For the 9th edition of Warsaw Under Construction festival, BUDCUD realised a large-scale installation on the Parade Square in Warsaw, that consisted of a “colour-intervention”, called Squares within Square, 8 baugespann and a speculative archaeology pavilion, The Square Post.

Warsaw Under Construction Festival is a festival dedicated to design in the broadest sense. In 2018 it celebrated its 10th edition.

This installation, by the means of fragmentary prototypes, analogies and spatial sketches, shows the character and size of the future Central Square.

The colour intervention in Parade Square outlines the area of the future square in order to raise awareness of the scale of the planned public space. Covered with real-scale graphic representations of famous public squares, the intervention helped to identify contemporary problems of urban public spaces.

Old Town Market Square in Warsaw, Place des Vosges in Paris, Piazza del Campo in Siena and Times Square in New York.

The graphic is bordered with baugespann structures. Art duo DWA ZETA designed dedicated flags that were put on the baugespann tops.

Baugespann are Swiss planning devices that mark the height and size of the future building.

The Square Post is an open pavilion of speculative archaeology of the past, present and future, that marks the north-eastern corner of the future Central Square.

It is located near Marszałkowska St., in the place where the designed edifices of the TR Warszawa theater and the Museum of Modern Art will meet.

This is a venue of discussions about the qualities that good public spaces in the center of Warsaw should demonstrate. It serves the needs of meetings, functions as the starting point of guided tours of the square and marks the zone of educational activities.

BudCud’s practice is concerned about the role of public space in shaping the city. They have developed other urban strategies such as the recent EUROPAN entries for Warsaw and Rotterdam, urban projects as the Nowe Żerniki Public Space in Wroclaw, and public installations as the FKŻ Quarter in Krakow.

The post has a simple engineering-like character. The pavilion roof covers formally austere geometrical pieces of furniture. One of them recreates the shape of the museum building arcade, the other imitates the planned auditorium of the theater and a structure of its facade

The prominent column and a lamp bear reference to the scale and style of the Palace of Culture, which towers above the site.

Thus, the post functions as a device that reflects the size and array of elements of small architecture that the square may feature in the future. At the same time, it addresses in a metaphorical way the main problems in shaping public space by highlighting its more ephemeral components

Such as light, shade and greenery.