I was told that the creators museum at first they thought to order his project to Frank Gehry. They came to California, came to Gehry's workshop, saw 17 models of his buildings there and said to each other: "No, we don't need Gehry number 18." Even if this story is fictional, it is easy to believe in it.
As a result, instead of a direct order, an international competition was held in 2005, where the best of the 100 options presented was a project by Rainer Mahlamäki from the Lahdelma & Mahlamäki bureau. His proposal was both simple and strong: a rectangular building with an amazing cave-like "cavity" that runs right through it. This "cavity" determines the distribution of spaces in the interior, and it was impossible to change it, although the layout was corrected several times during the design for functional reasons.
The Museum of the History of Polish Jews is a "strange" museum. About three million Polish Jews were killed in World War II, their property was plundered, and the Warsaw ghetto was turned into heaps of garbage up to seven meters high. The purpose of all this was not only to make the people disappear, but also to destroy everything that remained of its culture and heritage. Therefore, in this museum you will not find any antique items or masterpieces of art.
The museum's “pivotal exposition” occupies an area of about 4000 m2 in the lower part of the building, where the thousand-year history of Polish Jews is told with the help of modern exhibition technologies. It begins in the Middle Ages, when itinerant merchants arrived in "Polin" (the name of Poland in Hebrew; "Polin" is the name of the museum itself). The main exhibition covers eight rooms, where multimedia and interactive installations with fragments of oral histories, paintings, wonderfully executed showcases and other pieces of furniture are located. Here you can imagine what life was like in past centuries, get an idea of the main "characters" of history. The exhibition also tells about the daily life of Jews in Poland in the Middle Ages and in the 20th century, when this - the largest in the world - Jewish community was destroyed. Sections of the exhibition can be visited separately, which allows you to view this huge exposition not all at once, but in a few days. The budget for the permanent exhibition, including the cost of extensive scientific research, amounted to more than half of the total cost of the museum. More than 120 scientists from all over the world took part in its preparation. In addition, the museum could not have been created without the help of numerous patrons of the arts.
The iconic, but at the same time "quiet" building of the museum is located on the site of the Jewish district of Warsaw. The Nazis turned it into a ghetto, and then completely destroyed it. In the park surrounding the museum there is a monument to the Heroes of the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (1948, sculptor N. Rapoport, architect L. Suzin), and this neighborhood was an important factor for the architects during the design process.
The cave-like lobby of the museum mentioned above is impressive. It symbolizes the waters of the Red Sea that have parted before the Jewish people, and its "cavity" also reminds of the cracks in the history of Polish Jews. At the same time, the feeling of spaciousness and the light beige color of the walls evoke an uplifting mood. A thin bridge crossing this space denotes the connection between the past and the future.
Of course, the museum also has educational facilities, space for temporary exhibitions, an additional foyer, a 480-seat auditorium, and administrative offices. It is important to note that the noble appearance of the building is not disturbed by the shop and cafe, which are tactfully placed on the side (which, however, did not prevent the cafe from getting a view of the surrounding park). The facades are made of glass and copper mesh. With the help of a stencil, the word "Pauline" is repeatedly applied to them - in Latin and Hebrew letters.
This year, the best projects of the 2005 competition for the building of the museum are shown in a special exhibition. Looking at them, it is easy to understand why the jury liked the Lahdelma & Mahlamäki project the most. The story about their project is accompanied by sketches by Professor Mahlamyaki, as well as his video interview, where he says that during the preparation of the competition project, late at night he dozed off with a pen in his hand, and her ink formed a spot on the sketch, which later became the main idea of the project. - "cavity" - a lobby. Even if this episode is not entirely true, it perfectly complements the history of the museum building entitled "From Line to Life".
This Warsaw building has a wonderful softness and tenderness that sets it apart from, for example, the undoubtedly impressive but jagged and awe-inspiring Jewish Museum in Berlin by Daniel Libeskind. Of course, the museum's "pivotal exposition" contains many dark, horrifying stories, including atrocities that stand out for their cruelty even among other Nazi crimes. But the building itself wants to be part of a completely different story. Despite the fact that the museum was opened not so long ago, every citizen can easily show the way there, and the building has already become part of a new, more optimistic Warsaw at the beginning of the 21st century. At the same time, despite its undoubted visibility, it does not at all belong to the series of “iconic” objects erected around the world in pursuit of the “Bilbao effect”. Its symbolism is very special, very restrained and soft. The only drawback - if you need to find it - is the trendy blue and orange chairs by the main window overlooking the park. They were probably chosen to appeal to young visitors.
I advise you to come to the museum at dusk, even if it is already closed. At night, the central "cavity" is very beautifully illuminated, and some administrative premises are also illuminated. But it is worth remembering that this building appeared in Warsaw not because of its architecture, but because of the story it tells, even when other voices made it subside.
