In the realization competition for the design of the Krakow Music Center building, settled last December, the jury chaired by Krzysztof Kiendra awarded three main prizes (the first place went to the proposal of the Cracow-based BE DDJM Architekci studio) and an honorable mention to the Polish-Finnish team of Lahdelma & Mahlamäki and KXM studios.
The proposal by architects from the Lahdelma & Mahlamäki studio, consisting of: Rainer Mahlamäki, Katri Rönkä, Jukka Savolainen, Nina Vehviläinen, Amir Teymourtash and the young KXM office: Klaudia Golaszewska, Marek Grodzicki, Kinga Grzybowska and Michal Hondo prepared in cooperation with Henrik Müller, responsible for acoustics, was appreciated by the Competition Jury for:
an original author's vision of the location of the Krakow Music Center facility, treating the existing fort relics as the central compositional element of the premise and a pretext for defining the facility's location in this special place for Krakow, as being at the same time the crowning of the Blonia space and the closure of the 3 Maja Avenue axis surrounding it; the work at the same time presents a successful vision of the location of the facility.Maya avenue; the work presents a successful attempt to integrate the envisaged multi-story parking lot with the KCM facility into one complex, introducing a discreet, balanced and simple in expression, yet refined architecture melted with the landscape, creating an atmosphere corresponding to a contemporary public facility of this rank and function.
shaping the massing
© LMA, KXM
The international team's proposal, the Fortress of Music, takes advantage of the remnants of the former Krakow Fortress fort located on the plot. The mass, as the designers emphasize, refers by its form to the shape of the fortification, while the green roof slopes and escarpments emphasize its geometry and constitute a natural extension of Krakow's Błonia.
The Błonia area is surrounded by a high wall composed of historic rows of trees. Despite the current local plan, to which the entire site has been adjusted, it was decided to additionally expose the Music Center through the concept of a viewing tower that is a dominant feature indicating the location of the new concert hall. Rising above the treetops, the viewing platform provides a panoramic view of the Old Town, Wawel Castle and the Błonia River. It is also intended to provide information about ongoing events and attract interested passersby, the designers write.
visualization of the Krakow Music Center
© LMA, KXM
The individual elevations of the Krakow Music Center face the Kosciuszko Mound, the panorama of the Old Town and the Music Park. Moreover, thanks to the compositional opening to the intersection and traffic junctions, the parking lot proposed by the architects, set parallel to the newly designed road, will not dominate the axis of 3 Maja Avenue.
Ola Kloc: You took part in the competition for the design of the Krakow Music Center together with the Finnish office Lahdelma & Mahlamäki, how did this cooperation come about? What did your design process look like?
KXM: We are a young studio fresh out of college, but as a team we have long participated in architectural competitions. Over the past year we have won several awards including an honorable mention in the SARP competition for a swimming pool in Piaseczno, but we realize that in order to compete with large architectural offices that have been operating for many years we need the support of a studio with extensive experience. During our studies we gained experience in prestigious offices in the USA, Denmark, the Netherlands, Finland, Austria and England, which enabled us to meet many outstanding architects and expand our network of contacts abroad. Part of our team (Klaudia and Marek) worked in the Lahdelma & Mahlamäki office in Helsinki. They had the opportunity to work directly with Rainer Mahlamäki for five months. Contact with him greatly influenced their way of designing and perceiving architecture. KXM is strongly associated with the Nordic approach to design, which is why we offered to collaborate on projects.
While working on the Krakow Music Center, the two offices created the concept together, developing it by analyzing different options. This went through the same process as during any design process, with the difference that we shared our progress online. Analyzing various options and possibilities, we selected, eliminated and developed the various design elements at meetings. In this way, the object was constantly evolving, and the joint discussions led to the creation of the final form.
axonometry
© LMA, KXM
Working with the architects from the Lahdelma & Mahlamäki team is, of course, very demanding and involves a lot of work, but it provides a great opportunity to learn from the best. The Music Center requires a true architectural virtuoso. We can definitely describe Rainer Mahlamäki, co-founder of the studio, as such a name, who is an incredibly interesting person. His pertinent ideas and solutions are often surprising, and his amazing sketches are on a level of abstraction we have never seen before.
Ola: Deciding on the location of the building, you used the remains of the fort, you named the project "Fortress of Music" and, as you emphasize in the description, you also refer to the former fortifications in the form of the mass. What inspired you so much in these relics that you decided to build the whole project around them?
KXM: We realized that most works would treat the fort as an obstacle, we decided to look at the subject from a different angle. We discussed for a long time how to make an asset out of an inconvenient element of development under conservation protection, so that both the fort and the Music Center would benefit. An important assumption in our concept was the courtyard, around which we shaped the body of the center. The fort's structure brilliantly reduces the scale of the whole establishment, making the inner square more welcoming and fitting to the human scale. We believe that the old walls could be adapted, for example, to function as a café, which would serve users of different parts of the building, meeting here for coffee and discussion after listening to a concert. The Krakow Fortress is also a piece of the city's history. By giving the fortification new life, we perpetuate it as a relic and protect it from complete degradation. We symbolically RENEWED and OPENED the former earthen ramparts, giving the Fortress a new contemporary dimension.
first floor plan
© LMA, KXM
Ola: Your proposal won an honorable mention, and in the justification the jury appreciated the attempt to integrate the envisioned multi-level parking lot with the proposed KCM building. Why did you decide to expand the project to include a parking concept?
KXM: From the available studies and information we obtained at the stage of working on the concept, both plots of land belong to the city, and on both of them the foundation of buildings that are part of the Krakow Music Center is planned. With full knowledge, we decided to break the regulations and go beyond the boundaries of the study with our building, in order to integrate the body of the planned parking lot with the rest of the complex. The intention of the organizer, which was repeatedly emphasized in the regulations, was to achieve a coherent concept. In our opinion, an object of such stature must be thought out and designed comprehensively. The main body is connected to the parking lot, facilitates communication inside and further exposes the courtyard space. We also analyzed the course of the planned new road. And at the moment, if the multi-level parking lot was a separate block, from the perspective of a visitor it would become the dominant element, and not the Music Center, which further convinced us that our decision was right.
Ola: Thank you for the interview!
