Site Specific: Warsaw Central Square

A-A Collective - Warsaw, Poland, 2017-2025

Attempts had been made since the early 1990s to envision a new identity for the square following the fall of the communist government in 1989.

While the new Contemporary Art Gallery (which will be joined by a second building for “Theatre Troop’s Name’) has connected the Palace and the adjacent shopping street, the new works to the square have made a much needed connection with the natural world.

The minimalist elevations of the MSN building eschews the game of ‘look at me’ conducted by the adjacent logo-covered shopping centre but makes a significant urban contribution by simply reducing the scale of the space between the busy shopping street and the previously somewhat-marooned PiKN in the centre.

There’s is perhaps a similar reticence present in the new landscape architecture. This is partly to do with the need to accommodate a hugely varied range and scale of activities within the square bit also, it feels, to avoid the becoming yet another ‘spectacle’ in this highly charged and scrutinised public space.

A-AC The design for Warsaw Central Square Central was the outcome of a two-stage urban-architectural competition organized in 2017 by the City of Warsaw.

The outset was a clear yet demanding challenge: how to create a meaningful public space within the vast, undefined void of Plac Defilad, once the largest square in Europe. The response was to search for a narrative rooted in the history of Warsaw, one that could give the place a distinct identity and a human scale.

Narrative stratification

The concept overlays the various historical layers that shaped the city centre during the 20th century. The first of these is a reconstructed grid of streets, tenement outlines and courtyards, which date from 1939. These were destroyed during the Second World War and form the basis of the geometry of the project. Former streets, such as Zielna, Złota and Wielka, now serve as pedestrian routes paved with granite cobblestones. Building outlines have been transformed into lawns, while courtyards have become a network of small squares and lush gardens.

The second stratum recalls the Warsaw Ghetto Wall of 1940 and has been integrated into the surface as a lasting memorial.

The third stratum revisits the 1950s Plac Defilad, incorporating the restored socialist-realist lamppost, the reconstructed honorary tribune and the Palace of Culture and Science’s upper plaza pavement into the new layout.

Material, use and sustainability

The project combines the archetype of the agora - a mineral, urban square - with that of the park - a green, shaded refuge. This hybrid approach allows the square to host big gatherings like concerts or protests while also mitigating overheating, retaining rainwater, and ensuring everyday comfort for the citizens and visitors of Warsaw.

The square’s design incorporates stone, stabilised gravel and fragments of the old square, as well as lush vegetation. This breaks down the former monumental scale of the square and the palace, creating shaded ’urban living rooms’ and defining a large central space for events.

Nearly one-third of the paving is made from stone salvaged from the original Plac Defilad, linking the site’s history with sustainability principles. Four large underground tanks collect rainwater for irrigating the plants and trees, integrating the square into the city’s infrastructure. The square is self-sufficient in maintaining its ecosystem.

A welcoming, diverse and flexible urban space is created by these layers, which are interwoven with greenery designed in collaboration with Landscape Practice. It is a place for concerts, markets, outdoor exhibitions and everyday leisure, allowing a new perspective on the city’s multilayered past.

NOTES

Many thanks to Marti Marker at A-A Collective for suggesting this post and for help compiling it.

To see more work by A-A Collective visit their website here.

Photography © A-A Collective, Maciej Niemojewski and Jędrzeja Sokołowski.

Posted xxth May 2026.