Urban Nexus

The proposal for the Museum of Polish history began with the premise that a rigorous understanding of historic and landscape conditions of the site would help us arrive at a solution that develops a relationship with its historic urban setting. Thus the museum design is treated as a tool for greater understanding of the larger context, of which the designated site is a part: a process that will help us to articulate its future without any pretense of giving a final interpretation.

The site designated for the museum located along the escarpment of Warsaw, forms a part of a conglomeration of historic complexes. Dictated by the architecture of the Ujazdow castle, the site finds itself threaded along with other parks and gardens by the ‘green boulevard’ that runs along the edge of the scarp. The castle, conceived as a culmination of the Axis Stainslaw, is part of the historic urban setup that determines and defines the landscape composition of Jazdow area. The proposal for the MPH Park attempts to evolve with a cumulative understanding of the dominating urban, landscape and architectural heritage of the site.

Interpretation of existing historic forces, to address connectivity and experiential quality of movement, became the prime concern in designing the museum. Articulating the building volumes as a link between the castle and its neighborhood, the proposal attempts to visualize this link as a street winding through galleries that narrate different epochs of Polish history.

The museum attempts to explore the idea of freedom in many different ways: giving the freedom of choice to negotiate the site and buildings in different ways and to integrate the building into urban context.


Museum of Polish history (Urban Nexus) | date : 2011 | location : Warsaw, Poland | surface : 50.000 m2 | team : Madhusudhan Chalasani, Dharmesh Gandhi, Srikanth Inti, Pradeep Kumar Uppari | status : International architectural competition