Work submitted for the competition
"Best Diploma Architecture"
When creating the master's project, it was very important for me to design it in my hometown - Gdynia, a port city called "white", "modernist", "a city from the sea and dreams".
In recent years, the city has been transforming a lot, adapting industrial neighborhoods and creating attractive public spaces and new developments in their place. However, the further development of Gdynia is strictly limited due to its specific location between the seaport, hills and the sea.
Hence the idea to incorporate some areas previously owned by the port into the city, and to compensate for the areas taken away by building a new outer seaport. One of these areas is the attractively located Fisherman's Pier - according to the provisions of the Local Development Plan, an extreme plot of almost one hectare (0.97 acres) is intended for a Sailing Museum and a public city park.
Based on my long-standing passion for sailing, I decided, as part of my master's thesis, to design a conceptual design for a vertical Sailing Museum at this location, in accordance with all the guidelines and requirements imposed by city planners.
Left: site development plan; right: situation, axonometry, massing scheme and elevations
© Agata Morawczyńska
One of the biggest challenges was to create a building for which the only certain context is the sea, a beautiful view and ships disappearing over the horizon. Unfortunately, the view of the sea is obscured by a storm surge dike creating a visual barrier between the designed plot and the Bay of Puck. Also, the guidelines of the local zoning plan stating the maximum area of the building (up to 0.20 of the land area, no restrictions on the maximum height of the building) and the large size of the exhibits influenced the decision to design a high-rise building with specially arranged terraces allowing visitors to admire sailing boats from different perspectives and heights.
The building is designed in a reinforced concrete monolithic post-and-beam structure with a foundation on a monolithic slab on prefabricated piles. The total height of the building is 87 meters. The ceiling between floors is designed as reinforced concrete with a thickness of 40 centimeters. The deployment of exhibits of considerable size and weight will be made possible by a crane integrated into the building structure. The boats will eventually be brought in through the garage and then lifted to the appropriate height and pre-prepared location. The idea is to make it relatively easy to change the museum's collection or return any of the exhibits for restoration.
Left: cross-section A-A; right: functional program of the building
© Agata Morawczyńska
The building's facade is made up of parametrically designed concrete panels. Its form is based on a definition from Grasshopper using three-point attractors to scale the triangular panels. The position of the attractors was determined by the location of the most important museum exhibits. Thanks to this arrangement, the largest openings were placed near the most important exhibits - four selected sailing boats of great importance to Polish sailing (from the highest floor - S/Y yachts "Kumka IV", "Dal", "Opty", and "Miranda"). The form of the facade is intended to intrigue visitors, and its primary function is to prevent direct sunlight from entering the interior while providing visitors with a view of the entire Puck Bay, the city and the seaport, and to create a backdrop for the exhibits on display. The panels taper where the boats are positioned and allow passersby to look inside the museum, encouraging them to view the collection.
Left: Gdynia Sailing Museum, visualization; right: details of the facade and visualization of the exhibition space
© Agata Morawczyńska
The way of visiting the museum is also unusual. The collection is set up in such a way that the visit starts from the top floor, gradually descending all the way to the underground part, where lecture rooms, a workshop and a checkroom are located. On the fourth floor are a restaurant and a children's play area. This floor is distinguished by an overhang supported by steel cables mounted at the top of the building. Visitors can buy a ticket to the museum on the 14th floor or take a free ride to the 15th floor, where there is a viewing point. An additional attraction is a publicly accessible park with an area set aside for the display of works by students and artists, a reservoir where the sailing boat "S/Y Corsair" is displayed, and a small marina reserved for yachts of exceptional importance.
Left: projections and visualization of the restaurant interior; right: projections and visualization of the viewpoint
© Agata Morawczyńska
The museum aims not only to exhibit boats, but also to show the history, traditions of the city and the dreams and achievements of its residents, to become a center for dialogue, a friendly place for local artists, a space for lectures, workshops and meetings. The museum's unusual form stands out from other developments and is clearly related to the building's function. It is intended to encourage visitors to the Fisherman's Pier and to enjoy the indoor and outdoor parts of the museum exhibition. The design concept also includes the repositioning and inclusion of the sailing ship "Dar Pomorza" in the museum's outdoor collection and the creation of an underwater tunnel connecting the Sailing Museum with the nearby Oceanarium.
mockup photo
© Agata Morawczyńska
The building of the Museum of Sailing is the result of various analyses and meets all formal guidelines for the necessary functions and spatial requirements. The interior of the museum is suitable for organizing exhibitions aimed at different groups. The museum's tour route is designed to pique visitors' interest and instinctively direct them to the next exhibits in a logical yet diverse manner. The exterior form is my personal interpretation of Gdynia's peculiar modernism in a modern way and is intended to become a symbol of the city welcoming tourists and sailors coming to Gdynia.
Agata MORAWCZYŃSKA
Illustrations: © Author
