September 2008
The international jury of the Museum of Architecture and Design in Chicago in cooperation with the European Center for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies presented this year’s International Architecture Award to Rainer Mahlamäki for his design of the building of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews.
Chicago has been known for many years as the world centre of modern architecture. It is precisely there that the Pritzker Architecture Prize, called the Nobel Prize for architecture, is granted annually to the most outstanding architect in the world. For the past few years in Chicago most interesting projects have received the International Architecture Award. Owing to its prestige and global reputation, that award has become an indicator of trends and best achievements in contemporary architecture.
The project of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews prepared by the Finnish architect Rainer Mahlamäki was rewarded among other things for the unique design of the entrance in the form of a curvilinear wall. That entrance, inspired by the biblical scene of the parting of the Red Sea, cuts into the simple glass cube of the building giving it a remarkably dramatic expression.
This year , 114 projects from 38 countries were awarded, including several well-known buildings in Beijing, for example the CCTV building designed by Rem Koolhaas, as well as architectural designs by Norman Foster, Zaha Hadid and others. The presence in this distinguished group of three designs originating from Poland, first time in the history of the award makes it an amazing phenomenon. In addition to the Museum, awards were also extended to two Polish single-family house designs by KWK Promes in Katowice.
‘We are most happy and congratulate the author from the bottom of our heart,” commented Agnieszka Rudzińska, MHPJ Deputy Director for Communications and Public Relations, when she received the news of the award. “For us Rainer’s work is a creative interpretation of the terms of the 2005 competition for the design of the Museum, full of intelligence and sensitivity. That competition, a pioneering endeavor, first international competition for a public building in Poland after World War Two, was a challenge in its own right. It unquestionably equaled the challenge of selecting the design proposed by the architectural bureau from Helsinki over numerous proposals received from world famous architects. But as soon as we saw it we knew that the design of the building of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews by Rainer Mahlamäki was brilliant and would earn its creator deserved recognition - just as Daniel Libeskind earned world recognition for the design of the Jewish Museum in Berlin".
The design of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews was chosen during an international competition held in 2005. The competition drew 119 architectural teams from all over the world. Among the 11 finalists were teams headed by Daniel Libeskind, Peter Eisenmann, Zvi Hecker, Kengo Kuma, David Chipperfield and Polish architects Marek Dunikowski and Andrzej Bulanda. The competition was organised with support of private donations by the Jewish Historical Institute Association. The winning design was handed to the City of Warsaw as a gift. The building contractor will be selected by way of a tender in the weeks to come and construction may begin as soon as in three months.
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