The Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw

The Palace of Culture and Science, Stalin's unloved gift to the Polish people, still dominates the Warsaw skyline. Now, however, it is getting two new neighbours: the Museum of Modern Art was completed last autumn, and a new theatre has been under construction next door for several months. Both designs are by Thomas Phifer and Partners of New York.

Numerous projections and recesses break up the seemingly smooth, white concrete facade. © Filip Bramorski

With its seamless, immaculately smooth white concrete facade, the museum distances itself not only from the Palace of Culture, but also from all the surrounding buildings. A free-standing, windowless campanile on the north-west corner further anchors the new building in the urban fabric. This somewhat pompous structure leads to the cinema in the basement.

Almost all of the exhibition rooms receive daylight, either through the ceiling or a slit window in the facade. © Filip Bramorski

There are a total of four galleries, most of which are square, available for exhibitions on the two upper floors. As they are all naturally lit, enjoying art here is greatly enhanced. Light falls onto the top floor, which is around 6 m high, through a continuous daylight ceiling. Light also falls onto the first floor, which, at 7.5 m, is the highest, through a 1-m-high window slit located just below the ceiling. This feature stands out against the surrounding concrete facade as a structuring break. Its double shell, created by the interplay of projections and recesses, is merely simulated, yet extremely skilfully so. Even in front of the ground floor, the concrete shell appears to be pulled down like an apron.

The interior's standout feature is the three-storey, almost 20-m-high staircase. © Filip Bramorski

Inside the museum, Thomas Phifer and Partners demonstrate how spatial diversity can be achieved using minimal architectural elements. The rooms are characterised by a seamless floor, ribbed white concrete ceilings and massive concrete columns. The seemingly random positioning of the columns, necessitated by an underground tunnel beneath the building, creates spatial tension on the ground floor. The auditorium is separated from the rest of the ground floor only by curtains around the perimeter. Two continuous air spaces, lit from above, connect all floors. The smaller of these forms a light well above the lecture hall, while the larger contains an impressive staircase: two flights of stairs with the same starting and ending points connect the floors. They appear to float weightlessly within the orthogonal grid of the space but are invisibly anchored to the supporting structure by steel beams.

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