The first phase of this Warsaw museum extension, which is to be built in two stages, involves the construction of a three-storey polyhedral building with an arthropod-like roof and a prickly exposed-concrete facade. Standing on the foundations of an 1836 prison building that was used by the Gestapo during the Nazi occupation of Poland, the addition is intentionally forbidding: The architects want to evoke feelings of solemnity and disquietude in visitors even before they enter the museum, which commemorates the history of the approximately 100,000 prisoners held there between 1939 and 1944. The second phase, on the site of a former women’s prison, will be a vertical park built in light steel elements, covered in a mesh skin and landscaped with indigenous flora. Completion is expected by 2022.

Project Museum of Pawiak Prison Firm FAAB Architektura, Poland
Team Adam Białobrzeski, Adam Figurski, Mikołaj Szewczyk and Anna Miłosz