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Description of the European Solidarity Centre Project

On 13 December 2007, the 26th anniversary of the Martial Law introduction, the results of an international architectural competition for the European Solidarity Centre to be built in Gdańsk were finally announced.
The competition was organized by the Municipality of the City of Gdańsk, under the aegis of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
The panel received 350 projects from all over the world. 58 of them made it to the final. First prize was awarded to a project by Gdańsk architects from Fort.
Second prize was awarded to a project created by architects from Gray International from Warsaw and Stelmach i Partnerzy design agency from Lublin.

Below is a brief description of the idea behind the design and the most unusual element of its architecture, namely walls made of litracon, i.e. semi-transparent concrete:

The key words for the concept of the square and its culmination- the European Solidarity Center - are the road, the silence and the future.

Road
The square is a symbol of the road of Polish People to freedom.  After 1945 Poland was covered with the communist concrete slab. Poznan June uprising in 1956, the Students demonstrations in 1968, the events in Radom in 1970 and in Ursus in 1976, and finally the year of freedom in 1980:”Solidarity” movement and Lech Walesa were successive cracks in that thick concrete crust. In 1989 this communist concrete shell vanished. The concrete square is the symbol of captivity. The symbol of regaining freedom of Poland is the transparent wall of the European Solidarity Center; the concrete wall which disappeared pierced by ten millions of light beams of hope.

Silence
The most important emblem of “Solidarity” in Gdansk is the Monument to the Fallen Shipyard Workers. It exemplifies the only worldly instantly recognizable symbol of Polish fight for independence and democracy after the Second World War. Together with the Crane, the Town Hall, and St Mary’s Church it defines the identity of the city. Every other form in confrontation with the monument has to fall silent. The building from the side of the square must remain silent. The European Solidarity Center wall from that side must be solely the background for the monument.

Cathedral of freedom
The building of the European Solidarity Center brings a unique message- it is a part and expression of freedom and democracy of Europe. In the building those values can be symbolized only by the internal park - the winter garden. Lush and rich greenery permeated with light streaming from the top establishes the inner structure. Multilevel park, 12m high and available for all employees and guests of the European Solidarity Center bathed in the daylight is the cathedral of freedom addressed to the future. Perceptable open space of the garden is regarded as the most profound symbol of freedom of the society and the individual human being.
The building intends to speak about the past for the future. Only silent paying tribute to the past and focusing the building on light and real nature, together with well-thought-out energy balance can symbolize the future - the humanistic pursuit in the face of challenges of the balanced development.

Wall of concrete, which gleams
The symbol of the silence in front of the Monument to the Fallen Shipyard Workers is the solid concrete wall. During the day, from the outside the material resembles ordinary white rough concrete. In the night, the wall becomes transparent, from the distance it looks as if it was made of translucent material.
The concrete wall will be pierced by million light beams, which symbolize million members of Solidarity movement. They are the ones who abolished, without a single gun shot, and dematerialized the concrete of communism. Thanks to them the Berlin Wall which divided Europe was bulldozed later.  Inside the building, the concrete wall becomes the Wall of Light, penetrated by millions of light beams.
The effect of the wall made of concrete, which disappeared is given by the solid concrete with glass rods set in it. Monolithic, hand-grinded 45cm thick wall has glass rods attached to the reinforcement.
From the inside, the Wall of Light is available from glass platforms, allowing us to look at it from the entrance hall. Thus, it forms the space of permanent exhibition, with which it connects on level +1, enhancing its message with the symbolism behind ten million rays of hope. The wall and sounds are trapped in the closed, glass case visible from the hall. On other floors, we hear authentic voices of Solidarity members, who are telling their story. Every speaker plays a different story. Within the whole space, we get a murmur of many voices.

The Jury Panel provided the following grounds for its decision:

Entry No. 21 Second Prize
This was a clear and comprehensive presentation of an elegant scheme. The ideas deal with the large-scale – the city – as well as the need for a “Solidarity” concept, and include detailed information about the materials and construction.
At the large scale a powerful city planning proposal is made for a grand new square terminated by the façade of the new building. This would provide a setting for the “3 crosses” monument, which would be seen from a distance. To quote from the report, “Every other form must fall silent in confrontation with the monument.” This clearly sets out a typology for a building that occupies the whole site that presents a special face back to the city.
The well-written report describes ideas that add a poetic dimension to a practical and pragmatic scheme. The use of a simple regular structure ensures buildability and long-term flexibility – qualities necessary for a building with unpredictable future uses.
The solid but light-permeable wall, with its reference in the multitude of light-points to the millions of Solidarity members, is an imaginative response to the need for a memorable and sophisticated image that could represent, together with the use of nature in the winter garden, the essential qualities of the Solidarity movement.