It is an insider's secret that many architects - both from Poland's top, as well as those less known - avoid participating in Tri-City competitions. For years, the prevailing opinion has been that it is difficult to win here, representing an "outside" studio, and that it is precisely in the Tri-City that competitions are unusually often associated with various kinds of controversy.
Whether we are talking about competitions or private commissions, the Tricity is indeed dominated by local architects. Only recently have studios from other parts of the country been designing here, the first projects of JEMS or medusa have been created, and the exception that proves the rule is the Gdynia branch of APA Wojciechowski, which has been designing office and apartment buildings for years. On the maps of prominent Polish architecture, however, Tricity projects rarely appear, and it is particularly difficult for young studios to break through here. Controversy, however, has also been aroused by competitions in which foreign architects have won. This has contributed to the opinion that Tricity competitions are better avoided from afar, and this is true regardless of who the organizer is - SARP, the local government, a public institution or a private investor.
Although the topic of Tricity competitions has been discussed for years on the occasion of industry events, these discussions usually take place behind the scenes. Many bitter architects, both from the Tri-City and other cities, are eager to speak on the subject, but... anonymously. They usually point to the last dozen years or so, when, in their view, the negative opinion has become entrenched. After Poland joined the EU, the country received a lot of money for catching up on infrastructure and construction, including in the field of culture. International competitions for museums and philharmonic halls attracted well-known names from all over the world not only for their interesting design themes, but also for their budgets. It was during this period that concepts for such excellent and internationally acclaimed buildings as the Szczecin Philharmonic, the Silesian Museum and Warsaw's Polin were selected in competitions. It was in this period in Gdansk (because it is mainly this part of the Tri-City we are talking about) that a series of golden competition shots of local studios took place. The bitterness of the competition was poured over by two huge competitions: for the European Solidarity Center (2007, winner: Fort, sixty-eight works submitted, prize pool of almost one million euros) and the World War II Museum (2010, winner: Studio Kwadrat, one hundred and twenty-nine works submitted, prize pool - two hundred thousand euros). Among the few prestigious competitions won by studios from outside the Tri-City are the footbridge on Ołowianka (Slovenian Ponting office) or the unrealized Droga do Wolności na terenie postoczniowych (Grupa 5 Architekci).
Competition Road to Freedom on the post-shipyard areas, 1st place, proj.: Grupa 5 Architekci
vision: © Group 5 Architects
Since the top Tricity architects relatively rarely work in other parts of Poland, this may reinforce the impression that there are "two-speed" studios operating in the local market. It is difficult to determine to what extent such a perception of successive victories of local competition is a dissatisfaction of underestimated participants, or a coincidence. Building confidence in the competition procedures of anonymity and impartiality was not helped by the destroyed envelopes in the competition for the World War II Museum.
"Can't a situation in which four out of 129 envelopes are destroyed, and among them is the winner's envelope, raise concerns about the transparency of the competition?" - wrote the portal trójmiasto.pl on this troublesome situation. The competition was protested and its cancellation was demanded. Not only on the basis of possible interference with anonymity, but also, as specified in the text of the protest, "professional, collegial and scientific relations" between the members of the jury and the winners. The rules of the competition were challenged by SARP: "Our lack of recommendation resulted in many Polish studios not participating in the competition (...). The regulations were riddled with procedural holes, to put it bluntly: they threatened a no-holds-barred ride," commented Jacek Lenart, a competition judge from SARP.
Paradoxically, it is this competition, which on the one hand was the nail in the coffin for the competitive image of Gdansk in connection with the victory of Studio Kwadrat - a well-known Tricity studio - that is mentioned by many in the industry as particularly successful. It selected a unique vision that stood out from the other entries, and the building later received numerous awards and nominations for its execution. However, distaste and the organizer's unconvincing explanations caused many studios to drop out of the competition in Gdansk. This contributes to a self-fulfilling prophecy, because if established offices from outside the Tri-City avoid participating in local competitions, the same strong local lead wins again.
However, the controversy was not only about the competitions in which local studios won, also those in which only foreign teams were awarded. In 2005, the Theatrum Gedanense Foundation held an international competition for the design of the Shakespeare Theater. The jury, which included such renowned architects as Arata Isozaki and Gaetano Pesce, did not award first prize, and equal second places went to Design Engine Architects and Nissen Adams Architects. Renato Rizzi's project then received a special prize - the first prize could not be won due to violation of several regulatory provisions, including exceeding the size of the plot designated for construction. Eventually the competition was cancelled, but the Foundation bought Rizzi's design outright and successfully completed the building. As with the competition for the World War II Museum, the result has been great. The facility has won many awards, and the staging possibilities offered by its interiors, courtyards and roof are greatly appreciated by its users - audiences, artists and staff. However, the manner in which the project was acquired did not help build confidence in the competition procedures in Gdansk.
Where local SARP chapters are most active, competitions are more numerous and best organized. The association proved itself as a guardian of standards in the aforementioned competition for the World War II Museum, and just when it seemed that unclear situations were a thing of the past, in 2017 a competition was held under the auspices of SARP for a building that would replace the modernist LOT pavilion in the center of the city (listed in the municipal register of monuments). In the two-stage competition, no first prize was awarded, and the second place (it was this project that the investor chose to implement) was given to a controversial proposal by KD Kozikowski Design, a Gdansk-based studio.
competition for a building to replace the modernist LOT pavilion in the center of the city (entered in the municipal register of monuments)
Second place (project selected for implementation): KD Kozikowski Design
vision: © KD Kozikowski Design
"Theopening from the side of the Jagiellonian Embankment must shock slightly. That's why we tried to introduce architecture typical of office buildings, combined with Gdansk brick architecture," the winners told reporters. Indeed, the chaotic facades with excessive materials and double glass facade shocked both the public and the architectural and preservation community. SARP's competition standards make it clear that the impartiality and appropriate qualifications of the members of the court are a basic condition for the successful selection of the best proposal.
Shortly after the verdict, the Tricity media published opinions of disappointed local architects, indicating that the investor had the opportunity to vote down the project of a studio with which he had already cooperated on other projects. The competition court was dominated by the investor's representatives (five people), and only two SARP judges were invited - and that from the local branch - as well as Andrzej Duch, the late director of the Urban Planning and Architecture Department of the Municipal Office in Gdansk. Trust was once again eroded.
The situation was not improved by the reluctance of the City Hall's Department of Urban Planning and Architecture in Gdansk to hold competitions, and even for the most important locations in the city, including Dluga Street and Dlugi Targ Street. After an inconclusive tender in the form of a competitive dialogue, the ideas - advocated by the industry community - of holding a competition emerged. Director Andrzej Duch explained that there would be no competition, because participants would want to... demonstrate eccentricity or excessive originality by force. Despite inviting several leading studios to a renewed procedure, this time a tender, the local office that participated in the first approach to the subject (and whose work was also characterized, according to the director, by "excessive originality") was also allowed to participate. The invited architects were quite confused, not understanding what the proceedings actually entailed, and most expressed no interest in participating.
Proposals to use the Flemish formula, for example, were not considered at all, although a similar procedure had previously been consulted with representatives of the Ghent office: "We don't have such possibilities, concepts cost money, after all, and it would be difficult to persuade architects to do them for us for free, with no guarantee that they would get the commission. We tried to fit it into our terms somehow." "Somehow," however, is not enough to gain the industry's trust.
There were more opportunities for transparent, well-organized competitions, as there were orders, among others, for cultural facilities financed by Gdansk, including the Amber Museum (where last year for the design of the permanent exhibition there was announced... a tender with a price criterion of one hundred percent). In turn, the idea of creating a Gdansk Museum has not entered the implementation phase despite the tryouts for a location on Rycerska Street, next to the World War II Museum.
The situation is also not improved by large investments carried out in Gdansk under the PPP formula, such as Granary Island and Forum Gdansk. Gdansk is extremely successful in implementing this formula, and although points are awarded for the quality of the concept, it is extremely difficult to fit a real competition procedure into this type of procedure. Fortunately, the private partners on Granary Island have set their sights on a strong architectural brand and invited RKW Rhode Kellermann Wawrowsky to work with them.
