The activities of Wrocław's BWA could be envied by many cities. The thriving institution surprises not only in the field of visual arts, but also in the field of design. BWA Wroclaw is changing its premises like a glove - at the end of 2023 the renovation of Dizajn Gallery and Zyjnia on Świdnicka Street (proj.: Centrala) began, and now we learn the first details about the new-old headquarters. What potential is created by the place where BWA Wrocław will be located?
During a press conference held on March 26 this year, the Wrocław Art Exhibition Office shared plans for the adaptation of a post-industrial landmark into a new headquarters for the institution. The hall at 63 Kolejowa Street, where BWA Wroclaw will soon make its home, once belonged to the Kraftpost company, a German postal service that handled parcels and transported passengers using distinctive yellow buses. It was there that the vehicles were assembled and repaired, which in the 1920s and 1930s popularized access to newspapers and mail outside of large urban centers and enabled pioneering public transportation. Lothar Neumann, a German modernist architect and author of the Post Office building on Krasińskiego Street - the first skyscraper in Wrocław - was responsible for the design of the building, which was constructed in 1931.
New headquarters of BWA Wrocław - Former assembly hall of Kraftpost on Kolejowa Street in Wrocław.
Photo: Maciej Lulko for PFR Nieruchomości | BWA Wrocław press mat.
Art on Kolejowa Street
The historic brick hall from the 1930s was once part of a larger industrial complex, which in the quarter between Kolejowa, Tęczowa, Prosta and Grabiszyńska streets was occupied mainly by the Hoffman Brothers Wagon Factory. Today, all that remains of its industrial past is an administrative building, a paint shop and an assembly hall, to which the BWA will move.
The new headquarters of BWA Wroclaw - The former Kraftpost assembly hall on Kolejowa Street in Wroclaw.
photo: PFR Real Estate | press mat. BWA Wrocław
The area is not lying fallow; it changed beyond recognition when the decision was made to demolish the low-rise industrial buildings that surrounded the quarter on all sides, and to build the government's Nowa Kolejowa housing development (designed by B2studio) on the site, financed under the Mieszkanie Plus program. Eight multifamily residential buildings of the state enterprise PFR Real Estate were then built, and they tightly filled the space. At its center, however, a historic, though rapidly deteriorating, production hall continued to haunt the area. This is set to change in the next three years, as the former bus assembly plant will become the headquarters of BWA Wrocław.
New headquarters of BWA Wroclaw - Former Kraftpost assembly hall on Kolejowa Street in Wroclaw.
Photo: Maciej Lulko for PFR Nieruchomości | BWA Wroclaw press mat.
BWA is traversing Wroclaw
The idea came at least in 2020, when it was decided to move BWA Wroclaw from the Hatzfeld Palace to a specially prepared, albeit temporary, space at Wroclaw Central Station. At the time, the city announced a plan to build a new gallery facility on Kępa Mieszczanska, on Prince Witolda Street. The BWA headquarters was to be built as part of a larger development project that the city wanted to carry out with a private investor. However, the plans were abandoned two years later. As of 2022, there was more and more talk about acquiring the industrial monument at 63 Kolejowa Street for exhibition purposes, interviews with the BWA director appeared, the institution even organized tours of its future headquarters. Now it's certain and concrete - BWA Wroclaw will open its new headquarters in the coming years.
BWA Wroclaw's new headquarters - interiors of the former Kraftpost assembly hall on Kolejowa Street in Wroclaw.
photo: Michal Luczak | BWA Wroclaw press mat.
What will be the new headquarters of BWA Wroclaw?
According to the official website of the Wrocław Art Exhibition Office, a total of 4,000 square meters of floor space will be available in the new space. This one will be divided into several separate parts:
[...] two exhibition halls, 1,000 and 230m², with the possibility of enlarging it with a third of 500m² in size at a height of 6 to 10m, as well as a 250m² performance hall. It will provide space for performances, film screenings and smaller concerts. There will be the possibility of lorry access and the highest standards of object protection will be met in cooperation with the National Institute of Museums. In addition, there will be a video-art room, an education room, and a 500-square-meter multi-purpose foyer. On top of that, a space for regeneration, a calming room or a canteen.
- explains Maciej Bujko, director of BWA Wrocław
BWA Wrocław's new headquarters - interiors of the former Kraftpost assembly hall on Kolejowa Street in Wrocław.
photo: Michal Luczak | BWA Wroclaw press mat.
two contexts for the benefit of art
The space in which art is exhibited is of considerable importance for its reception. A painting in a Baroque frame has a completely different effect in the 18th-century interiors of a palace with an amphitheatre layout than against the white walls of a modern building. The latter, known as white cubes after World War II, became a standard in the design of museum buildings, especially those presenting contemporary art. Despite their many advantages (flexibility in shaping exhibitions, neutrality), they also have their drawbacks - sensory overwhelming interiors or their role in the post-colonial, artistic domination of the West, their white walls and cuboid volumes decontextualize the art on display in them. The exhibits on display may find it difficult to establish a creative dialogue with the space, whose basic feature is ambivalence.
BWA Wrocław's new headquarters - the interiors of the former Kraftpost assembly hall on Kolejowa Street in Wrocław.
photo: Michal Luczak | press mat. BWA Wrocław
Another plane on which the adaptation of the Wrocław assembly hall building appears as an opportunity for art is the context in the sense of the history of the place and its material manifestations. Links in such locations are built not only in the visual sphere, but also in the semantic sphere - references to the past of a place can also be made through interaction with thearchitecture designed with an awareness of the historical context, and examples of such sites include the MOCAK building, located within Oskar Schindler's former factory in Krakow, or the adapted Pavillon de l'Arsenal in Paris.
BWA Wrocław's new headquarters - interiors of the former Kraftpost assembly hall on Kolejowa Street in Wrocław.
photo: Michal Luczak | press mat. BWA Wroclaw
no more white cubes
In the face of growing criticism of white cubes, exhibition spaces that have "character" beyond the ruthlessly straight verticals and horizontals and the unbroken whiteness of the walls are increasingly appreciated. Wroclaw already has such spaces - a great example is the Contemporary Museum, whose headquarters is located in an anti-aircraft shelter from the 1940s, built to a design by Richard Konwiarz. A visit to the huge, windowless rotunda is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and while the small amount of available space and the circular layout of the interiors must cause no small amount of trouble for curatorial teams, similar effects are hard to find in the well-known white cubes. If the design of BWA Wroclaw's new headquarters succeeds in using the existing matter in a creative way, one can expect a similarly unique experience there as well.
Presentation of the new BWA headquarters on Kolejowa Street in Wroclaw.
photo: Wojciech Chrubasik | BWA Wroclaw press release
art assembly room
In the context of the adaptation of the new BWA Wrocław headquarters, one should not forget that the Kraftpost assembly hall building is under conservation protection. Arrangements with preservation offices may influence the shape of architectural interventions carried out on the historic building. However, it seems that minimizing construction activities, or emphasizing the qualities presented by the industrial architecture of the first half of the 20th century, can only come out in favor of the new BWA gallery. In its interiors, elements of the equipment used in the production and repair of Kraftpost's distinctive yellow buses have been preserved - including slides, fans and tool shelves suspended from the ceiling. Also adding to the interior's character are the heavily distressed turquoise lampery and the exposed roof structure.
Presentation of the new BWA headquarters on Kolejowa Street in Wroclaw
photo: Wojciech Chrubasik | press mat. BWA Wrocław
great unknown
The architectural design for the renovation of the 20th-century hall will be handled by the Chamielec Architekci studio, which is responsible for several successful revitalizations in Wrocław, including the buildings of the neo-Gothic hospital on Jana Pawła II Square in Wrocław or the modernization of two tenement houses on Piłsudskiego Street, also in Wrocław. It is also known that the studio led by Arkadiusz Chamielec will be responsible for revitalization projects for the remaining monuments within the former wagon factory.
Presentation of the new BWA headquarters on Kolejowa Street in Wroclaw - Anna Szpakowska-Kujawska, Model of a Wanderer
photo: Wojciech Chrubasik | press mat. BWA Wrocław
Unfortunately, the scope and nature of the changes that will be introduced in the hall on Kolejowa Street in Wroclaw are not yet known - we will probably learn more at the latest when the competition for the interior design of the new BWA headquarters in Wroclaw is announced, which the institution is expected to announce soon. Instead, BWA Wroclaw has given approximate dates for the next stages of the project. As early as the second of next year, BWA intends to announce a tender for the architectural design, while the completion of the revitalization, which will last about 18 months, is planned for 2028.
