Pubblicazione sul libro

Museum Architecture and Interior Design

Dicembre 2014

From Museum Architecture and Interior Design (pp. 170-181)edited by Manuelle Gautrand

The area designated for the new museum of contemporary art of in krakow coincides, in part, with the industrial pavillions of the Schindler Factory, a place long fixed in the collective memory and in the history of men, their crimes as well their heroic acts. The idea of transforming those spaces, of integrating them with new spaces, into a destination for art, culture, and contemporary society, cannot but bear witness to the way in which memory can be nurtured to become a path towards the future. The events that have taken place within those walls have already witnessed the possibilty of hope, of a way forword, out of the horror.

The industrial roof lines of the existing buildings have become a motif, a visual element carried through the entire project, evoking, in this case, the continuity between preexisting and the new construction. The new building unfolds on two levels, the groung floor (height 390 cm) and also, by necessity, a lower level (height between 450 and 600 cm). It is completely independent from the existing buildingsfor reasons of safety and static load.

The building is diffuse and not monolithic, characterised by the harmonius sum of many requirements, such as the need for the strong overall visibility and the aesthetic and functional integration of the existing structures. In fact, a choice was made for a building that did not surpass the height of the existing buildings , entering insteadinto a dialogue tith those structures through the common denominator of the factory roof reference.

The zones reserved for exhibition spaces develop around the existing structures and envelop them like an embrace, encompassing every avaiable spaceamong those designated for the project, resulting in irregular, disconnected form, but which together almost assume the strenght of a symbol. From the principal entrance on Lipowa Street (next to the original entrance to the factory), the exhibition galleries unfold towards the garden plaza at the rear, to the north.

The storeroom for artworks is without doubt the most important and delicate of the functions connected to the museum. Its placement, given the possible cargo accessible options, is near the South Wall, opposite a wide open area (which heightens the wall’s monumentality). This same area could occasionally serve as a temporary parking area for large trucks or the unloading of oversized artworks. A 270-square metre holding/preparation room on the ground floor is adjacent to this area with direct and protected access to the cargo entrance and the exhibition galleries. The remaning 500 square metres of storage space is located underground, immediatly below and accesibleby stariways and an ovesized freight lift connected to the lower level galleries and the conservation laboratory.

Seen from the wide expanse on Lipowa Street, the new museum appears like a new kind of architecture, born of contemporary technology, lightweight and liminous, with its shed-like roof lines which dissolve and integrate with the preexisting structures.

The main facade, to the south, is a glass wall which allows views of the galleries from the outside and views of the walkway and the abraded walls of the old factory from the inside.

The imposing “ South Wall”, which carries the logo of the museum, marks the beginnign of a new urban itinerary. It traverses the museum and the old pavillions, balancing the mass of the adjacent and prexisting Museum of History and Memory.

The storeroom

The storeroom for artworks is without doubt the most important and delicate of the functions connected to the museum. Its placement, given the possible cargo accessible options, is near the South Wall, opposite a wide open area (which heightens the wall’s monumentality). This same area could occasionally serve as a temporary parking area for large trucks or the unloading of oversized artworks. A 270-square metre holding/preparation room on the ground floor is adjacent to this area with direct and protected access to the cargo entrance and the exhibition galleries. The remaning 500 square metres of storage space is located underground, immediatly below and accessible stairways and an ovesized freight lift connected to the lower level galleries and the conservation laboratory.

The Entrance Lobby, Cinema, Bookshop, and Restaurant

The entrance lobby is situated at the top of the ramp which servesto the link the entrance point to the main road and the at the same time to dissipate a 30 cm level difference with the outside . The entire length of the spacious hall overlooks the south plaza and serves several related routing functions inclidugn access to ticketing, coat check, cinema, bookshop, cafe-restaurant, with entrances from the walkway and the new north plaza.

The Residences, Studios and Library

A deep loggia will be created on the east side of the new walkway, overlooked by four artist’s residences and studios.

The loggia itself will be an open air exhibition space for the resident artists.

The roofing of the new pavillions consists of a metallic grid structure which supports a light weight but rigid shroud in black titanium-zinc that blands with the existing roofs. The roofs of the remaining parts will be reinforced concrete and steel with large openings that allow the greatest flexibility for the internal spaces while reducing the number of necessary columns.