
MOMA WARSAW
Town square and park to the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw
Location: Warsaw, Poland
Client: City of Warsaw
Competition: International open competition (102 participants) — honorable mention
Year: 2007
Architecture: Kengo Kuma, Ingarden&Ewy architekci
To bring the cultural axe into being we open up the complex of the Museum of Modern Art and it’s commercial part physically, what is also an expression of the mental attitude the museum authorities stated. By this the Museum of Modern Art and the commercial part get a preferential adress and entrance at this new artery (cultural axe) and become an integral part of the public life of the city center. This incision is also the most important example of a multifaceted and characteristic feature of the building – the amalgamation of spaces in- and outside of the building.


TREES ARRANGEMENT SCHEME:

The high variety of space dispositions to the freespace (e.g. roof terrace, loggia, balcony, courtyard, open and roofed passages, terraces) expresses the open attitude and what’s even more important generates a high flexibility of use for different occasions and future developments. This way the user her/himself is able to generate different space configurations. In the urban choreographie the sequence of the Museum of Modern Art is the initiation process of the „axe of culture“ as a future continuum of urban spaces between the crossing of Swietokrzyska and Marszalkowska street and the Rondo PKO
THE MUSEUM GARDEN
The museum garden in the north is an open inviting contact zone (street gallery, information desk, didactic garden, art playground) that attracts the city citizens to get into contact with Art and it’s varieties. Inside this city garden reveals the controversial aspect of art reinterpreting the hight distance to the palace of culture by terraces that expose the difference of hight, however in a way using it for it’s on purposes. The obelisk at the highest terrace left at it’s original place, not exposed, but hidden in a bosk and set underwater. The garden terraces are neglecting the orientation of the palace. They are used for outdoor exhibitions and recreation. The largest low terrace lays as a carpet in front of the museum as part of the cultural axe, cold shouldering the palace.
THE CITY SQUARE
Less representative than entertaining, less dominating than serving, less monofunctional than for multipurpose use. These are the new parameters of the square that is still called Plac Defilad. The edge of the square will be activated by new public uses (shops, restaurants, public services). The large tribune and the stairs provide places for formal as well as informal performances. Large public terraces at trick fountains and a water tablet offer attractive places for staying.