The jury praised the project’s unique approach to the commemoration of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising against the Nazi Germans.
It said that "the project has been able to embrace the memory of this place through its materiality, [with the] rubble from the Second World War that shapes the mound transformed into concrete to create the park’s new structures."
The statement adds that “the design acknowledges that the space and the citizens’ experience become part of a collective memory, approaching history not through monumentalism but through a material, ecological and pedagogical lens."
The summit of the mound, accessed through ravine paths built from rubble concrete, is crowned by the Fighting Poland Monument. Two routes lead to the top: a nature trail and a path narrating the story of the World War II revolt and its aftermath.
The European Prize for Urban Public Space, established in 2000 as an initiative by the Centre of Contemporary Culture in Barcelona, Spain, is awarded every two years. Its aim is to recognize and promote all kinds of projects that create and improve public spaces in European cities.
(mk/gs)