Government officials in Poland have decided to establish the Museum of the Second World War in Gdansk where the war started on September 1, 1939. The museum is intended to become a new identity landmark of the City of Gdansk,

commensurate with the nature, status, and location of the site. This 230,000 SF project is located on an irregular, polygonal site partially bounded by a canal. It is constrained vertically by a high water table and a city code that restricts the height to 25m (architectural accent 40m). Three (3) entrances are programmatically required to address a variety of approaches. The solution is a reinterpretation of a European courtyard typology to provide respectful edge conditions to the city fabric. Entrances occur at the corners into the courtyard environments where three (3) geometrical fields parallel to the edge conditions are reconciled and anchored by a Cartesian figure aligned on the cardinal directions.