House of Remembrance at Dom Turka: Tremend Reimagines a Historic Landmark into a Memorial Museum

Located in Augustów, Poland, the newly restored House of Remembrance at Dom Turka stands as a powerful architectural and cultural transformation. Designed by renowned Polish studio Tremend, the 630 m² project revitalizes a historic early-20th-century townhouse once marked by oppression and tragedy. With its 2025 opening, the museum serves as a dedicated site to commemorate victims of the 1945 Augustów Roundup, one of the most devastating crimes committed against the Polish nation after World War II. Through sensitive conservation, contemporary architectural interventions, and symbolic spatial design, Tremend has created a museum that preserves collective memory while offering an environment for reflection, education, and remembrance.

Restoring a Witness to History

The original Dom Turka building, dating back to around 1900, has long been etched into regional memory. During the post-war years, it functioned as the local headquarters of the Soviet NKVD and later the communist secret police, becoming a site of fear, interrogation, and disappearance. The tragic 1945 Augustów Roundup—during which hundreds of anti-communist underground fighters and civilians were murdered—has since remained a painful chapter in Poland’s history.

Tremend’s intervention sought to honor this history with integrity, prioritizing preservation, adaptive reuse, and architectural authenticity. The team conducted extensive archaeological and research work, allowing original building elements to be retained wherever possible. Visitors can encounter traces of former detention spaces, exposed brickwork, and preserved structural layers that narrate the building’s past through its materiality.

Transforming the Landmark into a Museum

The architectural redevelopment respects the townhouse’s historic value while rethinking the interiors for modern museum programming. Tremend carefully reorganized the spatial layout, integrating exhibition spaces, archival rooms, administrative areas, and visitor pathways. The design supports multimedia storytelling, interactive installations, and curated exhibits that convey the complexity of the 1945 events.

The renovation merges old and new elements with precision. Existing structures remain dominant, while new insertions—crafted with minimal, contemporary gestures—enhance accessibility, functionality, and interpretative clarity. Materials such as concrete, timber, and brick play a central role, reinforcing the emotional gravity of the museum experience.

A Contemporary Extension Echoing Symbolism

To accommodate expanded museum functions, Tremend designed a new extension and an additional structure situated deeper within the plot. The architecture continues the silhouette of traditional townhouses of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, featuring a steep gable roof and a façade defined by rhythmic vertical lines.

This façade creates a dynamic interplay of light and shadow, transforming throughout the day and seasonally. The design, while subtle, references the surrounding landscape of Augustów and its forested character. Symbolically, the vertical wooden and metal elements evoke the dense trees of the Augustów Forest, the site where many victims perished and where truth was both hidden and revealed.

A Landscape of Memory

One of the most significant components of the project is the Augustów Roundup Victims Memorial Wall, engraved with the names of nearly 600 individuals murdered in 1945. Positioned within a contemplative outdoor area, the memorial becomes a space for quiet reflection, personal tributes, and collective mourning. Sculptural steel “trees” rise around it, forming a symbolic forest where living greenery grows between the metallic trunks.

This landscape intervention reinforces the narrative of resilience, memory, and the duality of concealment and disclosure. Families and visitors can participate in acts of remembrance by placing flowers, ribbons, or tokens near the memorial inscriptions.

Architectural Significance and National Memory

The transformation of Dom Turka into the House of Remembrance extends beyond architectural rehabilitation; it represents a renewed commitment to historical truth, national identity, and generational education. Tremend’s thoughtful design ensures that the building is no longer solely a symbol of suffering. Instead, it becomes a place where history is retold with dignity, accuracy, and emotional depth—offering space for dialogue and reflection.

All photographs are works of Bartosz Makowski