Yesterday we announced the winners of this year's 25th edition of the Architecture of the Year of the Silesian Voivodeship competition. Buildings and interiors completed by the end of 2018 in the Silesian Voivodeship or designed by architects from the region were eligible to enter the competition. In today's coffee break, we present you the nominees and winners of the 2019 Architecture of the Year of the Silesian Voivodeship competition. Congratulations to all of them!
Nominees in the category: Object
It was a duel of opposites - multifamily residential buildings in black and white.
Award: UNIKATO
The winning building in the color of "dirty plaster" with an unusual composition of protruding balconies creates a distinctive, modern block. The intention of the project's authors was to refer to Katowice's modernism, whose buildings - formerly bright and exposed to smog over the years - have become almost black.
UNIKATO, Katowice, 2018, proj.: KWK Promes
© Juliusz Sokolowski
Honorable mention: Zlota 19
Silesian Minimalism, a white apartment building in Katowice, Zlota 19, is an attempt by architects from the ZALEWSKI ARCHITECTURE GROUP studio to refer to Katowice's modernism and the nearby icon of Silesian architecture - Osiedle Tysiąclecia.
Functional Abstraction. Zlota 19 apartment buildings, Katowice, 2018, proj.: ZALEWSKI ARCHITECTURE GROUP
© Tomasz Zakrzewski
Nominated in the category:
Single-family house
Award: House on the Meadow
House on the Meadow is a contemporary version of a Polish cottage. The one-story single-family house designed by the VERSO group is inspired by nearby buildings of old houses with wooden log structures.
The award was given for:
Lapidary black body cut by the hand of a master. The simplicity and functionality of the interiors. Suggestive impression of optimal solutions.
House on the meadow, Cisie, 2018, proj.: group VERSO
© Kacper Ziolkowski
Honorable mention: Forest House
In a charming location on the edge of a pine forest, in a small village near Czestochowa, architects from the VERSO group created a peaceful enclave for a modern and active family - the Forest House.
Forest House, Kuźnica Kiedrzyńska, 2018, proj.: VERSO group
© Kacper Ziolkowski
Nominees in the category: Interior
Award: ReShape
ReShape is a sports and recreation center designed by Adam Radzimski of BAAR studio. It is a unique fitness club designed in the former hall of the former Maćko Meat Plant in Zabrze.
The project was awarded for:
functional, thoughtful and consistently realized space. Aesthetically intriguing sauna complex in contrast to the whole. Design and detailing at the highest level.
ReShape, Sports and Recreation Center, Zabrze, proj.: BAAR
© Jacek Taran
Honorable mention: Sosnowiec design office
The open office space was divided by workstations, soft walls - curtains, and places for relaxation. According to the project's authors, the space is meant to integrate employees, not divide them.
Design office, Sosnowiec, proj.: GORNIK architects
A MESA
The interior of the Portuguese deli in Gliwice is dominated by raw brick walls and red and black trim.
A MESA, Gliwice, 2018, projet: Czajkowski-KuźniakArchitects
© Tomasz Zakrzewski
Nominated in the category:
Export work of Silesian architects
Award: Psychiatric hospital in Switzerland
A psychiatric clinic in the Swiss town of St. Urban designed by the M.O.C. studio. Architects is adjacent to a historic Cistercian monastery. Concerned for the historical context, the architects referred in the design both in scale and form to the hospital complex built in the 1980s.
The jury awarded the prize for:
a clear and restrained form that respects and complements the urban context, a clear layout of the building's structure based on two squares thus referring to the neighboring buildings, appropriate material solutions and elegantly solved details.
Community School Complex in Kazimierz Dolny
The building designed by architects from Archistudio Pilinkiewicz + Studniarek studio refers to the demolished historic school designed by Karol Siciński.
Quadrant House
Another in this list is a project by the Robert Konieczny studio. A modern single-family house, whose terrace reacts to the position of the sun and follows its movement.
Quadrant House, 2018, proj.: KWK Promes
© Jarek Syrek
Nominees in the category:
Young Artist
Award: M.O.C. Architects
M.O.C. is a Katowice-based architectural studio founded in 2014 by Ewa and Blazej Janik. As they write themselves, the main ideological assumptions of their design work stem from the conviction that aesthetic restraint, shaped already at the level of architectural detail, promotes legibility, truth and functionality of the whole. The intriguing name M.O.C. is derived from the Latin phrase moderatio optimum creat, meaning: moderation creates the best.
The award was given for:
the high level of the presented projects and first realizations, testifying to the high creative maturity of the authors. It is also important to emphasize the numerous successes in architectural competitions, in which they present their approach to the problem at hand in an uninhibited manner.
We dedicated the June issue of A&B to Silesian architecture, in which you will find, among other things, reflections on Silesian identity, the Silesian school of architecture, as well as conversations with Silesian architects: Robert Konieczny, Przemo Łukasik and Tomasz Konior.
