Winning project of the museum in Warsaw by Christian Kerezes

Swiss architect Christian Kerez won an international competition for the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw in February 2007. The thirteen-member jury included, for example, Micha Borowski (chief architect of the city of Warsaw), Christine Binswanger (architect from the Basel office of Herzog & de Meuron), Sir Nicholas Serota (director of London's Tate Gallery), Deyan Sudjić (director of the London Design Museum and curator of the 8th Venice Architecture Biennale), and architect Daniel Libeskind, who declared about the winning project: “It is a wonderful and avant-garde building that fits well with the neighboring (Stalinist) Palace of Science and Culture.” The second place was taken by Szaroszyk & Rycerski Architekci from Poland, and third place went to another Swiss Atelier WW.
The simple block bent into an L-shape will be located in the very center of Warsaw on nearly a hectare of land. On the upper floor, the museum will offer a giant exhibition hall of 4000 m² vaulted by a series of barrel vaults. In addition to a cinema, bookstore, and two lecture rooms, the museum is also planned to include a public library and three restaurants.
The opening of the new museum was planned for this year; however, the project has sparked a number of controversies, leading to changes in the museum's leadership and the presentation of slightly revised plans in mid-June of this year. Construction work will thus begin only in mid-2012, and the museum is expected to be completed three years later. Construction costs have risen from the original 66 million euros to the current 123 million, which certainly may not be the final amount.