The building site of the Mausoleum of the Martyrdom of Polish Villages in Michniów is undergoing the successive fifth stage of construction works, and the Warsaw-based studio Nizio Design International has revealed new images of the works. The Mausoleum's design envisaged a monolithic sculptural architectural form to give room to a multimedia exhibition which through its shape is to convey the dramaturgy of the historical developments symbolised by Michniów itself. The Mausoleum is scheduled to be opened in 2016/2017.

Mirosław Nizio and his studio Nizio Design International envisage the building as a traditional hut that incrementally deteriorates and crumbles into dust – symbolising the burning of the village.

Miroslaw Nizio's studio won the competition for the design of the Mausoleum building in 2009. Nizio Design International is the general designer of the Mausoleum responsible for its site development and architectural and interior designs. Also, the studio was tasked to develop the design both in its conceptual and construction phases, as well as to supervise the works from start to finish.

The Mausoleum of the Martyrdom of Polish Villages was commissioned by the Kielce Region Countryside Museum with a view to commemorating the victims of the repressions suffered by Polish rural communities during the German occupation. Michniów – pacified on 12 July, 1943 – today is a symbol of all village pacifications that took place during World War II. The site on which the Mausoleum is being built used to be a symbolic place of remembrance dedicated to those tragic incidents: originally, a collective grave of the victims was erected (in 1945), followed by the "Pieta of Michniów” sculpture and National Remembrance House.

"The building has a characteristic segmented structure," said a statement from Nizio's studio. "Its tissue is cut across by cracks that divide the architectural form into closed and open parts."

Descripción realizada por Nizio Design International

The first stage of works on the construction site of the Mausoleum delivered the site fence, services building, and the car park. Also, a number of paths leading to the grave were built at the time. Phase two involved building the underground structures, phase three produced the foundation of the open parts, and phase four, the most difficult so far, resulted in the construction of the essential components of the building. Currently underway is phase five whose objective is to build the approaches from the grave to the Mausoleum building.

The object's monolithic structure was designed in full applying the watertight concrete jointing and injection technology. The ferroconcrete pilasters that rise from the slab foundation come together at the roof ridge. They support the external envelope that serves both as the elevation and the insulation layer. In the walls and roof slopes the designers "hid" such elements as ventilation ducts, telecommunication and electrical infrastructure. The design created by Mirosław Nizio's studio envisaged that the visible surfaces of ferroconcrete elements would reproduce the structural features of wood. This effect was achieved by applying on the surface – using matrix impressions – a special thin-layer plaster for ferroconcrete structure repairs. Such impressions were applied on the roof slopes, inner walls, and side elevations.

The building has a characteristic segmented structure. Its tissue is cut across by cracks that divide the architectural form into closed and open parts. This form is the resultant of the sculptural inspirations and thinking of the architecture's consistency with the historical narrative. Also, it was informed by the need to adjust the building to the shape of its site featuring 10-15% slope of the ground. The subsequent closed and open segments – there are five of the former and six of the latter - lead the visitors through the exhibition that shows the history of the pacification and presents its subsequent stages and the process of escalating repression. In parallel to the narrative the building undergoes deformation and "destruction”, which symbolically conveys the annihilation that took place here. The gaps between the subsequent closed segments, the walls and the roof boast glass architectural features. The overall surface of the layout exceeds 16,200 sqm. The core exhibition of the projected museum will take 1,700 sqm, while temporary exhibitions will occupy 270 sqm.
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Mirosław Nizio is an architect, a sculptor and an active patron of the arts. He is an expert with many years of experience in designing public spaces: architecture, museums, historical expositions, exhibitions, memorials, and complex concepts for the revitalisation of post-industrial areas and urban spaces.

He studied at the Faculty of Interior Design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Warsaw and the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, majoring in Interior Design. In 1989, he founded his design firm in the United States, where he received several awards and honourable mentions, including Glenn Boyles Memorial Rendering and Design (1993) and the Educational Foundation for the Design Industries in Interior Design (1998).

In 2002 Mirosław Nizio moved his studio to a historic building in the Praga-Północ district of Warsaw. It is here that the Nizio Design International studio was established, as well as the Nizio Gallery and the Nizio Foundation, whose task is to support artists and emerging creators, present socially engaged art and organise meetings, screenings and other cultural activities, also for children and seniors.

Today, Mirosław Nizio is one of the best-known architects of public spaces in Poland. In 2006, for his work on the core exhibition of the Warsaw Rising Museum, Mirosław Nizio received the Golden Cross of Merit, and for his contribution to the creation of the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews, he was awarded the Bronze Medal for Merit to Culture – Gloria Artis (2015).

The team of his studio, which is based in Warsaw in the post-industrial space of Inżynierska 3, is made up of first-class specialists. The studio has designed the architecture and core exhibition of the Mausoleum of the Martyrdom of Polish Villages in Michniów and The Ulma Family Museum of Poles Saving Jews in World War II in Markowa, as well as the revitalisation of the complex of the former “Julia” coal mine in Wałbrzych, where the “Old Mine” Science and Art Centre was established. Currently, Mirosław Nizio is working i.a. on the design of the architecture and permanent exhibition of the Blessed Father Jerzy Popiełuszko Museum in Okopy and the National Museum of the Holodomor-Genocide in Kyiv.

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