Since 2013, CENTRALA has been the custodian of the architecture of a living monument—Oskar and Zofia Hansen’s house in Szumin near Warsaw. The summerhouse that belonged to renowned Polish architects was a spatial manifesto of their theory of Open Form.
Photo Simone De Iacobis, 2013
An inventory of the condition of the house carried out by CENTRALA in 2013–2015 for the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw consisted in tracing back its biography in as much detail as possible, serving as a reconnaissance for and introduction to a future conservation strategy focused on the materiality of the house and its underlying philosophy. Research ranged from an analysis of archival materials and testimonies, to paint color tests and the study of the building’s layers and chronological phases.
Since May 2014, the Szumin house has been part of the Iconic Houses Network, and in late 2017 it officially became a branch of the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw and a protected national heritage site. Involved in architectural research and inventory of the house from the beginning of the project, CENTRALA keeps supporting the curator of the house in the process of its maintenance and conservation.
In 2018, based on CENTRALA’s research findings and their concept of third time of the day, CENTRALA commissioned Szumin house architectural model presenting the state from 1975 and focusing on the white polychromes painted by Oskar Hansen himself. The model was part of CENTRALA’s Amplifying Nature exhibition in the Polish Pavilion at the Biennale Archiettura 2018.
In 2020, CENTRALA included Szumin house in their reseach of Chronobilogical Architecture for their Clothed Home exhibition at the 2021 London Design Biennale.