Sunday, May 31, 2009

Muzeum of Polish Aviation by Pysall Ruge Architekten

The idea of flying, the spirit of place, the structure of the historic airfield - the new Museum of Aviation in Krakow takes up these references intellectually and synthesises them into a volumn formed by these distinctive elements.

Muzeum Lotnictwa- Museum of Aviation
Design Team: Pysall Ruge Architekten, Bartlomiej Kisielewski
Location: Krakow, Poland
Cost: €13 Million
When to visit: Completion 2010

The idea of flying, the spirit of place, the structure of the historic airfield - the new Museum of Aviation in Krakow takes up these references intellectually and synthesises them into a volumn formed by these distinctive elements.

The old hangars of the former airport Rakowice-Czyzyny set the modular scale for the footprint and the height of the new building. Developed from this basic shape, as if cut out and folded like a paper airplane, a large structure has been generated, with triangular wings made of concrete and yet as light as a wind-vane propeller.

The wings are generously glazed and open in all directions. Their form and arrangement depend on the interior uses. In the floor plans of the wings, the three offset floor layers generate a spatial continuum of varying insights and outlooks, to focal points within the building and to exhibition areas outside.

Block of the building has been broken down into three elements. Two of them reserved for the exposure, the spaces have a height of 10 meters, allowing the suspended objects flying at them and turning a "living exhibition" on several levels. The west wing has 3 floors with height of 3.5 meters each. The three wings meet at a central point where stand the main building hub- the most public functions: on the ground floor an entrance hall, multifunctional hall foyer and a restaurant on the first floor. On the top floor, office space is planned.

The unusual architecture of the building, realised in architectural concrete, required strict cooperation between all disciplines. To achieve the effect of light, ‘transparent’ structure made of large areas without support and of glazed facades, two different structural systems cooperating together were adopted. The walls and the core of the office wing are designed with reinforced concrete, but the roof is a steel semi-space structure covered by reinforced concrete panels. All internal services are located within the limited area of the raised floors and vertical shafts.

The design of the new aviation park links the eight buildings of the museum and the open-air exhibition areas in a joint historical experience. Former view axes and paths are respected, old alleys are completed and spaces towards the airfield and taxiway are defined. Each building exhibits one topic or episode of aviation, with a large base platform extending around it giving spaces for open-air exhibition of the particular themes. The museum contains more than 150 planes, engines, aviation artefacts, sets of technical construction documents and historical pictures. A special feature is the collection of aircraft from the beginning of aviation, such as the Jatho 1903, the Grade 1909, a Wright Brothers’ model from 1909, and the Etrich Taube from 1911.

via Muzeum Lotnictwa | Pysall Ruge Architekten

Monday, December 8, 2008

Museum of the History of Polish Jews

The concept of the museum is to provide narrative context for the Jewish story in Poland.Many Jews visit Poland each year and see only the death camps and cemeteries, never learning about the rich history of the country’s Jews. The museum will teach Jewish visitors about this long history as well as the lessons of the Holocaust. “To see only death and not life is wrong, we should remember both our tragedy and our lives.”

Museum of the History of Polish Jews
Design Team: Rainer Mahlamaeki of Lahdelma and Mahlamaeki Architects
Location: Warsaw, Poland
Cost: $55 million
When to visit: 2009

Rainer Mahlamaeki of the Helsinki firm Lahdelma and Mahlamaeki Architects was chosen from a group of 250 architects in a blind competition where submissions were numbered to ensure architects' anonymity.

The jury looked for a design that would fit with the museum's interior space and exhibits, which have already been designed. The 140,000-square-foot museum will feature eight central galleries dedicated to telling the story of Jews in Poland from the Middle Ages to today. The displays incorporate state-of-the-art multimedia installations that showcase the museum's collection, including an archive that represents over 60,000 objects collected from around the world.

One of the main design elements of the new museum is a bridge that symbolizes the passage of Jews through history. The museum exterior is square in plan to echo the shape of the plaza on which it is situated but the transparent glass walls reveal an interior of organic, undulating forms. The design alludes to the Old Testament's miraculous parting of the Red Sea through which the prophet Moses led the Jews to escape captivity in Egypt to life in the Promised Land. The curved walls and ceiling are faced in limestone and lit from above, providing a dramatic sight from both interior and exterior viewpoints. In this way, the museum's design foregrounds the life of the Jewish people over any particular catastrophic events in history, and its transparency reflects the desire for a truthful reckoning of the past.

The soaring entrance hall reaches from ground level to the roof, measuring over 52 feet high and stretches across the length of the building, providing sightlines to the existing Memorial of the Heroes of the Warsaw Ghetto, designed by Natan Rappaport, situated across the plaza from the Museum. The chasm that divides the 16,000-square-foot main lobby underscores the contrast between the building's minimalist exterior and multifaceted interior program.

The museum not disturbing the Rappaport monument, which was unveiled in 1948, was of particular concern because it has long stood as a symbol of Jewish resistance and it's the most important emotional space.