The idea of Warsaw as a phoenix city, reconstructed from ruins after the second world war, is a key part of the Polish capital’s identity. Now, an exhibition has shed fresh light on the innovative way the rebuilding effort used ruins and rubble to create a new city.
The exhibition, which has run over recent weeks at the Museum of Warsaw, argues that rubble is to Warsaw what Carrara marble is to Rome or Portland stone to London. It shows how millions of bricks were repurposed for use in new buildings, and how vast amounts of rubble were crushed to create a new building material known as “rubble concrete” used in the construction of many postwar projects.
