Project of the Louvre museum in Warsaw, Praga-Północ by the Vistula river vis-à-vis the Old Town

Project idea

Warsaw posses a rich cultural heritage, evident in its numerous museums, historical sites, and vibrant artistic scene. However. The city’s existing museums primarily focus on their own collections, potentially missing opportunities for collaboration and exchange. This project focuses on promising an establishment of a new museum in Warsaw , with a focus on collaboration between national and international institutions.
My recent studies in Paris (during my Erasmus exchange) let me participate in classes led by the Louvre museum and its manages, collaborators, designers, architects, etc. Diving into the complexities of museum management and design, ignited a spark of inspiration. Witnessing first hand the vast collections of the Louvre, all the work behind it and its global impact, I began to envision a similar concept tailored to Warsaw’s cultural landscape. However, instead of replicating the Parisian Louvre’s structure, I decided to propose a different approach, one more similar to Louvre Lens (a branch of the museum located in Lens, France) – a collaborative museum that focuses on partnership with national and international institutions.
Throughout the before mentioned classes, we were able to discover the Louvre from the inside out, with classes led at the National French Archives, where we saw firsthand some of the oldest sketches of the Louvre, preserved tapestries and valuable documents, classes with the head of security that focused on all the contingency plans that a museum has in case of emergency, classes at the building site of the renovation of Arc de Triomphe, where we were ones of the few people in the world to witness all parts of the structure this closely, and many more. All through the classes I led a sketchbook to take notes and make drawings, which I was able to then draw inspiration from for this project.
Having learnt of all the works of art that the Louvre and many other museums have in their archives and not on display I imagined a possibility of designing a fourth Louvre museum (there are three in: Paris, Lens, Abu Dhabi). Such a project would not only attract interest due to the famous name but would also let a wider audience enjoy art and culture.
By promoting collaboration and exchange, this new museum has the potential to become a focal point for cultural exploration in Warsaw. It could contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of history and a celebration of artistic diversity, both within Poland and on a global scale.

Project description

The initial idea for the building derived from the original Louvre in Paris, which is known for its unique shape which greatly corresponds with the exhibitions as well as the functionality of the museum. Limited by the maximum possible size, the building’s plan is a loosely scaled down version of the Parisian Louvre.

The building has a clear division of the spaces with the northern side of the building designed for utilities and the southern for exhibitions.

River-side facade
The main design idea of the building is the river-side façade, as it is seen from the old town, Warsaw’s escarpment and the two bridges: Gdańsk bridge and Śląsko-Dąbrowski bridge, it’s design had to attract the eye and correspond to the function. The façade is made up of drawings of Polish buildings from different architecture periods throughout the ages. It acts as an educational façade representing Polish history. With the use of solar modules the façade acts as an energy generator, rendering the building eco-friendly.

Utilities area
The “utilities” part of the building is covered by a green façade to limit sun rays and overheating while providing an interesting addition to the view of the Old Town. The eating area is in an open space in order to provide seating during and off working hours of the café. The museum shop divided by columns from the communication path offers the possibility of closing with movable panels to seal away products during the closed hours of the shop. It’s design is simple in order to accommodate different collections that would appear with the changing exhibitions. On the first floor is a study space with smaller and bigger desks with electrical outlets and shelves for clothes and personal belongings. On the river facing side a screening area is placed, with a staircase with a seating function and a blank wall for projecting films and educational material. The open area located close by could be used for temporary exhibitions, formal events or even workout classes (such classes have become popular in artistic spaces ex. Natural History Museum in London).

The centre
The ”middle” part of the building focuses on the entrance with the reception area adorned by a grand chandelier by the artist Dale Chihuly. With the utilities: café and shop on the right and on the left a path to the exhibition areas- passing by a cloakroom. The area is well lit by the glass “connector” as well as the artistic façade which is also interesting to look at from the inside. On the ground floor a space for children is designed with a big open area for playing and workshops to be organized and a child safe bathroom with a changing room and a mommy and baby space. As the museum is supposed to be adapted to visitors of all ages it was important to provide the possibility to introduce children to art through such workshop areas and a place for children tours to take place. The big open space acts as an oxygenator with an open “lounge area” for rest. A big staircase leads the visitors to the first level. Under the staircase is located the entrance to the main sanitary space of the building with designed big bathrooms to accommodate bigger crowds of visitors.
There are three main exhibition spaces, located in the two wings of the building- one on the ground floor and two on the first floor. Such placement allows for a clear path for visitors starting from whichever exhibition it is easy to continue onto the next.
Exhibition spaces
The first conceptual exhibitions that I have chosen to display of which the layouts are visible in floor plans and axonometry are:
-Tamara Łempicka exhibition, based on the exhibition from the National Museum in Cracow. An exhibition of works of art by the Polish painter Tama Łempicka. The exhibition would feature both her works and works of other artists that focus on the topic of women.
-LV Dream – Louis Vuitton travelling exhibition. This is an example of modern day “exhibitions” that are often free of charge and offer more of open artistic spaces than regular works of art to see. They are often in a way connected to technology with content project on screens and walls. The setting with covered walls and floors in designs are often the main points. These types of exhibitions have become popularized with the spread of social media. A travelling exhibition from such a brand would not only profit the museum financially but also raise popularity in the younger generation.
-An exhibition dedicated to the Louvre partnership. As the three existing Louvre museums own a huge amount of works of art that are no on display, this exhibition hall would be dedicated to them to relate to the “Louvre” name.
The choice of the exhibitions represents the role that the museum is to play: an institution focused on collaborations between national and international museums, an ode to the original Louvre museum and a new era of exhibitions and cultural spaces.
Staircases on both sides of the building offer easy connection between all levels. A big staircase located on the outside in the middle of the building leads the visitors with ease to the gardens of the museum after having finished the visit. It also displays a chosen statue. The stairs are designed to be usable as seating as the wall in front offers the possibility of having films projected as part of a plein-air cinema.
The underground level is divided into a parking area for the public with 34 parking spaces (3 handicap, 2 for families with children, 4 for electrical vehicles with charging stations and 8 for motorcycles). The rest of the floor has restricted access only for workers of the museum. It features a separated space for utility rooms and security. The most important areas are dedicated to the museum archives, the vault, space for deliveries and workshops. All of the spaces have a height of 4 meters and are connected by wide corridors for easy transportation of works of art. All doors are strictly monitored with surveillance cameras, motion detectors and face scanning systems to limit the number of people having access to them.

Technical information

The building consists of one underground storey and two above-ground storeys. The main structure of the building is a column and beam system in monolithic reinforced concrete technology. The layout of the columns is designed on an irregular grid due to the exhibition rooms, which by their function cannot have integrated columns. The building is designed with 25x40cm reinforced concrete columns and a 30cm thick monolithic reinforced concrete wall. In the areas where the walls are mainly glazed, the columns are designed to be connected to the ceiling by tie beams.

The foundation of the building is designed directly by means of a slab foundation with thickenings under some of the columns and trims for the lifts. The foundation slab is designed in a "white tub" construction. The designed foundation level is -6.00 below the building (relative to building 'zero'). The foundation slab is designed with C30/37 W8 waterproof concrete. The foundation slab under the building is approximately 1 metre thick and is based on a structural barette system. External walls of the underground part - monolithic reinforced concrete wall poured 40 cm thick of concrete C30/37 W8, using the "white tub" waterproof concrete technology.

The floor slabs are designed as reinforced concrete ground beams supported on columns and bearing walls and connected by tie beams, the slabs are designed in C30/37 W8 concrete reinforced with A-IIIN steel.

The slabs are provided with openings for sanitary, electrical and mechanical ventilation systems. There are also openings in the floors for the vertical communication of the building and openings directly related to the building design.

The external walls were designed as monolithic reinforced concrete walls 20 cm thick insulated with 18 cm of mineral wool. Three different façade finishes are designed: a green façade with a fixing system for concrete panels, a façade finished with concrete panels and a glazed façade with a layer of BIPV and UV-insulating film.

The internal walls are made of 20 cm thick concrete blocks, they are finished with a plaster of a chosen colour depending on the design of the room. The walls to the children’s area are made of glass with sliding doors.

The walls in the exhibition areas are temporary walls with a metal frame filled with a “honeycomb structure from cardboard and ply wood. The wall structure is 4-6cm thick, while the whole wall’s thickness and height varies depending on the size needed for the artwork to be displayed.

The focal point of the design of the project is the river side elevation. The idea is to connect an educational elevation with the renewable energy source of the project.
As the Louvre would not be a French museum but a Polish one, the elevation adorns simple drawing of chosen facades from popular/historic/major Polish facades. They were carefully chosen from the handbook “Zarys dziejów Architektury w Polsce” (Outline of the history of Architecture in Poland) by Adam Miłobędzki. As to represent Polish architecture. The chosen buildings in chronological order are: Siedziba Bractwa Świętego Jerzego in Gdańsk, Castle in Brzeg, Siggismund’s Chapel in Krakow, Przybyłów Tenement house in Kazimierz Dolny, Sukiennice in Krakow, Ratusz in Poznań, St Peter’s and Paul’s Church in Krakow, Villa pod Jedlami in Zakopane Kamienica pod gwiazdą in Gdańsk, Tenement house on Służewska street in Warsaw.
The elevation then continues to change into a green façade symbolizing modern and future architecture, focused on energy-efficiency, and heat-reducing solutions.
The technology used in the educational faced was recently developed and patented by Olga Malinkiewicz, a Polish physician and co-founder and CTO of Saule Technologies. It’s called BIPV (Building Integrated Photovoltaics) where solar modules are an integral part of building elements. They are lab created perovskite solar cells which are semi-transparent and printed on flexible foils which are then laminated between layers of glass. The printing production technologies allow freedom of shape and easy pattern scaling, thus printing of the prepared drawings of facades is possible. The cells can even be material-engineered to have different colors and transparency levels.
In-between the BIPV Panels, on the first floor, will be regular floor to ceiling windows with a UV reflective film layer between the glass, as well as solar screen mounted from the inside to limit light in the exhibition area when needed.
As birds are unable to pick up clues to find that windows are present and frequently don’t survive the impact, designing a building on the river-side surrounded by nature must take this into account. In this design a special type of glass is used: UV reflective first layer, triple glazed to limit heat transfer and over-heating inside the building which is harmful to art and a bird safe ultraviolet film is installed between the first and second layer of the glass. This film invisible to the human eye reflects UV rays in a pattern only visible to birds thus avoiding collision. An example of this glass is the Bird Safe Glass produced by GlassPro in the United States.
On the green façade a modular trellis system from Jakob rope systems is used. It’s made up of horizontal bars that anchor vertical cables, which offer stability and easy installation. A security mechanism protects the cables and the carrying structure from overload dues to excessive plant weight, wind, snow or other loads. Cable diameter and mesh aparature are specially adapted to climbing plants. Webnet is a design solution for dense façade greening and plants with a high leaf area coefficient, useful for passive binding of airborne dust particles, shading of glazed areas, refracting traffic noise and other environmental services such as providing passive cooling and shade by evapotranspiration and bio-diverse habitat for birds and insects.

A green roof has been designed on top of the flat roof. Layering according to the intensive green roof principle. The roof pitch is 1.5%. The green roof is covered with plants such as Sedum spurium, Widow’s cross, White stonecrop, Gold sedum, Houseleeks, Yarrow etc.