forest, Mobius Architekci Studio creates a timber-clad home ‘bathed in nature’

2023-03-01T11:39:00-05:00

Przemek Olczyk, Warsaw-based architect and founder of Mobius Architekci, has published photographs of their completed Circle Wood project in the Kampinos National Park outside the Polish capital. Commissioned by an art lover and collector, the home seeks to capture the aura of an art gallery while responding to its natural surroundings.

Image credit: Paweł Ulatowski

Built on a large sandy plot densely covered with pine forest, the 4300-square-foot home adopts an oval form containing the living space, garage, and open spa area. The scheme was constructed from a reinforced concrete structure clad with panels of Okume wood sourced from West Africa. Described as “elegant and knotless” by the team, the timber cladding was chosen to allow the building to be “bathed in nature,” blending into its forest landscape.

Image credit: Paweł Ulatowski

Inside, the scheme is anchored by a double-height atrium whose natural materials and extensive glazing “pleasantly and harmoniously seeps nature into t...

Foster + Partners completes EU's tallest building in Warsaw, Poland

2022-10-26T09:00:00-04:00

Foster + Partners has completed work on Varso Tower in Warsaw, Poland. At 310 meters (1,017 feet) tall, the scheme overtakes Frankfurt’s Commerzbank Tower (also designed by Foster + Partners) to become the tallest building in the European Union.

The new tower is also nearly 400 feet taller than the Intempo skyscraper in Benidorm, Spain, which became the tallest residential building in the European Union following its completion last year.

Image courtesy of Foster + Partners

At ground level, the project includes a plaza enclosed within a glazed screen. Described by the designers as an ‘urban room,’ the plaza contains full-height trees and seating for office workers on breaks and the public.

Image courtesy of Foster + Partners

Inside, the tower’s lobby features a 33-foot-high ceramic artwork by local artist Krystyna Kaszuba-Waclawek. Above, office floors are accessed by two banks of double-deck elevators where each c...

Shigeru Ban is on the ground helping war-torn Ukrainian refugees in Poland

2022-03-21T13:38:00-04:00

Shigeru Ban had been working with students from the Wrocław University of Science and Technology on the influx of Ukrainian refugees sheltering in a converted former supermarket in Chelm, Poland, where they were able to construct and install 319 privacy partitions over a four-day span. He now plans to send an additional 800 screens to refugees sheltering within their now war-torn country. The gesture has reportedly had a tremendous emotional impact on the wary travelers, whose plight in turn has captivated the 2014 Pritzker winner well known for working with displaced populations.

“They are called evacuees, but they are ordinary people like us,” Ban told a reporter. “They are with their family members, just like survivors of natural disasters are after emergencies. But the big difference is that Ukrainian evacuees are not with their husbands or fathers. Ukrainian men are basically banned from leaving the country. It’s sad.”

Ban and his collaborators from the Wrocław University of Sc...

Preservationists are trying to save a piece of Polish Postmodernist Architecture

2021-08-13T11:05:00-04:00

In a last-ditch effort to save an iconic piece of postmodern architecture from its looming demolition, preservationists in Wrocław, Poland have taken an unconventional, yet jovial approach to protesting. Dancing to hits from the 1990s, clad in that era’s attire, in which there was an accompanying fashion show, protestors are paying homage to the Solpol department store.

Built in 1993 and designed by Wojciech Jarząbek, the structure has become one of the most notable examples of Polish postmodernist architecture, reflecting the country’s seismic transformation following the fall of the Iron Curtain. The building broke away from the grey, uniform aesthetics of its built surroundings with its exuberant façade in violet, pink, and green and unique geometric form. While polarizing due to its unique design, Solpol stood out with its modernity compared to other commercial facilities of its type in Wrocław, attracting both locals and tourists.

Photo: Zofia Banaś

However, at the turn of the...

Steven Holl Architects international exhibition is on view at Museum of Architecture in Wrocław, Poland

2021-06-15T16:40:00-04:00

Steven Holl Architects’ traveling exhibition, Steven Holl: Making Architecture, has opened at the Museum of Architecture in Wrocław, Poland. This is the first venue to host the showcase in Europe, as the ninth stop of the exhibition’s tour.

The exhibit opened on June 11th, exclusively through an online broadcast and opened to the public the following day. Steven Holl: Making Architecture explores Holl’s intricate and distinctive creative process of making architecture through eleven projects, featuring a collection of approximately one hundred models, sketches, and other related studies. The exhibition highlights the rapidly changing pace of architecture, specifically, the way ideas are formed and visualized as manual tasks fade in favor of digital approaches. Steven Holl’s design approach that he is using to challenge the trend towards digitization, which famously includes painting in watercolors at every stage of a building’s construction, is put on full display.

View of the exh...

Portals in Lithuania and Poland allow people to connect with each other in real time

2021-06-08T17:33:00-04:00

Physical “portals” are up and running, allowing residents of the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius and Lublin, Poland to connect in real-time. The two cities are the first to connect through PORTAL, a non-profit initiative by Go Vilnius, the capital’s development agency. The project aims to construct visual bridges across the world in order to bring people of different cultures together.

A portal in Lublin, Poland displaying the image of a man in Vilnius, Lithuania. Photo: Go Vilnius

The first portals were installed on May 26th, one outside the Vilnius Railway Station and the other 375 miles away in Lublin, Poland. The structures take the shape of circular windows that are equipped with large screens and cameras that broadcast live views between the two cities. According to its organizers, PORTAL is meant to encourage people to rethink the feeling and meaning of unity.

Photo: Go Vilnius

“Humanity is facing a lot of potentially deadly challenges, be it social polarization, climate change,...

Daniel Libeskind designs Łódź Architecture Center in his native hometown

2021-04-21T19:24:00-04:00

Daniel Libeskind will be returning to his native hometown of Łódź, Poland, to create a series of cultural hubs throughout the city.

Dubbed Nexus21, the program features 21 unique interventions — ranging from buildings to urban spaces — to invigorate select neighborhoods spots, spur economic development, and pay tribute to the city's cultural, historical, and industrial heritage including architecture, textiles, fashion, and film.

Łódź Architecture Center, exterior. Image: Studio Libeskind.

"The 21 sites, mostly empty blocks and derelict structures, will be revitalized to create point investments that amplify the character and functionality of each site," explains the project description. "The plan targets the spaces in between buildings within the center of the urban plan to create a vibrant nexus between the old and the new while adding value to the historic neighborhoods of Łódź. The aim is to create a chain reaction of development across the city that enriches the public realm."

...

Would you work in a floating, remote workspace?

2021-04-06T18:03:00-04:00

Trends involving remote workspaces have heightened since 2020. While businesses worldwide learned to adjust and create remote working spaces that work best for them, architectural designer and graduate of the Academy of Fine Arts in Cracow, Agnieszka Białek, proposes a workspace alternative that may invite polarizing responses. Her project, Enclaves on Vistula River, was influenced by the altered work environments due to Covid-19 and the transition to remote work.

Image render courtesy of Agnieszka Białek / Monolight Studio

Commenting on the potential for home remote workplace fatigue, Białek explains on her project website the proposed concept "becomes a comfortable place for online meetings or relaxing in the new reality of reduced touch. The design provides protection of personal space and privacy for potential users. In times of social distancing, the workspace "creates a unique comfort zone and sense of security." She claims each remote work module can be booked hourly for use d...

Wooden "boat" cottages float on Poland landscape

2021-02-23T11:25:00-05:00

Designed by Poland-based Karpiel Steindel Architecture, a series of modest cottages situate themselves within the Polish landscape, with a mountain backdrop to the north, and panoramic views to the south.

The homes resemble mountain huts and have been dubbed "The Boats," for their boat-like form and use of aged wood intended to imitate raw planks.

Set at different points on a hill, each cottage capitalizes on its position, with two forming an exaggerated A-frame geometry and two others resembling a more traditional cottage vernacular.

Large glass walls compliment the blackened wood paneling and skylights allow natural light into the main spaces. Two of the structures host a large viewing deck where residents can lounge and enjoy the outdoors.

MVRDV completes work on neoclassical, contemporary mash-up in Poland

2020-07-17T09:00:00-04:00

MVRDV has completed construction of Concordia Design, a mixed-use building filled with co-working spaces, an event venue, a food hall, a café, and a rooftop terrace.

The project is located on Słodowa Island in Wrocław, Poland and entails the renovation and extension of a 19th-century historically protected neoclassical building. As a result, the project retains the historic façade of the existing structure while augmenting the building with a new set of spaces on one side.

According to the architects, the design is influenced by depictions of Janus, the Roman deity of transitions, time, and duality. The architects write, "The form and interior layout of the building displays a certain symmetry, with triple-height stepped voids at the entrances on each end of the building. However, within this symmetry there are clear distinctions between the “formal” end of the building, featuring the retained façade of the historic building, and the new addition."

"On the formal end, the entrance...

Semi-subterranean home nestles in luscious Poland landscape

2020-01-17T14:10:00-05:00

Settled in an expansive northern Poland landscape, amidst nearby lakes, and inspired by the local regional architecture, Green Line, a home designed by Przemek Olczyk of Studio Mobius, embraces the grassy plains of Warmia, Poland.

Photo: Paweł Ulatowski

The multi-leveled residence sneaks beneath the greenery of its site. The folded concrete green roof, held by a grid of columns that help delineate the interior spaces, extends the natural landscape over the home. External stairs provide a contrasting element atypical in residential architecture, offering a further connectedness to the surrounding landscape.

Photo: Paweł Ulatowski

Moreover, the transparency provided by the home's expansive glass walls, give users panoramic views to the outside, while also providing an internally situated atrium, supporting intimacy and the flexibility for privacy.

How do you visualize the effects of climate change? Architect Iwo Borkowicz and artist Alicja Biala use data visualization to inform the public

2019-07-22T13:50:00-04:00

In this hyper-visual world, it's becoming more challenging to keep the general public informed and engaged with pressing issues, specifically issues relating to the environment. The quickly changing landscapes, rising sea levels, and temperature fluctuations should be enough of a warning for others to take notice. However, Alicja Biala and Iwo Borkowicz illustrate these issues using public space, data, and art.

Located beneath MVRDV's Baltyk Tower stands Biala and Borkowicz's 9m-tall installation. At first glance, the colorful structures would capture anyone's attention. The intricate patterns and distinct individualist shapes may satisfy social media thirsty individuals, but the message behind each piece represents something far more important.

(L) Totem showcases how much water is used during food production. (R) Totem illustrates plastic use. Image © Alicja Biala and Iwo Borkowicz/Totemy

Totem Diagram. Image Alicja Biala and Iwo Borkowicz/Totemy

Totemy is a multi-layered set of t...

Superhelix creates a house hidden in plain site

2018-10-23T19:30:00-04:00

Polish based design studio Superhelix creates a green roof masterpiece that not only highlights the home's ecological design, but showcases what happens to buildings when they change over time. Located in Krakow, Poland the 189 square meter home's slanted roof was not built for aesthetics, but instead was constructed due to a building requirement. Due to local building codes, the home's roof had to be built at a 45-degree slope. To some this may have been a design obstacle, but to Bartłomiej Drabik, principal architect, he used this as an opportunity to create a progressive roof design that highlights green design.

Image © Bartłomiej Drabik

Through out the construction of this residential home, special attention was emphasized on how the building's materials will allow the home to age and change naturally. The home's elevation was covered with western red cedar planks. This particular wood type does not require wood treatment against insects and the weather. As the wood ages over tim...

Lucasz Kos creates a mesmerizing villa in busy Shanghai

2018-10-15T20:44:00-04:00

Located in the busy city of Shanghai is a tranquil villa that transports you into a lucid state of living. Kos Architects in collaboration with Atelier Zerebecky, have recently completed construction of Cloud Villa. The blissfully serene three-story home exudes a peacefully private experience. Its grand central staircase, the centerpiece of the space, connects each section of the home. If that wasn't enough to create an almost etherial experience, the 8-meter high vaulted ceiling of the main living room adds to its heavenly interior.

As inhabitants of the home make their way through the various levels of the house, the abstract form of the staircase creates a seamless transition from the upper, middle, and lower levels. The light and airy interior focuses on a clean and contemporary aesthetic. Identifying as the architect of peace and quiet, Lukasz Kos' Cloud Villa, has achieved such a space.

Recently establis...

MVRDV to renovate 19th-century building into Concordia Hub in Wroclaw

2018-10-03T18:42:00-04:00

Today, MVRDV unveiled their proposed design to transform a 19th-century heritage building into the Concordia Hub on Slodowa Island in Wroclaw, Poland. With most of Slodowa Island's buildings destroyed during the Siege of Breslau in World War II followed by a handful of other buildings being demolished later on, this particular building became known as the island's sole surviving structure. The rest of the island serves as a popular public park.

Image © MVRDV.

Working with local architect Q2, MVRDV was inspired by Janus — the Roman deity of transitions, the passage of time, and duality — for their concept. The design will retain the building's existing facade and add an extension to the rear, creating a distinction between old and new. The building's “formal” side will feature the historic facade, while the new contemporary addition will be a transparent structure and will face toward the public park.

Image © MVRDV.

“At both ends of the building, triple-height stepped voi...

MVRDV reveal integrated offices in new city center of Łódź, Poland

2018-02-05T16:14:00-05:00

MVRDV’s new project, Fabryczna Offices, will house both office and retail space in the center of Łódź, Poland's third largest city. The firm's design draws inspiration from the city’s industrial textile heritage reimagined for contemporary use. The 13-floor building uses the distinct glazed brick and glass facade materials to signal both the past and the city’s future ambition of recent surrounding development.

The private green roof and public courtyard, by Dutch firm Lola Landscape Architects, are designed as a family of semi-public spaces with greenery and a large variety of vegetation and spaces for terraces and bikes. The building will also be located across the street from the newly developed railway station “Fabryczna”, and other local landmarks.

“This building will help to bring back more density and urbanity right in the heart of Łódź,”...

The many faces of MVRDV's shape-shifting Baltyk Tower

2017-06-22T15:27:00-04:00

Turning iconicity on its head, MVRDV have designed a striking building that purposefully refuses easy categorization. Depending on the angle from which it is viewed, the Baltyk Tower seems to assume different forms, a look that is achieved by a series of scenic terraces and a rippling glass-fronted concrete facade.

Image: MVRDV

From one angle, the tower appears to be svelte, a compact wedge on Poznan, Poland's streets. However, from another perspective the tower broadens and becomes a kind of gigantic civic staircase. Regardless of where one views the building, the inventive facade gives the structure a dynamic, shifting quality.

Image: MVRDV

As MVRDV co-founder Nathalie de Vries explains, “When we came to Poznań for the first time, the goal was clear: we were to realize an office building with public functions on the first two layers and at the top. But also that offered a range of amenities for the community and general public. We realised if we could control...

Frank Gehry to design new Krakow Academy of Music complex

2017-04-11T12:51:00-04:00

The Krakow Academy of Music recently announced Gehry Partners as the winner of a competition to design the school's new complex of educational facilities and main concert hall, which will be built on a former military site in the southern part of Krakow's Grzegórzki district.

When the Krakow Academy of Music, a Polish higher-ed institution, launched the two-stage competition last year, they sought a “lively” design that presented the most fitting architectural, functional, and acoustic solutions.

Images via afasiaarchzine.com.

The initial renderings depict a campus of silver cubic buildings with slightly skewed edges, and it looks pretty typical of the Gehry brand to anyone already familiar with his work. In explaining their decision, the jury noted how the winning proposal has “good integration” with the site and realizes its full potential, allowing room for future developments. “The composition of the designed buildings of the Academy is created with a complex of pavilions respectf...

Construction begins on Varso Tower, set to become Poland's tallest building

2017-01-11T13:19:00-05:00

At 53 stories tall, the Foster + Partners-designed Varso Tower is set to become the tallest building Poland. Construction has just begun on the office tower, which is being developed by HB Reavis and is part of a complex that includes two other buildings designed by Hermanowicz Rowski Architects. It will also have an observation deck—one of the highest in Europe—where tourists can ogle Warsaw’s skyline.

“We believe that Varso Tower will have a unique place on Warsaw’s skyline, but most importantly it will establish a new destination capable of revitalising this urban quarter, right in the heart of the city. The building contains high-quality and flexible office space, but it also makes an important contribution to the city with its glazed public courtyard at ground level and the spectacular viewing platforms with restaurants at the top. These public galleries offer panoramic views of the city to everyone. We are really looking forward to construction." said Grant Brooker, Head of Stu...

Robert Konieczny/KWK Promes and Hayball among big winners in 2016 World Architecture Festival

2016-11-18T18:44:00-05:00

The 2016 World Architecture Festival has come to a close. After a final round of presentations and jury critiques for the Day One and Two category winners, the National Museum in Szczecin in Poland made it to the top as the ninth recipient of the coveted World Building of the Year. Designed by Robert Konieczny/KWK Promes, the museum joins previous winners like The Interlace by OMA/Ole Scheeren in Singapore and a21studio's The Chapel in Vietnam.

During the Friday awards gala dinner, other winning announcements included South Melbourne Primary School by Hayball for Future Project of the Year, while the Kopupaka Reserve in Auckland, New Zealand by Isthmus scooped Landscape of the Year. Last but not least, the Chinese University of Hong Kong School of Architecture won Small Project of the Year for their ZCB Bamboo Pavilion.

WORLD BUILDING OF THE YEAR: National Museum in Szczecin, Poland by Robert Konieczny/KWK Promes

Jury chair David Chipperfield cited the National Museum as an “optimistic...

Warsaw's Palace of Culture and Science to host an international art fair

2016-08-22T12:53:00-04:00

The Palace of Culture and Science, a 237 meter tall socialist realist high-rise, towers over the city of Warsaw, Poland. Given as a “gift” to the Polish people by the Soviet Union, the building was originally called the Joseph Stalin Palace of Culture and Science. It was built between 1952 and 1955 and, for many Varsovians, is an ugly reminder of the Stalinist era.

Now, it’s about to reinvest in its eponymous program with an international art fair. Hosting some 20 art galleries from Warsaw as well as other European cities, the “Not Fair” is schedule to open on September 22, 2016. Each gallery will present a solo show by one of their represented artist, which must take into account the “special character” of the Palace.

According to the founder of Not Fair, Michal Wolinski, the event is intended to “merge the mood and quality of an art exhibition with the opportunities that art fairs provide for cutting-edge galleries and young artists”.

h/t the Art Newspaper

For more news from Poland, c...

Jems Architecki's Polish conference center is built on an old coal mine

2016-07-29T14:52:00-04:00

This post is brought to you by Figueras International Seating.

Katowice, a city of 300,000 inhabitants in the South of Poland, wants to leave its past of mining industry behind. In the heart of the city, and on what was formerly a mine and its inevitable mountains of mining residue, today we find there the new City Conference Centre: MCK ‐ International Conference Centre (ICC), designed by the most internationally known group in Poland, Jems Architecki.

The building, a unique block of 388,500m3, was erected (or submerged, depending how you look at it) in the new cultural area of the city, right next to the Spodek (saucer in English), the emblematic building of 1962, symbol of the city and which needed to be complemented in both aesthetics and in what it had to offer. Together they form Poland's largest Conference Centre.

After three years of construction, the ICC shows colossal dimensions. The structure is divided in two and at the intersection, the architects have created hills that ...

Dispatch from the Venice Biennale: Unfinished processes and unseen industries

2016-05-30T18:20:00-04:00

The lady on the ladder chosen as the image for the 2016 Biennale Architettura sees, amidst “great disappointments[,] creativity and hope,” states Paolo Baratta, president of the Venice Biennale. “[S]he sees them in the here-and-now, not in some uncertain aspirational, ideological future.” Several pavilions choose this approach to portray “trends going […] towards renewal”; encouraging instances of the how profession addresses the challenges outlined by Aravena.

This year’s recipient of the Golden Lion for Best National Participation, Spain’s Unfinished, showcases 55 different projects that have reimagined the “unfinished remains of […] the largest construction enterprise in Spanish history,” as described by co-curator Iñaqui Carnicero. The Pavilion, located at the entrance of the Giardini, feels open and easy to navigate. The language of the unfinished comes out in every detail. Suspended metal stud frames make of the main room a playful sequence to the exhibition. Additional project...

On the rapid privatization of public space in post-communist cities

2016-04-21T15:12:00-04:00

From 1917 to 1991 in the former Russian Empire, and from 1945 to 1989 in the countries it dominated after the war, there was no real private ownership. No landowners, no developers, no “placemakers” - in half of Europe. Did this mean public space was done differently, and are attitudes to it different in those countries? [...] observed more closely, public space here is every bit as complex as it is elsewhere in Europe.

Poland to remove Soviet-era memorials

2016-04-05T12:34:00-04:00

The Polish government plans to demolish about 500 Soviet monuments throughout the country, head of the Institute of National Remembrance Lukasz Kaminsky said in an interview with online portal Onet.pl, the RBC news website reported Thursday. Kaminsky — whose institute is responsible for investigating crimes against the Polish nation — said that plans for the demolition of the monuments, would be sent to local authorities in the coming weeks.

According to the report, the monuments will be relocated to museums where they can serve as a "witness of hard times."

Many Soviet war memorial have been vandalized and demolished in Poland, whose population views the Soviet role in the Second World War "with ambiguity or outright hostility."

Russians have reacted strongly to these moves in Poland. In their view, the Red Army liberated Poland from the Nazis.

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