The competition for the design of the reconstruction and expansion of the Museum of Architecture in Wroclaw has indicated the direction in which architecture is, or rather should be, heading. Are we ready to design and build in the spirit of reuse?
can we!
The demolition of younger and younger buildings - in Wroclaw itself, we can mention, among others, the unmissable Solpol (designed by Wojciech Jarząbek and his team, built in 1992-1993, demolished in 2022) or the Arkady Wrocławskie Shopping Center disappearing from the city map (designed by AP Szczepaniak, 2003) - is alarming for many reasons. One of them is the lack of reuse of leftover materials from demolition, which still mostly end up in landfills (according to a 2021 JRC report, construction and demolition waste accounts for about 25-30% of all waste in the European Union). Materials recovery is possible when a building is not demolished, but carefully dismantled - a process that is definitely more time-consuming than aggressively razing a building to the ground, but is estimated to recover nearly 95% of construction materials!
The winning project for the reconstruction and expansion of the Museum of Architecture in Wroclaw by the studio TŁO by Michał Sikorski, created, among others, in cooperation with the BRDA Foundation supporting work with recycled materials, has a chance to set new directions (and perhaps standards?) in thinking about the reuse of building materials. This experimental vision and environmentally conscious gesture is a potential milestone, a realization that will prove that it can.
building-manifesto
A similar approach is presented by the competition entry by the Wroclaw-based Adamiczka.Broma team, in which case the designers relied on reaching for materials left over from the demolition of the aforementioned shopping center and several other Wroclaw buildings - including production and industrial halls. According to the author's team's research, in Wroclaw alone, more than a hundred demolition permit decisions have been issued annually for the past three years for sizeable buildings.
© Adamiczka.Broma
In our concept for the expansion of the Museum of Architecture, we assume the existence of a closed circuit of building materials within Wroclaw based on selective demolition of planned demolitions and the use of acquired materials in newly constructed buildings and reconstructions. [...] The use of both luxurious glass and stone façade materials and structural elements in the expansion of the Museum of Architecture allows them to be partially reincarnated and to sustain their nobility in another important investment for the city, ensuring the causal role of the building and its elements in the horizontal fabric of the city. Making the Museum of Architecture at once a building-example, a building-manifesto and a causal building
- tell the architects.
The new building proposed by the Adamiczka.Broma team is a lightweight steel structure planned on a repeating grid. What is the result of this solution? From observing changes in technology and construction trends.
Buildings used to be built to last unchanged for years, but now we need flexible buildings
- explain their decision designers.
© Adamiczka.Broma
Structural materials were to be obtained from the demolition of industrial halls: I-beam columns were used both as floor beams and structural columns, trapezoidal sheet metal would be placed on the facade, in place of the warehouses, and reinforced with reinforcement and poured concrete - to become both the substructure of the ceilings and the permanent formwork.
The main role is played here by the window woodwork and store fronts from the demolished Arkady Wrocławskie shopping center, along with an additional layer of cover glass added to the storefront. The rhythm of the window divisions refers to the modernist pavilion located in the old museum building on the park side. The second layer of the facade is a mounting system that allows the placement of facade elements recovered from buildings being demolished in the city
- they add.
The mosaic fac ade proposed by the architects is - at first glance - a reminiscence of the projection of the Daiwa research building at the University of Tokyo by Kengo Kuma's studio. The designs are united by lightness and translucency, an impression of a certain randomness in the arrangement of individual panels. In contrast to the wooden panels in the Japanese realization, the Museum of Architecture would be decorated with sandstone panels from the Arcades building.
The facade not only tells the story of the transformation of the urban fabric, but also has a practical use - the exhibits act as light breakers and prevent overheating of the building
- say the authors of the project.
The designers also thought about the future of the building - not covering the structure and building elements will facilitate its maintenance, and their independence will enable the replacement of individual elements, without the need to dismantle larger parts.
This allows the building to be designed with deconstruction in mind and facilitated reuse of materials, which is even their temporary repository
- conclude the architects.
main entrance
© Adamiczka.Broma
The main entrance to the edifice in the design of the Wroclaw team is to lead through an inner courtyard on the side of Bernardyńska Street, and at the junction of the building and the nearby Juliusz Słowacki Park, the architects decided to recreate a modernist pavilion.
The reconstructed pavilion from the side of the park
© Adamiczka.Broma
lapidarium, parlarium and apiarium
The architects, as they write themselves, focused in their design on a clear division of functions, the maximum possible use of existing resources, and the preservation and care of the historic fabric. The use of materials from dismantled buildings in the project - as envisaged by the designers - would allow for the creation of a kind of lapidarium of valuable buildings, although they are disappearing from the city landscape.
In line with the idea of introducing a systematized circulation of materials within Wroclaw, the architects planned a parlarium in the complex - a place for talks and demonstrations for the team in charge of managing and cataloging materials flowing into the city's second circulation bank.
axonometry
© Adamiczka.Broma
Coherence of ideas is not lacking in the interiors either - the designers placed an emphasis on emphasizing the value of the interior of the Gothic church as an exhibition space, creating a two-story emporium built from panels recovered from the existing display system, as well as sheet metal and steel beams captured from demolished industrial halls. What's more, the new building is to be entirely covered with a green roof, and on top of it the architects have envisioned an apiary, or apiary, from which extracted honey could be served in the museum's café.
exhibition space
© Adamiczka.Broma
read more:
awarded and distinguished projects in the competition for the design of the reconstruction and expansion of the Museum of Architecture in Wroclaw
project MA by UGO Architecture studio
MA project by P2PA Architecture studio
MA Jędrak-Kościesza design studio project
