General objectives
The general philosophy behind the design was to create a facility with a value created not only by providing functional and performance solutions of a utilitarian nature, but also by providing conditions for its interaction within the social space of the city. By reconsidering the historical development of the area, we can see key moments within the development which influenced the area the most. These form what we call the “historical layers” of the intensity experienced in the city of Warsaw which is vital when designing on such a significant site. We find it essential that we create a place where people can connect with their built environment and cultural inheritance,a place where people can become aware of or fully appreciate the historical context in which they belong. Our proposal aims not only to reflect upon the multiplicity of “historical layers” that made the area what it is today, but also to make them present and visible. Thus, they are reflected on the urban design proposed. Our approach is to anchor the proposed buildings with the most important historical buildings and the natural environment.

Urban strategy
Since the role of the museum is to create spaces suitable for encouraging a delicate relationship between history and its spectators, the urban strategy has been focused on creating a strong relationship between the new historical museum and the context of the hill. Even more, the main idea in fact is to transform the whole hill into an open air museum. The new historical museum, together with the Uiazdowski castle and the several spectacular view points part of one big open air museum. We call this effect the ‘Acropolis effect’, in fact the Acropolis hill can be considered as a museum itself, no matter in which place you are. We translate this here with different circular tracks, circuits that allow you to discover the hill with different velocities/distances/themes creating the least environmentalimpact (scheme on the right side). Further more we have considered the historical axis like the Os Stanislawowska and put it to stronger evidence by marking it with the element water along the road emphasizing the historical importance of the axis (scheme below). We have the 2-museums track that connects the new formed museum with the Uiazdowski castle, we have the 3-parks track that connects as the name saysthe 3 main parks and there is the new formed ‘monument alley’ that doubles up the existing track that accompanies several sculptures set into the landscape and aims to create one monumental alley with monuments on both sides (scheme on the left side).In this way we thematize every track. The new historical museum is perfectly integrated into this simple but effective infrastructure and further more it contains 3 tracks in itself, the permanent slow/fast and the temporary track.

Architectural concept
In our architectural concept the museum evidences the courtyard typology, paying tribute to the Uiazdowski castle (scheme on the left side). Though it has a slightly different angle as alignment towards the castle creating a delicate spatial tension. Certainly it is our aim to add a ‘new’ layer to the site. Therefor the body of the museum should not be a barrier between the park and the castle and the new formed ‘museum square’ but should actively link the two, visually, spatially and physically.With a simple warp we ‘lifted up’ the southwestern corner to let all the tracks we talked before infiltrate the new formed museum square and ‘pushed down’ the southeastern angle close to the castle to form a ‘continuous square’ (scheme on the right side).The entrance to the building is the most eastern part, through the circular square. The spectator almost bumps into the most spectacular architectural space of the building with a 100 m wide and 12 m high cinemalike showcase looking at Warsaw downtown (interior perspective below). From the Forum the visitors can choose between 3 circular museum tracks, the permanent slow/fast and temporary track just as the mood commands. These tracks in a really scenographic way describe the warped building accompanying the visitor through an exciting experience (scheme below left side and model photo below right side).