The missing link of the chain: The Szczecin Mechanism
Szczecin. The city of a million faces. The city which was part of several different countries through the years. The city built and demolished twice. The city located at the crossroad of the east and the west civilisations. The city which is still searching for its identity. The main idea of the project has been developed following two axes. The first axis is the stacked identity of the city. Szczecin was not only evolved in circles like most of the cities, but also vertically, when the new conqueror in every phase of its history was building on top of the existing city plan. That created a multilayered identity which, until now, stays invisible and buried deep into the ground. The second axis is the present state of Szczecin. Following a precise tomography of the city and by turning it into a circular shape, we end up with a diagram which shows the size, the density, the heights, the landmarks, the skyline and a few more characteristics about Szczecin. The result of the combination of those two axes is the Szczecin Mechanism.
The Szczecin Mechanism is the main design principal. The Szczecin Mechanism gave birth to the missing link of the chain, the Grodzka Island, a virgin island in the heart of Oder river. Grodzka Island is organised according to the principals of the positive and negative pole of the Szczecin Mechanism. The positive pole is translated as the Museum of the Baltic Sea, a museum that functions as the connecting link between the two banks of the river. The museum, as an extensionof the city, connects the west to the east side, attracts people back on the historical river and indicates Szczecin as a powerful Baltic Sea port. On the other pole is located the Memory of Szczecin. Memory of Szczecin is an underground memorial of the history of the city. It is developed in several layers deep under our feet as a time-travel gesture. The two poles are connected with the Baltic Sea Fleet, an experiential thematic park. On this park, the visitor also experiences the Baltic ship replicas in real scale that are placed in artificial ports across the shores of the Grodzka Island.
