University of Warsaw Library

The University of Warsaw Library in Poland was founded in the early 1800s. Originally focused on theology and history, it soon expanded to other subjects. By the early 1830s, it already owned over 130,000 books. The collections experienced losses and damage during the First and Second World Wars. In the 1990s it was decided that the library needed a new building, and the Polish architects Marek Budzyński and Zbigniew Badowski were hired for the job. As their website states, they define a building as a

space created to accommodate to specialized processes of human life, with the aim of enclosing within its perimeter, the full cycle of usage and recreation or adapted to enclosing these processes within the city… We strive to work in the meeting point of two professions – architecture and urbanism. We perceive both of these professions as being “practical”, in which theory and practice must have an immediate effect on the other. The overlapping of the conflict between these professions, which organize space from the perspective of “I” and “we” and the problematics of disturbing the balance between life giving and life sustaining processes, gives immunity to the emotions of current political or financial interests and distances to the imperatives of fashion. Detecting ties between that which is common in the individual and that which is individual in the common, is in our opinion a fascinating problem of contemporary spatial transformation.

The library has two floors underground and four above-ground. At the lowest level are parking lots and technical rooms, and above that a reserve area for developing library storage space. Among the exterior design elements is one façade dedicated to cultures, about diverse civilizations that have influenced Polish culture today, including the Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian traditions. As the architects describe on their website:

The interior of the Library is an isolated world, the world of special, artificially created climate in which the book is as important as the reader, is the world of the spirit of culture…This conscious shaping of mood helps visitors achieve a sense of sacred culture, a reminder of the need for unity and truth in reason and revelation.

The library opened in 1999. It features a botanical garden on the roof, designed by the Polish landscape architect Irena Bajerska, a lecturer in architecture at Warsaw University. It opened in 2002 and has been called

one of the largest and most beautiful roof gardens in Europe

with an area of over 10,000 square meters and plants covering over 5000 square meters.

The garden is open to the public, and connects a smaller upper garden to a larger lower one by a stream and water-cascade. Professor Bajerska explained to one online interviewer:

My first concept for the garden was to use Polish wild flowers, but in practice that would have been too expensive to establish and maintain. My next concept, due to the roof structure, was to make a group of individual gardens, each with distinct colours. For example, focusing on gold, silver, blue, green. We decided to divide the space into individual gardens, due to the roof being separated into different functional spaces… Selecting the right plants, I used the following criteria: to have resistant plants to the harsh climates in the sun, wind, frost, and those that require a small amount of water. The colour of the flowers and leaves, and their smell. Also, their frost resistance despite the garden being closed in winter months from November to April.

Since the garden opened, some changes have been required, so by 2013, Professor Bajerska noted:

The garden is 12 years old. It is a living organism that changes and evolves over time. However, the garden needs to be in harmony with our European climate. Initially, the rooftop garden was designed with 98 types of plants: perennials, ornamental grass, coniferous shrubs, evergreen shrubs and a variety of vines. However, due of the great cost and maintenance of creating the garden and its further care, the University decided to change the number of plant species used – bringing it to exactly 49 plants. Unfortunately most of the ornamental grass and perennials were removed, but the coniferous shrubs and various vines, alongside roses, chrysanthemum, fistulas and low silver leaf willows all remained… Every garden on a rooftop has value for a central city. The beautiful landscape allows close contact to nature, including important visual and educational values. The BUW roof garden is unique in itself because it is a part of the Library Building and also combines a diverse range of varieties of plants giving so much visual delight. Cities can be overcrowded spaces, lacking in nature, and devoid of understanding and embrace for natural history. They can be an artificial environment unhealthy to residents’ physical and mental health. It is common for urban city dwellers to flee to the countryside or look for nature in their own environments. This is the main issue and local need that architects and landscape architects are trying to respond to.

Library holdings.

In the reinforced concrete, glass and steel building, over two million books and more than 700,000 journals are stored. Almost 400,000 historic items are stored in special collections.

Thailand and Poland

Thai movie fans may have noticed that last year, a Polish Film Festival was on view at the SF World Cinema at CentralWorld Bangkok. Organized by the Polish Film Institute, the festival screened features by such noted directors as Andrzej Wajda. Meanwhile, as of August 2016, the Embassy of the Republic of Poland in Bangkok has relocated to new premises in Athenee Tower, Wireless Road, Lumpini, Pathumwan, Bangkok. His Excellency Zenon Kuchciak, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Poland in Bangkok, is an experienced diplomat. According to his Polish Wikipedia biography,

in 1998 he gained the nickname of the Polish James Bond when, as a special envoy of  [Poland’s] Foreign Ministry, he led the mission to find and release five Polish citizens kidnapped in Chechnya.

Among the ambassador’s many activities, in March he headed an educational effort to help teach Thai university students more about modern European history. Chulalongkorn University presented an exhibition about how although over three million Polish Jews were killed by Nazis and Nazi collaborators during World War II – a massacre of around 90 percent of all the Jewish men, women, and children living in Poland – thousands of Polish Christians put their lives at risk to save over 50,000 Jews. As the ambassador stated,

These memories oblige us to act against the policies of religious hatred and racial prejudice.

(All images courtesy of Wikimedia Commons)