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Proceeding with this attempt to summarize a gathering of conceptual
and propositional principles, it is important to call another basic
fundamental of our practice – the perception that our intervention
inscribes itself within an historic time, defining the condition of
the moment in which it operates, and that this time is integrated
into a natural time of an infinitely broader character. Besides
this, a seasonal dynamics of annual biological cycle is added, a
succession of phases that repeat themselves and organise themselves
in an unstable balance. In this context, the proposal is no more
then an organiser of a succession of times and states, the
integrator of a global process that determines a more or less
organised and controlled dynamics, inside which admissible intervals
of variation are defined, without a pre-determined rigid
evolutionary line.
This proposal leads to the declaration of a landscape intended as a
dynamic system in which the transformation of itself presents
processual and descriptive qualities that are more meaningful then
eventual objective quality that can emerge from what is deigned. The
proposal seeks just the positive manipulation of the metabolic
factors of the medium, adding a poetical or ideological or artistic
sense. The definition of materials and constructive solutions for
fulfilling the intended result is fundamental for the
pragmatic success of the work, for the way in which it will achieve
a certain mature age. At the present proposal, this definition is a
result of the interpretation of the place and its physicality, of
the constant ethical compromise with excellence and innovation, of
the search for providing the best possible experience in terms of
tactfulness ad sensitiveness and finally, of course, through
applying criteria of resistance and durability.
The proposal will be developed, at project level, to state of the
art performance standards, so that the maintenance and conservation
issues are addressed immediately from the initial stages of the
process and, consequently integrated into design. The awareness of
being in the middle of an evolutionary process prevails as well as
the relevance of this project in the construction of a new
relationship between the city and its citizens. The new proposed
landscape is in grade to respond to every challenge, for is
flexibility and adaptability – it will perform the necessary support
of informality and freedom that are adequate to the development of a
new spirit of conviviality, of a better affirmation of citizenship.
In detail, the proposal corresponds to what just declared. The main
idea being that the founding of an urban landscape alphabet helps us
to unify and link all the questioned territory. A simple perception
of the urban dynamics tells us the site in at an important crossroad
between the central historical city and its industrial outskirts.
This is why basically our attitude is to concentrate on the linking
road which goes from south to north, until the water. This visible
connection helps us to define a protected alley along which the
visitor is invited, and along which he can find public cultural
happenings such as the main centre or the restored existing
functions.
The major central space beneath the building is a great inert
surface, fractured in many irregular alveoli which freely interpret
the geometry of the surrounding pillars. This pattern materializes
itself into multiple lines cutting the pavement which generate
seating elements, as well as other integrated elements such as
drinking fountains, bicycle parking and information booths.
Further into the building a winter garden is conceived on level 0.
The main structure of the garden is a double path which connects the
inner entrances to a main glass opening giving into an open-air
court. The bigger areas containing soil and plants are disposed
along the blind exterior walls, on different levels connected by an
elevated path. This interior space works as a temperate greenhouse
where heating is provided and ventilation is made through the glass
ceiling. Plants in this environment are semi-tropical and their
visual impact is allowed through the glass at the square level and
through multiple openings at level 0. Next to the winter garden is a
cold courtyard which is conceived with the same fragmental logic as
the garden and all outdoor surfaces, with the only difference that
plants here will be native and local plants. This fragmentation
principle is also extended to other outdoor areas, south up to the
memorial wall, along the new pedestrian street which goes from one
end to the other of the site, around the housing building and the
BHP building. The logic being that the scale of each surface ranges
from a bigger scale along the central walkways and access points, to
a smaller scale where furniture equipment is provided for people,
and single isolated trees are planted. In such a way the scale
variation is applied to the major green areas where the surface is
landscaped with a polygonal logic reaching up to 1.5m of height.
Constituting more than narrow urban gardens, these green areas
represent at the same time a pause and a limit in the landscape.
Below is a proposed list of possible plants, lined along the major
inert surfaces: Betula pendula; Aesculus parviflora; Acer
pseudoplatanus; Cedrus atlantica; Daphne mezerium; Viburnum opulus
The next list refers to plants which are disposed in the main green
areas, with different density and a different seasonal effect:
Cedrus altantica; Daphne mezerium; Viburnum opulus; Acer
tegmentasum; Eunonymus europaeus; Cornus alba.
2.2. The Entrance Hall
The entrance to the building takes place in two different spots:
from the Solidarity Square and from the Promenade Roads To Freedom.
Diving under the exterior space that is covered by the building, the
user of the ESC Building reaches the main entrance hall, through two
intentionally over-sized stairs, and is lead to use it as a public
space. The ESC entrance hall is understood as an essential space of
arrival and distribution centre, and therefore is characterized not
only as meeting point and flux origin but also as a gathering
element of a series of uses. In this case the entrance hall is a
space that involves the heart of the building and that always
relates to it. The hall involves the exhibition rooms, allowing
visual crossings and a clear vision of the greatness of the space
and of the present light without competing with the exhibition
space. In the empty spaces between pillars there are entrances and
exits of the exhibitions and the information counter, while within
the pillars there are satellite uses of the hall and exhibitions
like security, cloakroom or multimedia presentation rooms.
2.3. Permanent Exhibition Devoted to Solidarity
The exhibition space was held as the key element of the building,
because of its importance in the cultural characterization of the
ESC through the values that support the exhibition.
This way, with the direct access from the entrance, through stairs
that lead to level -1 (or through the lift to visitors with
conditioned mobility), the permanent exhibition assumes all the
preponderance as arriving to the ESC. Through the visual alignments
from the reduced height entrance, the “Solidarity” theme becomes
absolutely central and assumes the main role in the substance of
this building along with the relation with the Monument to Fallen
Shipyard Workers made possible through the transparent south
entrance.
The permanent exhibition develops through two levels, with double
height by the entrance level and triple height in part of the level
-1, representing a big emptiness, filled with potential that will
gain scale from its occupation. This space is mainly lightened by a
big skylight crossable at the square level.
2.4. Temporary Exhibition Halls
The temporary exhibitions visually close the main hall of the
permanent exhibition working as an upper level belt with an
autonomous satellite path. This advantage comes real in a corridor
that gathers the essence of the building. This closed circuit begins
by the stairs that lead from the entrance hall and is exclusively
lightened by the empties of the interior of the pillars that bring
the light from the top of the Centre. The corridor is strongly
broken by great well of vertical light that attribute different
scales along the visit that ends in a mezzanine over the Winter
Garden.
2.5. Multi-functional Halls
The program asks for two spaces destined to conferences, seminars,
performances, etc, capable of accommodate 200 and 400 people
respectively and possible of working as one. This proposal includes
two auditoriums, with the intended capabilities that could work as
complement to the ESC building or optional and occasionally in a
completely independent way, Though they have direct access from the
main hall, so that these spaces can be an even greater income to
Gdansk, was considered a possible independent entrance, from the
square, that gives direct access to the Foyer which serves both
these auditoriums allowing its functioning out of the regular
schedule of the remaining Centre. The Foyer, because is intended to
be a pleasant waiting space at the scale of the remaining building,
extends itself visually to the exterior, looking over the Solidarity
Square and the Workers Monument. The two auditoriums, together as
one, work as a flat ceiling big room with windows at its extremes
looking over the river and the old city.
2.6. The Winter Garden
The Winter Garden, though located away from the arrival to the
building, works as an end to the entrance hall. With a wide entrance
into the hall from the opposite side to the building entrance and
with a less exuberant access by the John Paul II Hall, this space
works as a magnet for rest and relax and as a hygrometric
controller. In the continuity of the space develops an exterior
gardened space that filters the south entrance of the Ecumenical
Centre “John Paul II Hall”.
2.7. John Paul II Hall
“The Ancestors could not receive the light coming from above, what I
call the Vertical Light, in order to achieve this, they would have
to open there roof, allowing the water, wind, cold and the snow to
enter. And so, they wouldn’t risk there life to do this. Only the
gods or the immortals have the boldness of doing so in the Pantheon.
Adriano, in their honor and with his own hands, built that sublime
Architecture. A premonition of the results of the Vertical Light”
In La Idea Construida, Alberto Campo Baeza
The John Paul II Hall is entirely inside a pillar. This space has
its privileged access through the Winter Garden in the interior of
the building to an exterior area. The vegetation that grows beyond
to the exterior of the Winter Garden works as a privacy shield to
this room’s entrance.
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