*The formerly-communist, retrofitted "stuffed animal." There's half a continent covered with this stuff. It's a colossal story.
*The remarks in this article about buildings with "Polish identity" being built by offshored Polish guys who spent their lives learning architecture in the West.... Well, you know you're "glocal" when your regional identity-design exists to please guys who climb out of jets.
(...)
"Poland’s EU membership has had a very direct effect on the architectural expression of Polish identity: in the last five years there has been a spree of museum commissioning and building. In Warsaw alone, there will soon be the Museum of the History of the Polish Jews, the Museum of Modern Art, the Polish Army Museum and the Copernicus Science Centre. These projects all date from competitions run around 2005 – the year after Poland joined the European Union – and are co-funded with EU money: they are symptomatic of a country concerned with issues of identity, and a catalyst for debates on the matter. (((They're also financed by the EU, who are the world masters of soft identity-power: "You guys see how wonderfully Polish you are? Yeah, Brussels paid for all that! You want some more or your own 'authentic heritage,' yeah, drop by the grant office and bring your advanced degree.")))
‘After 1989 there were many private investments, such as skyscrapers or shopping malls, but it’s difficult for our authorities and our bureaucracy to start thinking about public buildings and about our representation of the city,’ says Fudala.
"The Warsaw Museum of Modern Art, temporarily housed in a disused department store, will soon occupy a new building in the shadow of the grand Stalinist Palace of Culture...."
