English-language tours of the home of Zofia and Oskar Hansen in Szumin

We invite you to take a tour in English of the landmark home of Zofia and Oskar Hansen in Szumin. It is a unique place on the map of 20th-century Polish architecture. This small summer house was built on a garden plot on the Bug River. It combines the features of a family getaway and a spatial experiment.

Zofia and Oskar Hansen were a husband-and-wife team of architects associated with the Warsaw Residential Cooperative, and creators of the concept of Open Form. They designed this house as a space for living, working, and teaching. They spent their vacations here, and also welcomed guests and students. The house in Szumin was their dacha, garden, studio, and sometimes year-round home, but also, in its own modest scale, a manifesto of their architectural ideas. Together the Hansens created projects including residential estates in Warsaw (Rakowiec, Przyczółek Grochowski) and Lublin (LSM Słowacki). Oskar Hansen also designed exhibitions and pavilions in Izmir, Turkey (1955) and São Paulo, Brazil (1959). The Hansens’ creative work combined design practice with teaching and theory.

According to the concept of Open Form, architecture should not impose a rigid structure, but should create a framework open to change, cooperation, and the individual needs of the users. The house in Szumin was designed to fulfill these principles, responding to life, developing along with it, to be open to people and the relations between them.

The house in Szumin has been a branch of the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw since 2014. The interior retains its original furnishings, spatial arrangement, and numerous instructional instruments, which help visitors understand how architecture can shape everyday life. Traces of the work and passion of the late inhabitants contribute to the house’s special atmosphere: instructional instruments distributed around the house for teaching the basics of composition; and the wooden dovecote which Zofia Hansen joked was her husband’s most perfect work.

These dates are the only opportunity this season to visit the home of Zofia and Oskar Hansen in Szumin. Tours will be conducted by MSN Warsaw staff. During your visit, you will learn about the history of the house, its unique solutions, and the personal dimension of this architecture.

Check ticket availability before visiting the Szumin! Tickets can be purchased online and at the Museum box office at Marszalkowska 103.

Buy your ticket before visiting Shumin (preferably online). It is not possible to purchase tickets on site. If you come to Szumin without a pre-purchased ticket, you will unfortunately not be able to visit the Hansen house. Due to conservation conditions, the number of visitors to the house of Sophie and Oskar Hansen in Szumin is very limited. 

The house of Zofia and Oskar Hansen in Szumin can be reached in various ways:

- by private car: please park at the car park on Podleśna Street (96A Podleśna Street, 07-130 Szumin). The car park is about 15 minutes' walk from the house. Take this into account and arrive early enough.
- by train with your bike: you can get off at Barchów or Łochów station and continue cycling. You can leave your bike in the Hansen's garden.
- by taxi from Łochów