The National Museum in Szczecin – Dialogue Centre Przelomy, Poland, has been declared the World Building of the Year 2016 at the World Architecture Festival. The scheme, designed by Robert Konieczny, who leads KWK Promes, comprises an undulating public square with the museum placed below ground.

''This project enriches the city and the life of the city. It addresses a site with three histories, pre-World War II, wartime destruction, and post-war development, which left a significant gap in the middle of the city,'' said the judges, chaired by Sir David Chipperfield.

''This is a piece of topography as well as a museum. To go underground is to explore the memory and archaeology of the city, while above ground the public face of the building, including its undulating roof, and be interpreted and used in a variety of ways.''

''This is a design which addresses the past in an optimistic, poetic and imaginative way.''

The National Museum in Szczecin Dialogue Centre Przelomy is now the ninth project to claim the illustrious title of World Building of the Year, since its inception at the inaugural World Architecture Festival in Barcelona in 2008. 

Following four years in Singapore the festival relocated this year to Berlin, where over 2200 architects from across the globe convened for three days of debate and discussion.

Solidarnosc (Solidarity) Square was a physical expression of the historic fracture in Szczecin after the Second World War. Named in memory of sixteen workers who were killed in 1970 when they demonstrated against the Soviet regime, the square had little relevance beyond this purely commemorative function. 

Its urban surrounds, anonymous and featureless, had not recovered from the massive destruction of allied bombing attacks at the end of the Second World War, after which the city went from German to Polish control, whereupon its entire population was replaced, with all the tragic effects of such a change.

The square, which recently recovered its lost centrality with the construction of the new Szczecin Philharmonic Hall, has been completely refurbished. It is now the site of the underground “Przelomy” Centre for Dialogue, a branch of the National Museum, which aims to heal the wounds of collective memory. Meanwhile the sloping contours of its roof offer the city a public space for intensive, vibrant use in its everyday life.

The National Museum in Szczecin – Dialogue Centre Przelomy was also a joint winner of the 9th European Prize for Urban Public Space 2016, which  promoted by the CCCB together with six European institutions. 

Last year, The Interlace designed by Buro Ole Scheeren and OMA was named World Of The Year of 2015. Ole Scheeren also spoke about Housing and Density at the World Architecture Festival this year. 

World Architecture Community is an official media partner for World Architecture Festival and INSIDE, which ended up on Friday at the Arena Berlin, in Germany.

The World Building of the Year and a host of other awards were presented on Friday at a glamorous gala dinner for over 800 international architects at The Postbahnhof, Wilhelm Tuckermann’s Gothic masterpiece in the heart of Berlin.

All images © Promes Robert Konieczny

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