When the Will to Live Prevails

The article discusses the transformation of the Warsaw Uprising Mound into a semi-wild, nature-friendly space for walking, carried out by the topoScape and Archigrest studios, alongside the Warsaw City Greenery Board as the investor. The project successfully merged the historical significance of the mound, honoring the victims of the Warsaw Uprising and the city’s wartime destruction, with the creation of a recreational and natural space for the public.

The mound, originally built from rubble after WWII, had long been an area associated with war memorialization but had not been fully integrated into the city’s fabric. In 2019, a design competition led to the development of a new park that respects both the tragic history of the mound and its rejuvenation as a symbol of life returning to the city. The new park design honors the “will to live” that fueled Warsaw’s post-war reconstruction.

The project carefully balanced preserving the mound's symbolic and historical value while transforming it into a space of nature and leisure, with walking paths, educational exhibits, and areas that show how the rubble was repurposed to rebuild the city.