The birth of the Solidarity movement marks the transition from totalitarianism to an evolved state of freedom and democracy in Eastern Europe. This transition now seems inevitable but at the time it was a struggle against not only a powerful regime but of a world view which was in its waning years of influence and which, therefore, existed in a heightened state of insecurity. This proposal for the European Solidarity Center in no way tries to represent the events of the 1970s and 1980s; architecture that attempts to do this often remains conceptual and inert. The project instead is a platform for experiencing the site and the history within a new context and new spatial sensibility. It is proposed as a lively, open, urban space which will host both exhibitions on historical events and future-looking research and conferences on contemporary social and political issues..............
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