Urban hybrid, which corresponds to the city square and former quarter. Flattenings create foregrounds in front of phillharmonic hall and the church. In the first plan you can see uplift of the square with the museum hidden inside.

© Jarosław Syrek

View from the phillharmonic hall. On the left, uplift, which protects the square from the busy street, on the left another uplift of the square with a museum hidden inside. It is accesible from the corner and the square.

© Juliusz Sokołowski

Entrances to the museum are hidden behind the rotating walls. After closing, everything gives an impression of monolith.

© Juliusz Sokołowski

Under the square, on level -1 there is an exhibition space. Due to collaboration with artists, museum of the latest history of Szczecin became also a museum of art.

© Juliusz Sokołowski

Topography encourages to many activities – riding a bike, skate or a sledge. Citizents understood it’s their new public space. They gathered there spontaneously during recent anti-government protests. Curvature of the square is also used for concerts.

© Jakub Certowicz (upper picture), Daniel Żródlewski (lower picture)

Site plan. Drawing show communication route, preserved between church and phillharmonic hall.

Level 0, containing entrance space.

Level -1, containing exhibition space.

Section with the view on phillharmonic hall.

Section with the view on the church.

Archive photos. On the left prewar quarter, which was destroyed due to air raids during World War II. On the right, postwar square, on which in December 1970 dramatic fights with militia took place, what was commemorated by a memorial sculpture in 2005.

A building is bringing together two contradictory traditions – prewar urban quarter and postwar square. That is how an urban hybrid was created – it encloses the space as a quarter, keeping the values of an open public space.

Foregrounds were created in front of the philharmonic hall and the church, former quarter was marked on the opposite corners by smooth uplifts of the square. One of them contains a museum and another one works as a hill, protecting square from the street.

Before the WWII location of our museum used to be a urban quarter. During the war, due to air raids, a quarter was destroyed. After war, an empty square accidentally appeared in place of a former quarter. In December '70, there were dramatic fights with militia with results of 16 deaths. Since those events, a square has became a symbol of the fight for freedom. Thus, an idea of a museum of the latest history of Szczecin in that place came up. Taking part in the competition, we knew that Philharmonic Hall, designed by Barozzi Veiga was meant to be built on the opposite side of the street, even then, we concluded, that this new building would become the new icon of the city. We took humble approach to the history and neighborhood of this place. That’s why idea to situate the museum under the ground, to create a architecture of the background.

A building is bringing together two contradictory traditions – prewar urban quarter and postwar square. That is how an urban hybrid was created – it encloses the space as a quarter, keeping the values of an open public space. Foregrounds were created in front of the philharmonic hall and the church, former quarter was marked on the opposite corners by smooth uplifts of the square. One of them contains a museum and another one works as a hill, protecting square from the busy street. As a result, an amphitheatric space of the square was created. Topography of the square encourages to skateboarding, skating or sledding. A square kept its symbolic character. Citizens understood, this is their square and they gather there to celebrate ora manifest ther opinions. Underneath the square there is a museum of the latest history of Szczecin. Due to collaboration with artists, historic museum became a museum of art.

The architecture follows topography, hence the museum's form is a continuation of the concrete floor of the square which is covered with rectangular tiles. In the elevated corner these tiles gain 3rd dimension, becoming cuboidal blocks. The whole makes a monolith that transforms when the museum opens. Some of the vertical plates rotate, thus creating the arcades unveiling two entrances. To emphasize monolithic character of the design, building is made from one material – concrete. Division of concrete floor matches the division of elevation and rotating walls. Materials used in construction came from local producers. Building is located in place of pulled down houses of former quarter, so that it doesn’t affect the neighborhood ground. We managed to preserve all the existing trees of the square. Placing the main part of the volume under the ground, where temperature is more stable, we limited the amount of energy consumption in winter and cooling in summer. To keep pure character of elevation and, primarily the square - due to its usable space, all installations were designed to be completly hidden. Therefore the square can be used without any limits.