The New Town of Warsaw (5,335 km)

(2022-05-25/27) Warsaw New Town is a neighborhood in the northern part of Warsaw and dates back to the 15th century. But here we are talking about modern Warsaw, which is architecturally characterized by its skyline. All this started with the Smolna 8 Tower built in 1976 right across from the Military Museum.

From the Atlas of Brutalist Architecture we learn: „Built on the site of a former ophthalmic hospital that was destroyed during World War II, Smolna 8 was the first high-rise building erected in Poland during the socialist period. The residential tower was originally intended to become a hotel for Polish citizens who lived abroad and visited Warsaw regularly. In reality the building next to Karol Beyer Park, served as a luxury residential tower with high-quality apartments. […] An expressive pavillon with an overhanging roof brought a new visual dimension to the building and created an iconic profile that became one of the twentieth-century symbols of the Polish capital. […]“

The question remains whether a few generations later, the skyscrapers that today so majestically rise into the (currently cloudy) sky above Warsaw, also fall into the category of Brutalist Architecture and we are therefore considered brutal people with delusions of grandeur. We are dealing with another form of brutality at the moment and we encounter it on every corner in Warsaw and its surroundings.