Our design is based on a reflection on the history of Poland and poses a hypothesis that the history of Poland cannot be considered in isolation from the history of Europe. Poland has always been its vital part, and the course of our history has resulted from and affected the fates of other European nations. Tools alone will not suffice for the Polish History Museum to be successful – the intended multimedia nature of the exhibition is an important step towards the modern visitor, but it cannot replace an intelligible and consistent concept organizing both the museum and its relationship with the surroundings. Our proposal involves much more than adding a new structure of the Polish History Museum – we think that the newly designed building to commemorate the history of Poland should be complemented with an European History Museum, which should be housed in the Ujazdowski Castle. These two buildings would be united through a joint hall space, descending underneath the square like a common source from which the rivers of history flow. Because history is a journey in time, we have integrated a symbolic temporal axis in the square in front of the museum – the most important events in both national and European history lead the visitors from Na Rozdrożu Square (which we propose to rename Europe Square) to the east, in the direction of the future and also the museum.
