Visitors' Centre at the Auschwitz - Birkenau State Museum

The new entrance complex to the Memorial grounds is a sequence of spaces. To ensure one-way visitor traffic, entrance and exit routes are separated. From the parking area, through the gate of the information building, the route leads to the main hall and waiting room in the former slaughterhouse and descents to its basement. The underground passages direct towards the square in front of the introductory exhibition building A-50. The exit leads from the last place on the museum route– Crematorium to a return underpass overlooking a meadow– the extensive green roof of the volunteer hostel.

The project focuses on using the potential of built heritage, acting with respect for the place and supplementing it with what is necessary. Instead of building "new", it was decided to bring the "old" back to life. The devastated, historic slaughterhouse is being restored to its original wartime character. The interior of the main slaughterhouse hall, suspended on reinforced concrete columns, the adjacent waiting room with a concrete ribbed ceiling and e pre-war bunker—the oldest part of the building are recognized as key historical elements. The main underground space consists of the former freezer and cold store halls, where visitors pick up their headphones and begin their tour of the Museum. Through a system of underground passages and ramps leading to the Memorial grounds, visitors pass from the noisy world of everyday life to the silence of the world of extermination. The passages, designed to connect the two sides of the extraterritorial road, become a space-time boundary.

Brick and concrete are the primary materials used in the project. The old bricks used on the facades and in the courtyards reflect the character of the military camp buildings. Concrete, which was used in original historical elements, such as the ceiling of the waiting room and the old bunker, apears also in new elements: column reinforcements, lintels, and basement access walls. Efforts were made to maximize the use of other old materials, such as stone from the demolition of the former road leading to the slaughterhouse, laid in the underground square, and granite paving stones in the courtyards. The underground passages were constructed using diaphragm walls, which also provided protection for the excavation. This solution minimized the scope of earthworks associated with the construction of tunnels. Wooden and metal formwork systems were used to utilize the natural properties of concrete, which would retain its aesthetic and functional qualities with age, while lowering the costs.