POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews
Lahdelma & Mahlamäki Architects / Rainer Mahlamäki · Warsaw, Poland · 2013
POLIN occupies a restrained glass-and-copper rectangular volume opposite the Monument to the Ghetto Heroes, but its defining space is a dramatic curving interior void that cuts through the building from entrance to rear garden. Rainer Mahlamäki used the flowing walls to create a symbolic and spatial counterpoint to the calm exterior box. The museum building opened in 2013, with the permanent historical exhibition following later. Its architecture negotiates memorial context, public museum use and contemporary abstraction without attempting literal historical reconstruction.