Autumn has been extremely fruitful for Robert Konieczny and the KWK Promes studio! Two realizations of the Silesian office are on the list of objects nominated for the Mies van der Rohe Award 2024, the PLATO Gallery of Contemporary Art has been appreciated abroad, and a new item full of stories about the architect's work has appeared on bookstore shelves.
KWK Promes studio has a chance to win the prestigious Mies van der Rohe Award thanks to two projects — the Miedzianka Shaft and the PLATO Gallery of Contemporary Art in Ostrava, Czech Republic. The latter — an adaptation and reconstruction of a 19th-century slaughterhouse — was recently recognized by the chapter of the Czech Association of Architects' Grand Prix Architektů — Národní ceny za architekturu 2023 competition.
PLATO Gallery of Contemporary Art
photo: Jakub Certowicz
The competition shortlisted 50 sites, a total of 275 were entered in seven categories: New Construction (13 projects), Family House (1 project), Renovation (18 projects), Interior (4 projects), Landscape Architecture and Garden Design (3 projects), Urban Design (3 projects), Architectural Design, Small Architecture and Works of Art in Architecture (8 projects).
By the decision of the international jury consisting of Amanda Levete (Studio AL_A), Balázs Bognár (Kengo Kuma & Associates), Irakli Eristavi (zerozero), Thorbjörn Andersson (Thorbjörn Andersson Landscape Architect — Sweco Architects), Petr Štefek (Petr Štefek Architect), one of the three awards in the Renovation category was won by the Polish studio.
This is not the end of news coming from the Katowice office! In recent days, the publishing house Wysoki Zamek published a book about Rober Konieczny written by Piotr Kozanecki and Bartosz Paturej. The reportage devoted to the work of Robert Konieczny consists not only of the architect's stories, but also accounts of people who live in houses designed by him, his co-workers and officials who, as the book's authors write, try to put the architect's ideas into a rigid framework of regulations.
Some of the stories are funny. Some are painful. Some I'm a little ashamed of. But when I agreed to my participation in the book, I knew that I was either doing it all the way or not at all — says the architect.
© Wysoki Zamek
