Work submitted for the competition
"Best Interior Diploma 2020/2022".
Themodern definition of a museum combines not only cataloged collections of artifacts, but also artistic activities, historical areas, science centers, natural regions or individual objects around which a museum narrative is built. There is a noticeable increase in the importance of multimedia techniques and the development of technology, and they occupy a permanent place in thinking about the museum.
"A museum is a collection of appropriately placed captions illustrated with exhibits". - George Brown Goode
World War I Museum, lobby
© Luke Dudzik
Museums adopt very different concepts of presentation, but the most important thing is that, regardless of the collections, techniques or assumptions, they provide a topical and vivid commentary of everyday life, which through the interpretations of the viewer can be a universal value. Then a visit to the museum becomes not only an interesting lesson, but also a personal experience of the visitor, changing his perception of the world.
World War I Museum project, sections
© Lukasz Dudzik
This raises the problem of interpretation in the museum space, which is a relatively new trend in thinking about museum activities. The relationship of the viewer with the work of culture (according to the thesis of Freeman Tilden, a prominent American pioneer of research on natural and cultural heritage, and in particular the interpretation of heritage and the methodology of popularizing knowledge about theof the past) is not based solely on the curiosity and attractiveness of the exhibition, it is supposed to build a personal relationship between the visitor and the exhibition, so that it is easy for him to identify with the story being told. The reference is supposed to stimulate thought and inspire.
The designed tour path leads from the genesis of warfare, through the recollection of the role of an ordinary soldier,
to wartime technology and the experience of wartime reality
© Lukasz Dudzik
A museum exhibition, regardless of the form adopted, rather than a reproductive lesson, is supposed to build a museum experience. Man's ability to remember his own emotional experiences makes a narrative conducted in just such a way the most valuable and edifying for him. Stimulating thinking, creating a situation in which the viewer himself searches for meanings hidden under the information, becomes a universal experience for him, which in the museum space is of inestimable value.
museum could be created in Przemyśl
© Lukasz Dudzik
The presented design assumption concerns the adaptation of an existing pavilion, located on Ludwik Pasteur Street in Przemyśl, into a World War I Museum, performing the functions of a multimedia historical and educational center. The building is located on a hill, which is the area of one of the main forts of the inner ring of the Przemyśl Fortress - Fort N XVI "Zniesienie". It was one of the first fortifications in Przemyśl. It provides a very good context for creating a place that is a kind of central hub, an introduction, a starting point that binds together the remains of the surrounding forts and encourages further exploration.
museum floor plan
© Lukasz Dudzik
The choice of a new purpose for the building seems most appropriate not only in terms of location and reference to the events of World War I, but also in terms of the broader historical context to which the museum would be thematically dedicated.
The entire exhibition space consists of four parts. The designed tour path leads from the genesis of the war effort, through the recollection of the role of the ordinary soldier, to wartime technology and the experience of wartime reality.
museum space
© Lukasz Dudzik
The solutions used in the ideological design of the War Museum represent a totality of thoughts and reflections on the character, appearance and concepts that a modern museum building should contain. They prove that it is possible to transfer to the local ground the solutions that have been used for years in the largest war-themed museums. An outpost containing modern, diverse solutions, both multimedia and scenographic, would not only be an attractive object for tourists, but would also be a great starting point for telling the rich wartime history of the city of Przemyśl.
museum is also an educational space for the youngest
© Łukasz Dudzik
The nature of the project work also aims to present the beneficial possibilities of adapting an undeveloped, deteriorating object by creating a new, different idea of it than the previous one. The realization of the proposed form of museum interpretation can be an excellent starting point for increasing interest and revitalizing local history, providing a very modern and representative showcase of its heritage.
Lukasz DUDZIK
Illustrations: © Author
