A home that protects the bond — the award-winning Home for Young Mothers by WXCA
The award went not to a spectacular form but to a building that solves a real, difficult social problem. The Home for Young Mothers in Ursynów shows where prestige in architecture is shifting today.
WXCA is one of Warsaw's most recognisable studios, known for public architecture with a strong social dimension. Its latest accolade — the Warsaw Mayor's Architecture Award in the residential architecture category — went to a project whose function is itself built on that social sensitivity: the Home for Young Mothers and Their Children in Warsaw's Ursynów district, at ul. Puchalska 35, realised in cooperation with the Fundacja po Drugie.
Architecture that protects a bond
The jury praised not only the quality of the design but, above all, its social mission: creating a place that lets young mothers and their children stay together through the hardest moments of their lives. Six young mothers and their children now live in the building. Each family has its own room ensuring privacy, while the kitchen, living room and garden remain shared spaces. It is a deliberate design decision: the home protects each family's intimacy while building a supportive community.
Prestige today follows meaning
Rewarding a building like this signals a broader shift in architecture. Prestige increasingly follows not a striking form but a building that solves a real problem, and does so with empathy. It is also an important signal for the commercial market: a project's value is increasingly measured by the problem it actually solves for the people who will use it.
A position that does not come from nowhere
For WXCA, this is another significant accolade in a long line. In previous editions of the competition, the studio has been awarded and nominated for, among others, the Polish Army Museum, Plac Pięciu Rogów, Ogrody Ulricha and the modernisation of Pole Mokotowskie — projects that help shape the contemporary image of Warsaw. For us at Method Press, the Home for Young Mothers is a reminder that the strongest story in architecture is not the render but the meaning: a well-communicated social intent can build a studio's brand more powerfully than the most spectacular visualisation.
Editorial material by Method Press based on public press reports from Dom Wprost, Bryła.pl, label-magazine.com and a statement by the City of Warsaw (12th Warsaw Mayor's Architecture Award). In cooperation with Fundacja po Drugie. Project details as reported by the sources cited; figures may be subject to change.