Poster Museum. Muzeum Plakatu

Museum

@. ul. Stanisława Kostki Potockiego 10/16
architect. ?
finished. 1968

The worlds first poster museum, it's collection now numbers over 54,000. Maybe this is surprising but in the 60's Poland experienced a poster hey day. It's a pity that the complex is so small and can only show a few hundred images at a time. The entrance to the museum is the remnant of the stables of the Wilanow Palace. Set behind it are several pavillions, galleries and artist studios all from the 60's. During exhibitions the spaces are overwhelming, posters hang basically floor to ceiling even in two-story rooms. It's an interesting strategy that replicates the chaos of the real home of the posters - the city street. The galleries are airy and modern, they havn't changed since they were built, it's an odd mix of edgy and forgotten.

Metro

@. metro centrum

architect. ??

finished. first line in 2008

The Warsaw metro has had a long history. Plans for the metro began in 1925. Work officially started on the first line in 1983 and its last stations were opened 25 years later in 2008. The various stations are quite different in style. The southern ones, up to metro Politechnika, are pragmatic and without grandeur. They use simple color schemes and basic materials to differentiate them. Starting with Ratush-Arsenal the style becomes more high-tech. The materials used are lusher, these are the newer stations. Plac Wilsona is the most baroque of them all and has been voted prettiest metro station in the world at the 2008 Metrorail convention. The final stations are more demure, almost ascetic with just a single richer material as an accent. Currently work has begun on the second line which will run perpendicular to the first, leading from Wlochy to Praga. Hopefully it will take less time to complete than the first.

Konstancin Jeziorna

@. Konstancin Jeziorna

architect. Władysław Marconi, Henryk Gay, Tadeusz Tołwiński, Józef Pius Dziekoński, Władysław Jabłoński, Kazimierz Skórewicz, Franciszek Lilpop, Władysław Czosnowski, Czesław Przybylski and Praesens, to name a few

finished. unfinished

The spa character of this city is rather recent, the discovery of the mineralized spring occured in 1962 . Today there are several rehabilitation centers and sanatoriums throughout the city. Their patients can partake of the  water that comes bubbling up. In the city's main park there is an 'inhalatorium', a structure that allows for taking the water in a very unique way, I've never seen anything like it. It is an ocotogonal outdooor room with no roof. The walls are made of yew branches/trees stuffed a meter thick between a wood support structure. In the center there is a mister that sprays a fog of water up into the air. The mist slowly condenses and drips down the yew walls. It is supposedly healthy to be within the vicinity of the mister and breath in the moist air.

The city itself is located 18km south of Warsaw along the Royal Tract. In the 18th century it became the place to duel. And the words 'Do you know where Jeziorna is' where a threat. At the turn of the 19th and 20th century it became a popular place to build summer villa's and the cream of Warsaw society settled here. The villa's were designed by Warsaw's top architects and in every imagniable style from historicizing neogothic and neoclassic, traditional Polish 'dworek' or Zakopane, Italian renaissance and Rhine castles through secession, modernism and even 30's functionalism.

The city is again experiencing a boom. It is home to business-men, artists and professionals who have taken up residence in newly built neighborhoods and homes. But the wonderful old villa's are crumbling. Some are being torn down or ruthlessly remodeled into nouveau riche monstrosities.

Kabaty

neighborhood

@. metro kabaty
architekt. many
finished. work in progress

Kabaty is the last stop on the metro line. I always think of it as the end of the world. Here the city ends and the forest begins. There's a clear line, the city bustles until it's limit here, there's no gradual winding down, no typical urban grade change from apartments to townhomes to individual houses. Here tall blocks tickle the edge of the forest and there's constant movement infront of the 24hr. Tesco. The buildings are clean and tall, there's always several dogs and with the good weather there's a steady stream of bikers zooming along the red-brick paths.