The deconstructivist trend in Polish architecture of the 21th century – selected examples

Ewa Węcławowicz-Gyurkovich

doi:10.37190/arc220202

Abstract

The article is devoted to the presentation and analysis of the aesthetics of the forms and structures of several selected realisations in Polish architecture, which represent a very elitist trend called Deconstruction. This trend appeared in world architecture mainly at the beginning of the 1980s. It arrived in Poland with a long delay of several decades, as it was only in the 2nd decade of the 21st century that several new cultural objects were realised. After outlining the most important features of this trend, the author analysed and discussed the following selected examples based on an analysis of realisations in Western Europe and the USA: the Fire Museum in Żory (opened in 2014), the Jordanki Cultural and Congress Centre in Toruń (opened in 2015) and the Museum of the World War II in Gdańsk (opened in 2017). In each realisation, as can be observed in the examples of well-known Western creators, the individual philosophy of the architects is important. The article presents the statements of the creators of these buildings. The author also pointed out that at the end of the 1990s, individual realisations of detached houses, private production workshops and interiors appeared in our country as part of this trend. In each case, the aesthetic analysis of these works showed that the selected buildings are representative of the discussed trend, implementing its avant-garde premises, depicting the emotions and moods of deconstruction.

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2022

2(70)

Ewa Węcławowicz-Gyurkovich*

The deconstructivist trend in Polish architecture of the 21

century

– selected examples

Introduction

The academic aim of this article is to highlight an

avant-garde trend in contemporary architecture – Decon-

struction – and its characteristic features. The research

methods used by the author include a literature search and

the use of the results of long-term in situ studies of archi-

tecture in Western Europe: in Germany, France, Austria,

Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain, as well as in the Czech

Republic and Poland. The author’s research makes it pos-

sible to present selected Deconstructivist realisations in

our country (a completed building by Jakub Potoczek

from the vicinity of Nowy Sącz, the Fire Museum in Żory,

the Jordanki Cultural and Congress Centre in Toruń, the

Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk) against

a background of the creative achievements of prominent

European architects. In the publication, the author also

discusses the reasons for the dierent process of evolution

of this trend in our country.

Principles of the Deconstruction trend in architecture

Deconstruction in architecture emerged in the late

1970s and early 1980s. Referring to catastrophe and cha-

os theory, the architecture of the late 20

century had to

be based on the individual philosophy of each of the rep-

resentatives of this trend. Many theorists of recent archi-

tecture believe that Deconstruction grew out of opposition

to Postmodernism. In none of these very rare completed

buildings will one encounter any allusions to or quotations

from the historical, regional or indigenous forms that Post-

modernism clearly favoured [1, pp. 99–122, 171–192]. In

many European universities, most notably the AA (Archi-

tectural Association School) in London in the late 1970s

and early 1980s, there were meetings and discussions be-

tween academics and students criticising postmodernism

as being of little value and not conducive to the devel-

opment of architecture. The turn was towards Construc-

tivism, which had appeared in Soviet Russia immediate-

ly after the revolution, but was quickly extinguished by

Socialist Realism. And indeed the rst two high-prole

international competitions of 1982–1983 for a residence

in Hong Kong (Zaha Hadid) and the Park de la Villette in

Paris (Bernard Tschumi) were won by architects originat-

ing from the AA in London. Both award-winning projects

bear clear features of Constructivism.

This trend, denying the previous metaphysical concep-

tion of aesthetics, formulated a new denition of a work of

art, drawing it into the whole of “reality” [2, pp. 238–259].

It was not a question of mass scale and a large number of

completed buildings, but rather of their impact. The di-

rection called Deconstruction opposed all the shapes that

had been present in architecture before. In many cases, it

proposed an arrangement of solids derived from Euclid-

ean geometry, but they were juxtaposed and arranged in

a completely new, unprecedented way. Very often, the nal

forms challenged the familiar principles of construction,

such as vertical and horizontal directions and right an-

gles. The surprising, articulated solids many times became

close to sculpture. It was mainly pointed out by Frank

Gehry [3, pp. 256, 257]. In addition to the commonly used

Vitruvian triad, which denes the most important features

of architecture: beauty, utility, durability – the introduction

of another element, namely emotions and moods, which

architecture of this trend should evoke in a viewer, became

an important factor. The late French philosopher Jacques

Derrida, who was primarily concerned with the philosophy

of linguistics, became the leading theorist of this trend in

architecture. Peter

Eisenman and Bernard Tschumi talked

DOI: 10.37190/arc220202

Published in open access. CC BY NC ND license

ORCID:

0000-0003-3920-445X. Faculty of Architecture, Cracow

University of Technology, Poland, e-mail: ewaannagyur@o2.pl

18 Ewa Węcławowicz-Gyurkovich

to him and based on Derrida’s philosophy, they laid the

theoretical foundations of deconstruction in architecture.

In the Polish literature, Cezary Wąs [4], Tomasz Ko-

złowski [5] and Anna Krajewska have commented on this

issue: We can therefore say that Deconstruction (whatever it

is – a method, an attitude, a worldview) refers to the notion

of movement. The beauty of Deconstruction certainly does

not lie in stability and normality, but in changeability, mo-

mentariness, unsteadiness of connections [6, pp. 20, 21].

Very often, the nal forms challenged commonly known

principles. In completed architecture, the solids lose their

stability, sometimes giving the impression as if they were

detaching from the ground and ying into space. An im-

portant common element is fragmentation and the intro-

duction of movement, represented by kinetic art, but also

the introduction of the element of time, which occurs in

Futurism – it proclaimed the “beauty of speed”. Curvature,

dislocation, collapse, fracture or squashing, breaking into

parts, explosions, collisions, separations, cutting through

matter and areas evoke shock and amazement. The separa-

tion of function and form became important. This is what

Eisenman wrote in Representations of The Limit; Writing

a “non-architecture”

, about the theoretical works and vi-

sual installations of the late 1970s by Daniel Libeskind:

This was the beginning of an attempt to free elements

from their function in both their tectonic and formal sense

– from the causal relationship of function and form (after:

[7, pp. 66, 67]). The provocative confusion and interpene-

tration of forms, which are very often rotated, transformed,

juxtaposed with each other as part of a pre-planned jumble,

do not repeat the familiar compositions of the past. They

are fresh, dramatic, surprising, never seen before. The indi-

vidual buildings are dierent, as they result from each art-

ist’s dierent vision and perception of the world around us.

American architect Mark Wigley’s doctoral thesis

Jacques Derrida and Architecture: the Deconstructive

Possi bilities of Architectural Discourse [8], which was

presented at the University of Auckland in 1986, became

a challenge to organise an exhibition of designs and com-

pleted buildings by seven representatives of this trend at

the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1988. This

exhibition was organised by Philip Johnson and Mark

Wigley. It showcased the designs and buildings of Zaha

Hadid [9, pp. 101–119], Frank Gehry, Bernard Tschumi,

Rem Koolhaas, the Coop Himmelb(l)au team, Peter Eise-

man, Daniel Libeskind. The event reverberated through-

out the world and was followed by numerous magazine

articles. Meanwhile, the book summarising the exhibi-

tion portrayed architecture as a philosophical concept

[10]. Wąs, analysing Wigley’s philosophy, points out that

Deconstruction in architecture is mainly about breaking

down and destroying the structure of forms from within:

This results in the breaking down of the composition, a se-

ries of dislocations, deviations or disruptions […] there

is a discovery of the imperfection consuming the work

Eisenman P., Representations of The Limit; Writing a “non-archi-

tecture”, [in:] D. Libeskind, Chamber Works. Architectural Meditations

on themes from Heraclitus, Architectural Association, London 1983.

and bringing the composition to the limits of stability, but

without nally crossing them [4, p. 23].

Published in 1984, Eisenman’s essay The End of the

Classical: The End of the Beginning, the End of the End

criticises the paradigms of value and time in the percep-

tion of architecture. This author writes: […] Architecture

in the present is seen as a process of inventing an articial

past and a present without a future. It remembers a future

that no longer exists (after: [11]). Deconstruction has also

become a language emphasising symbolism and prepar-

ing the viewer to read meanings, even more strongly than

postmodernism. It seems to be more important to inu-

ence the viewer with shape and extravagant massing than

to t into an existing context. The deliberate introduction

of provocation, the creation and search for dierence and,

above all, the freedom to shape forms, emotions and cour-

age against the hitherto existing boredom and schematism

– these are the basic features of the trend.

Deconstruction in Poland

In our country, the architecture of Deconstructivism

emerged with a long delay. This was related to the politi-

cal and economic isolation of Central European countries

in the 1970s and 1980s. Economic considerations also

played a major role in delaying the completion of archi-

tecture of this trend here. The inuence of the public level

of preparation for the perception of avant-garde art should

also be emphasised, including the degree of aesthetic ed-

ucation of Polish society, for which the aesthetics of the

late 19

century was a model in many cases. Thus, De-

constructivist architecture initially appeared in Poland at

the turn of the 1980s in the form of small-scale structures.

It was not until the second decade of the 21

century that

important buildings for culture were created in this style.

Poland in the 1980s was experiencing a social, econom-

ic and political crisis. It seems that during these dicult

years, the inhabitants of our country were preoccupied

with satisfying their subsistence needs rather than intro-

ducing avant-garde aesthetics. This delay was mainly due

to the economic situation of the country and the investors,

as well as the lack of access to the latest technologies and

building materials that the Deconstructivist realisations re-

quired. It is a very elitist movement, with very few build-

ings completed in Europe and around the world. In Poland,

experimental examples of this trend began to appear in the

late 1980s and early 1990s in interiors, mainly of public

buildings. At that time, it did not require large nancial

outlays. Today, many of these interiors no longer exist. In

2001, a multi-family, four-storey residential building was

completed in Krakow at 32 Wybickiego Street [12, p. 179].

In this case only a twisting of the front wall on the side of

Józefa Wybickiego Street was applied. In the architect’s

opinion, this building cannot be qualied in its entirety as

a realisation in the Deconstructivist trend

. Such delicate

The building was designed by Elżbieta Kierska-Łukaszewska,

and in researching Krakow’s late 20

and early 21

-century architecture,

Maciej Motak classied the building as deconstruction [12, p. 179].

The deconstructivist trend in Polish architecture of the 21

century – selected examples 19

and commercial building in Rytro – Zakład Ślusarsko-

Aluminiowy AL-PLAST (Fig. 2). What draws attention

in this building are the “curled windows”, which probably

attract customers by their uniqueness. The stone walls al-

lude to the Poprad River owing nearby and the ruins of

a castle on a hill in close proximity.

Museum of Fire in Żory

The museum is situated in a good location, as it is right

at the entrance to the city from Katowice. It was designed

as a new showcase for the city and was to be the new gate-

way to it

. The building, located at 3 Katowicka Street,

was designed by Barbara and Oskar Grąbczewski. It was

One may wonder where the idea for a re museum in Żory came

from. The name of the town may already give an explanation – it comes

from the word “żar”, “pogorzelisko” [embers, site of re], which was

created on the site of a burnt forest. The city itself has been hit by res

many times over the centuries. The largest of these occurred in 1661,

1702, 1807, 1945, and the tragic re, in which half the town’s population

perished, was recorded on 11 May 1702. To commemorate these tragic

events, a “Fire Festival” (the only one in Europe) has been held in Żory

every May since 1702, i.e., for over three hundred years. Until 1939, this

festival was a public holiday for the town’s inhabitants [13].

expressive accents seemed sucient at the time. It was

dicult to search for new challenges and trends in a coun-

try where prefabricated blocks of ats reigned supreme

and housing was in short supply.

Completed small-scale buildings in the vicinity

of Nowy Sącz

Only the two buildings discussed below represent, in

each of the views of the masses, as well as in the interiors,

the characteristic features of Deconstruction. In Nawo-

jowa near Nowy Sącz, in the years 1997–2008, architect

Jakub Potoczek’s own house was built. A graduate of the

Faculty of Architecture at the Cracow University of Tech-

nology in 1989, he dared to design objects in the Decon-

structivist style while still a student, for which he received

very good marks. That is why, years later, when complet-

ing his own house, he introduced the “twisted cube” again

(Fig. 1). The building, which shows the duality of the in-

terior and exterior, was built using ceramic blocks, aerated

concrete, wood and stone. The roof of the building, as well

as the wooden beams visible on the outside that extend the

rafters, were covered with stainless steel. The architect be-

lieves that the sloping roof of his house shows an abstract

transformation in architecture of the surrounding moun-

tain landscape and rock masses (Fig. 1). It was important

to him to present a contemporary, intellectual inspiration

by tradition and the surroundings. There are no right an-

gles in the building, only acute angles, curves and oval

forms. The triangular and trapezoidal windows were the

most dicult to build. The window cladding was made of

stainless steel, including the sealing ange. The non-stan-

dard window shapes and lighting from above resulted in

good and interesting eects in the interiors. The building

has attracted a lot of interest over the years; the initial un-

favourable opinions of some neighbours have changed

The residents have become accustomed to the new form.

In 1998, the same architect completed a small production

Interview with the architect on 1

May 2022.

Fig. 1. Architect’s house in Nawojowa: a) view from the south, b) view from the west (photo by J. Potoczek)

Il. 1. Dom architekta w Nawojowej: a) widok od południa, b)

widok od zachodu

(fot. J. Potoczek)

Fig. 2. AL-PLAST service company in Rytro

– view from the south-west (photo by J. Potoczek)

Il. 2. Zakład usługowy AL-PLAST w Rytrze

– widok od południowego zachodu (fot. J. Potoczek)

a b

20 Ewa Węcławowicz-Gyurkovich

Fig. 3. Fire Museum in Żory – view of the building from the eastern side

(photo: E. Węcławowicz-Gyurkovich archive)

Il. 3. Muzeum Ognia w Żorach – widok bryły od strony wschodniej

(fot. archiwum E. Węcławowicz-Gyurkovich)

Fig. 4. Fire Museum in Żory – entrance hall

(photo by T. Zakrzewski, Archifolio)

Il. 4. Muzeum Ognia w Żorach – hol wejściowy

(fot. T. Zakrzewski, Archifolio)

Fig. 5. Fire Museum in Żory – hall of the underground part

(photo by T. Zakrzewski, Archifolio)

Il. 5. Muzeum Ognia w żorach – hol w części podziemnej

(fot. T. Zakrzewski, Archifolio)

under construction between 2009 and 2014 and opened

on 3

December 2014. Although the museum is small in

size, its expressive and unusual shape and unique colour

scheme certainly draw attention and are intriguing. A sur-

prise is the material covering all the walls and roofs with

narrow, uniformly wide vertical strips of copper sheeting,

which, thanks to its coating with transparent HDP varnish,

will always retain a reddish colour and will not tarnish.

The architects comment on the idea of the museum as fol-

lows: […] we saw in the complex contours of the buildable

area an association with a creeping re. We used the met-

aphor of re to build the entire form of the building [14].

The museum presents the history of the city from pre-

history to the present in an attractive and legible way. The

museum’s task is to illustrate mankind’s relationship with

re, with its terrible power, and to show methods of ght-

ing res. The architecture of the building is built with solid

walls, covered – as already mentioned – on all sides with

strips of red-coloured sheet metal, which are interrupted

and opened up from time to time by glass walls for the full

height of the building. There is little glazing, as daylight

is not always necessary in museums. Suddenly breaking

straight lines create the mood of this very dynamic and

distinctive building block, which is interesting and attracts

residents and tourists. The cantilevers, which run upwards

and in almost all directions, can be associated with the

ames of a re. The volume shows the architect’s individ-

ual interpretation of re. It is a “ame building” (Fig. 3).

The copper sheet, shimmering in the sun, can be interpret-

ed as vibrating ames of re. The essence of re is move-

ment, which the architects captured by also showing its

variability and dynamism. The idea became that the three

main walls surrounding the building should express the

ames of the re, while the centre – the oors and interior

walls of the installation core should be black (Figs. 4, 5)

and symbolise burning [14]. Expressive and dynamic

forms were also marked in the plan, where oblique lines,

triangles, trapezoids, acute angles, and abrupt wall breaks

predominate (Fig. 6). As aforementioned, the museum is

not large. The underground area, where the actual inter-

active exhibition is located, occupies 393.97 m

. On the

ground oor, there are rooms for lectures and conferences.

The museum exhibition is located on two levels, i.e. on

the ground oor and in the basement of the building.

Jordanki Cultural and Congress Centre in Toruń

Another important example of Deconstructivist archi-

tecture completed in our country is the Jordanki Cultural

and Congress Centre complex in Toruń at 1–3 Solidarnoś-

ci Avenue, opened in December 2015. The building was

the result of an international architectural competition in

2008. The design was selected from 22 entries. The win-

ner was the Spanish architect Fernando Menis – head of

the Menis Arquitectos oce from Tenerife. The building,

housing two concert halls and three conference halls, is lo-

cated in the former part of the so-called Chełmińskie Sub-

urb. It was situated north of the line of the Old Town walls,

where a moat still existed in the 1920s [15]. The building

located in the vicinity of the Gothic centre of Toruń,

The deconstructivist trend in Polish architecture of the 21

century – selected examples 21

being unnished, as if by accident, yet carefully thought

out and planned. Almost everywhere there is semi-dark-

ness [16, pp. 95–105], an austerity, a surprise, a sensual-

ity. The museum’s plan is also dominated by sharp cuts

of geometric solids and the use of acute angles (Fig. 8)

[17]. Such creative and unexpected shaping of space can-

not fail to evoke emotions and the mood planned by the

architect-artist. This is strong, expressive and bold archi-

tecture. The building has received numerous awards and

mentions. The building hides another important secret. It

is the architect’s new interpretation of the tradition of the

place, a neighbourhood of the historic centre of Toruń. The

architect proposed a very original solution for nishing

the walls, mainly in the interiors, but also on parts of the

external façades. This consisted of introducing small ele-

ments of broken red bricks, which were blended into the

concrete nish of the walls in a light shade. The result is

red walls with a rough texture, with the red of the interior

of the concert halls being more intense than in the foyer.

The method of covering the walls in this way was called

picado. This is how the architect explains his design idea:

I am looking for the essence of a place. My role is to ex-

pand the cultural aspects of a particular space and pro-

duce its history [18]. Probably not every viewer will nd

this idea of the architect alluding to Gothic architecture

which has the second largest number of monuments of

Gothic architecture in Poland (after Kraków). The pre-

served town-houses are classed as the largest and best-pre-

served complex of urban brick Gothic architecture in

Northern Europe. Also important are the city walls, gates,

towers and granaries, and above all the Old Town Hall

and Gothic churches. Due to the originality and high class

of the preserved authentic buildings, Toruń’s Old Town

complex was entered in the UNESCO World Heritage List

on 4

December 1997 [15]. The body of the new develop-

ment consists of four modular, irregular forms built in re-

inforced concrete construction, which have been connect-

ed by glass connectors. There are incisions and cut-outs of

rectangular shapes that have been transformed into rhom-

boidal and broken structures (Fig. 7a). The inclinations,

truncations, twists and curvatures of these elements create

a large Deconstructivist sculpture, whose original form

attracts organisers of various musical, scientic and fair

events. It also houses the headquarters of the Toruń Sym-

phony Orchestra, for which a venue was planned as early

as in the period between the two World Wars. The interior

of the building is a great surprise to visitors (Fig. 7b). One

can nd there similarities with grottoes or caves carved

in stone. One can see many cracks and shifts, cuts in the

hard mass of a rock, s ometimes giving the impression of

Fig. 6. Fire Museum in Żory

– ground floor plan

(elaborated by E. Węcławowicz-

Gyurkovich based on [14])

Il. 6. Muzeum Ognia w Żorach

– rzut parteru

(oprac. E. Węcławowicz-

-Guyrkovich na podstawie [14])

Fig. 7. Jordanki Culture and Congress Centre in Toruń: a) view from the east, b)

interior of the audytorium

(photo: E. Węcławowicz-Gyurkovich archive)

Il. 7. Centrum Kulturalno-Konferencyjne Jordanki w Toruniu: a) widok od wschodu, b)

wnętrze sali widowiskowej

(fot. archiwum E. Węcławowicz-Gyurkovich)

a b

22 Ewa Węcławowicz-Gyurkovich

with the texture of the wall intelligible. Only a sophisti-

cated viewer will guess the message. Comparing this re-

alisation to other achievements of the Menis Arquitectos

team in Tenerife (the MAGMA Arts and Congress Centre

in Adeje, opened in 2006 [19], or the Church of the Most

Holy Redeemer in La Laguna, completed in 2019), one

can nd characteristics of the architect’s work. The han-

dling of concrete blocks mixed with local volcanic rock

gives the eects of a rock formation created by long-term

geological processes. The inspiration of lava and volcano

is clearly evident there. Also of interest, as in Toruń, is the

masterful handling of daylight, which is let into the interi-

ors through ssures [20]. The building in Toruń, due to the

nearby panorama of the Old Town, could not be high; it

has six storeys, including two underground ones, and the

total area is 22 000 m

. The building is characteristically

a multi-purpose one. In addition to concert and conference

halls, a press room, rehearsal hall, restaurant and under-

ground parking for 185 cars have been designed. The two

concert halls, a larger one for 880 spectators and a small-

er one for 300 people, can be combined into one larger

hall by sliding a wall. In addition, provision is made for

the mobility of both halls and auditoriums, which can be

either at or on several levels, and the main stage has the

option of opening out onto the square from the rear side.

It is then possible to hold performances outside (creating

an interference theatre) [21, p. 190], among the greenery

that occupies a large part of the plot and surrounds the

building. Also the ceilings in the auditoriums are mov-

able, the acoustics can be changed depending on the type

of event [16]. The facility is planned for symphonic and

opera music concerts, entertainment, as well as for theatre

performances, conferences and lm screenings.

Museum of the World War II in Gdańsk

The museum’s design was awarded rst prize in an

international architectural competition in 2010, which at-

tracted 240 contestants from 33 countries and ultimately

129 entries. The competition jury was chaired by Daniel

Libeskind. The museum was created by the KWADRAT

team of architects from Gdynia – Jacek Droszcz, Bazyli

Domsta, Zbigniew Kowalewski, Andrzej Kwieciński. The

design was made in 2009, with construction lasting from

September 2012 to March 2017. The building was located

near the Main Town on Wałowa Street at the point where

the Radunia Canal ows into the Motława River. From

there, it is only 200 m to the famous Polish Post Oce

building and 3 km by water to the Westerplatte penin-

sula. Nearby, the Young City is being developed as part

of the revitalisation of the former shipyard areas [22,

pp. 16–23]. On the other hand, from Długie Pobrzeże and

beyond the Motława River, both on Wyspa Spichrzów

(Granary Island) and on Ołowianka, new buildings have

recently been constructed – hotels and multi-family resi-

dential buildings that do not imitate history, but show an

interesting contemporary interpretation of the place [23,

pp. 96–104]. The total area of the museum is 58,000 m

and the area of the site is 1,700 m

. The museum consists

of six underground storeys and eight above-ground ones.

Inside, three narrative blocks are proposed: The Road to

War, The Horror of War and The Long Shadow of War

– a total of 18 thematic sections showcasing 2,000 exhib-

its; 240 multimedia stations have also been created. The

team of architects called this building a “silent design”,

because all visitors to the museum, as well as those walk-

ing along Długie Pobrzeże Street, are surprised by its un-

usual shape, which moves at rst glance and imbues the

place with drama (Figs. 9, 10). It can be interpreted in var-

ious ways. The most frequent associations bring to mind

a vision of a fragment of a ruined building, also a tower,

which has sunk into the ground as a result of warfare, but

also a fragment of a submarine emerging from the water,

or a bomb or a missile stuck in the ground [24, pp. 186,

187]. Jacek Droszcz explains the designers’ assumptions

as follows: […] history has shaped this building […]. This

intended strong spatial accent is to lead a specic dia-

logue with the historic towers of the churches and town

halls of Gdańsk, blending in with the silhouette of the city

with its contemporary form […] [25].

Fig. 8. Jordanki Culture

and Congress Centre in Toruń

– ground floor plan of the building

(elaborated by E. Węcławowicz-

Gyurkovich based on [17])

Il. 8. Centrum Kulturalno-

-Konferencyjne Jordanki

w Toruniu – rzut parteru

(oprac. E. Węcławowicz-

-Gyurkovich na podstawie [17])

The deconstructivist trend in Polish architecture of the 21

century – selected examples 23

Always, however, as in many of Libeskind’s war-relat-

ed projects, it must evoke strong emotions. The sloping

red-coloured tower seems to allude to the brick architec-

ture of historic Gdańsk, although it may also be a sym-

bol of the blood that was shed in the war. Associations

and interpretations depend on the individual feelings of

the viewer. One cannot pass by the museum indierently.

It seems to scream not only with its programme of inter-

nal exhibitions, but also with its sheer external expressive

form. From the outset, the architects had in mind a “dy-

namic form that ruptures the space”. This is what the chair-

man of the jury, Daniel Libeskind, said about the winning

entry: the Museum of the Second World War will become

a unique and expressive icon. As a place that commemo-

rates the history of the Second World War, it will be a new

symbol that we must not forget, one that will blend into

the hearts of the people of Gdańsk, Poland and Europe

[…] [26]. The museum’s exhibition is divided into three

zones: the Underground – the past, or the drama of the

war, the present – the wide square named after Władysław

Bartoszewski around the museum at ground level, and the

future – a giant leaning tower. The skylight tower, which

rises from the square in the shape of a prism on the plan

of a triangle, measures 40.5 m high and is very steeply

inclined, as much as 56° to the ground, with not only the

canopy but also one entire wall made of glass. Inside, there

is a library with a reading room (Fig. 10) education and

conference rooms and a restaurant with a café at the very

Fig. 9. Museum of the World War II in Gdańsk:

a) view of the building from the south, b) view of the tower from the west (photo: E. Węcławowicz-Gyurkovich archive)

Il. 9. Muzeum II Wojny Światowej w Gdańsku:

a) widok od południa, b) wieża od zachodu (fot. archiwum E. Węcławowicz-Gyurkovich)

a b

top with a wide view of the city. Illuminated by daylight,

the white walls are a symbol of the future with the hope

and joy that post-war generations will not experience the

tragedy of war. The design of the museum’s lower interior

continues the architecture of the building and

emphasises

the theme of war [27]. It is dominated by a dark military

mood evoked by the use of the dominant graphite colour

everywhere. This is contrasted with bright, slanted walls

made of raw concrete, ceramic cladding reminiscent of

tarnished sheet metal, ceilings made of expanded metal.

These quasi-industrial interiors of the subterranean part

are connected by a monumental staircase with solid black

steel balustrades, leading down through all storeys, reach-

ing down to –14.0 m (Fig. 10). The plan structure of the

building operates with a Deconstructivist breakdown of

the functional programme, framed by dynamic, jittery tri-

angular, rhomboidal shapes, depicting movement in archi-

tecture [28] (Fig. 11). Taking into account the history of the

site, the architects marked the course of the main Grosse

Gasse street in the underground part of the building with

a wide corridor, which was in lieu of the museum before

the war. This space was called the Wiadrownia. The area

was home to a number of craftsmen’s workshops, includ-

ing those that made buckets. Inside the building structure,

the corridor replicates the line of the street, and its axis is

covered by a glass canopy. Outside, the line of the street is

continued by a long sloping footbridge, leading to the mu-

seum entrance from the Radunia canal. The reconstruct-

24 Ewa Węcławowicz-Gyurkovich

ed street, which receives daylight, also provides a resting

place for visitors. The architectural concept is that all the

evils of war are hidden underground, and that the “light”

of hope enters through a gap that runs along the square. It

is this crack that constitutes the compositional axis of the

whole premise for the location of the main exhibition – as

the architects of the museum’s design emphasise [29].

Conclusions

The research carried out has shown that, although with

a long delay of more than thirty years, single realisations

of the Deconstructivist trend are appearing in our coun-

try. A detailed study of their external forms was carried

out and the interiors were subjected to structural analysis.

Both in the external forms and in the interiors of the dis-

cussed buildings, there are characteristics of Deconstruc-

tivist architecture, associated with the use of surprising,

previously unknown, always dierent and new, expressive

and dynamic shapes. In the contemporary architectural re-

ality, in which we note a great variety of creative attitudes,

when no style is obligatory, it is probably interesting to

note and introduce this elitist and intellectual trend. It is an

expression of the conscious eorts of Polish and European

architects who wish to draw attention in today’s world to

avant-garde modern art, which, often opposing traditional

art, draws impulses for its development from it [30, p. 12].

Our present demands ever stronger aesthetic stimuli, so

that in the viewers living in the age of the microprocessor

revolution, computer databases, the ubiquitous and wide-

spread Internet, there is a conscious return to the inner

feelings of the viewers, to their freedom of imagination

and the memory of the past of the places where now new

solids are introduced.

From the discussed examples realised in our country,

it is evident that in each of the design tasks the architects

wanted to present their own interpretations of the tradition

of place, almost every time related to the history of the

city or the neighbourhood in which new architecture was

created. They represent a contemporary, architect’s under-

standing of the past and the context of the place, which will

probably not be understood immediately by all audiences.

The architecture of Deconstruction is dicult to perceive.

It is an intellectual play, but an important feature of it is

the breakdown of forms, the depiction of movement and

time, the evocation of emotions and impressions, which is

conrmed by all the buildings discussed above. In many

cases, in some well-known European realisations of De-

Fig. 10. Museum of the World War II in Gdańsk:

a) interior of the underground part of the museum, b) interior of the library in the tower (photo by T. Kurek)

Il. 10. Muzeum II Wojny Światowej w Gdańsku: a) wnętrze holu, b) wnętrze biblioteki (fot. T. Kurek)

a b

The deconstructivist trend in Polish architecture of the 21

century – selected examples 25

constructivist designs, the problem of blending into the

existing environment arises, for sometimes the star-archi-

tects reject the surrounding existing context of the new

buildings. The Polish realisations show that relating to

a place in a contemporary, dierent from traditional, way

was important for the creators of the examples discussed

above. Moreover, in the case of the Museum of the Sec-

ond World War, Libeskind said: Anyway, this building is

so strong that if it were built anywhere in the world, it

would be an icon everywhere (after: [27]).

The architects’ concepts presented in the article were

probably created as a result of an individual, emotional in-

terpretation of the intention in the spatial and cultural con-

text of the place, understood through the prism of Decon-

structivist philosophy, in pursuit of a passing future. Derrida

argued that the architecture of Deconstruction notes the

Present, for in a moment it will become the Past [10, p. 23].

This Present is characterised by the noting of a movement

appearing briey in a given moment, and this moment as

an element of time resulting from sudden transformations,

confusions, overlapping – as if by chance – solids is notated

by a creative architect. All artists, including architects, who

introduce the avant-garde and innovative “Architecture of

Spectacle” must be prepared for criticism and disapproval.

Gehry claimed that if he had considered serious criticism

of his ideas before completing his designs and had to alter

them to satisfy others’ ideas about the perception of archi-

tecture, his museum in Bilbao would never have been built

[31, p. 25]. The buildings of the Deconstructivist trend are

always based on the philosophical considerations of their

creators, who try to include in the solids unquantiable

values, perceived in the sphere of feelings, emotions, im-

pressions. Tom Dyckho, a well-known British architec-

tural critic wrote: […] “Deconstructivism” and the strange

new buildings created in the 1970s by architects such as

Bernard Tschumi and Peter Eisenman, pompous and intel-

lectual, did not appeal to the common man; they lacked

even the forms that we, who are supposed to live in these

buildings, could at least understand a little [32, p. 23].

Translated by

Ewa Węcławowicz-Gyurkovich

Verified by

Marta A. Urbańska

Fig. 11. Museum of the World

War II in Gdańsk – plan of

the underground part of museum,

(elaborated by E. Węcławowicz-

Gyurkovich based on [28])

Il. 11. Muzeum II Wojny Światowej

w Gdańsku – rzut części podziemnej

(oprac. E. Węcławowicz-

-Gyurkovich na podstawie [28])

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Abstract

The deconstructivist trend in Polish architecture of the 21

century – selected examples

The article is devoted to the presentation and analysis of the aesthetics of the forms and structures of several selected realisations in Polish archi-

tecture, which represent a very elitist trend called Deconstruction. This trend appeared in world architecture mainly at the beginning of the 1980s.

It arrived in Poland with a long delay of several decades, as it was only in the 2

decade of the 21

century that several new cultural objects were

realised. After outlining the most important features of this trend, the author analysed and discussed the following selected examples based on an

analysis of realisations in Western Europe and the USA: the Fire Museum in Żory (opened in 2014), the Jordanki Cultural and Congress Centre in

Toruń (opened in 2015) and the Museum of the World War II in Gdańsk (opened in 2017). In each realisation, as can be observed in the examples

of well-known Western creators, the individual philosophy of the architects is important. The article presents the statements of the creators of these

buildings. The author also pointed out that at the end of the 1990s, individual realisations of detached houses, private production workshops and

interiors appeared in our country as part of this trend. In each case, the aesthetic analysis of these works showed that the selected buildings are repre-

sentative of the discussed trend, implementing its avant-garde premises, depicting the emotions and moods of deconstruction.

Key words: deconstruction, realisations, aesthetic, structure of forms

Streszczenie

Nurt dekonstruktywistyczny w polskiej architekturze XXI w. – wybrane realizacje

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bardzo elitarny nurt zwany dekonstrukcją. Ten kierunek pojawił się w światowej architekturze głównie na początku lat 80. XX w. Do Polski dotarł

z dużym, bo kilkudziesięcioletnim opóźnieniem, albowiem dopiero w drugiej dekadzie XXI w. zostało zrealizowanych kilka nowych obiektów

kultury. Po nakreśleniu najważniejszych cech tego nurtu, na podstawie analizy realizacji w Europie Zachodniej i w USA autorka artykułu omówiła

wybrane przykłady: Muzeum Ognia w Żorach (otwarte w 2014 r.), Centrum Kulturalno-Kongresowe Jordanki w Toruniu (otwarte w 2015 r.) oraz

Muzeum II Wojny Światowej w Gdańsku (otwarte w 2017 r.). W każdej realizacji, podobnie jak obserwować to można w przykładach znanych za-

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