Architects from WXCA and Ralph Appelbaum Associates have won first prize in the competition to design the Museum of the Eastern Lands of the Former Republic of Poland in Lublin. Congratulations!
Organized by the Lublin Museum in Lublin and the SARP Main Board, the competition concerned a design for the modernization and adaptation to museum needs of the Lubomirski Palace premises in Lublin. The competition concept was to include an architectural and scenographic design of the interiors and a proposal for the arrangement of both permanent, temporary and changing exhibitions. The authors' task was to preserve the existing historical structure of the palace's rooms and a new design for the basement.
a modern museum in a historic building
As the competition winners write, the history of the Eastern Territories of the former Republic is a history that directly affects many of us.
Therefore, the most important pillars for us in the creation of the architectural and exhibition project were shared history, discovery and co-creation, says Michal Czerwinski of WXCA.
visualization
© WXCA, Ralph Appelbaum Associates
The designers wanted to expose the historical and aesthetic qualities of the historic Lubomirski Palace and discreetly introduce the necessary technical infrastructure to create an attractive cultural and recreational program for the museum. It was also important for the authors to preserve and restore historically and architecturally valuable elements of the building and its surroundings.
We want to restore the original form of the historic building and recreate the woodwork, colors, and details based on archival materials and analogies," says Michal Sokolowski of WXCA.
As the authors of the concept emphasize, the reconstruction, reconstruction and expansion of the underground of the monument created a flexible spatial arrangement for the functioning of a modern, integrated museum-cultural center in the historical fabric of Lublin.
experiencing history
We wanted to create an attractive, immersive and multi-layered experience of the history of the Borderlands. To this end, we introduced a rich and varied cultural, educational and recreational program into the historic building of the Lubomirski Palace and its immediate surroundings with the main exhibition as the heart," adds Katarzyna Dudek of WXCA.
The winning concept for the permanent exhibition will present the eastern lands as a space undergoing dynamic changes - with constantly changing borders and as a place of broadly understood cultural encounters, coexistence of people of different social, ethnic and national origins, and on the image of these lands as a refuge, a "motherland of Polishness."
visualization
© WXCA, Ralph Appelbaum Associates
The exhibition is intended to stimulate a dialogue on identity and collective memory, taking the visitor's experience beyond the museum's gates, adds Dr. Malgorzata Stolarska-FroniaInterpretive, Planner at RAA.
The designers treated the architecture and history of the building as part of the exhibition - through appropriately exposed excavations revealing selected layers of original paint, plaster, and brick structure, and multimedia - through augmented reality. Visitors will be able to travel to a selected period of the building's and the city's history through VR glasses, exploring the architecture, costumes, decorations and events of bygone times.
The future museum will play a key role in building a shared memory of the eastern lands and their multicultural heritage, building a sense of identity. The exhibition will prompt the public to actively explore and discover the pages of history on which the fates of individuals have been written," concludes Tim Ventimiglia, RAA Creative Director.
