It's not just Wielopole - Pekao bank is selling another unique building in Krakow. This time it's about an edifice that is perhaps the last Brutalist building built in Poland. Although the modernist rotunda on Kapelanka is only 30 years old, the lack of protection and the provisions of the local plan do not bode well for its future.
The unusual edifice, associated by most Cracovians, was built according to a design by Nina Korecka, a Cracovian architect, a member of Jadwiga Guzicka's team developing the concept for the Bieńczyce housing development in 1959-1962. Nina Korecka, also associated with the Wlodarczyk + Wlodarczyk studio, worked on the design of the characteristic building at 1 Kapelanka Street in 1984-89. The realization of the concept fell in the years after the political transformation - the construction, carried out by the Budostal-3 company, was completed only in 1995. The building, which is one of the most unconventional examples of late modernism architecture in Cracow, has just been put up for sale.
Modernist PKO rotunda on Kapelanka in Krakow - designed by Nina Korecka and her team
photo: Maria Cipinska
Brutalist anchor on Kapelanka Street
The premise, located on a corner plot, consists of two of two blocks connected by a glass connector. The first one, located just at the intersection, is a characteristic two-story rotunda, held together by powerful concrete ribs:
The building has one underground and two above-ground floors. It consists of service rooms (a customer service room in the rotunda with a mezzanine), offices, storage and social areas. In the lower storey of the building are located storage and technical rooms, and in the bailey there are two spacious garages, to which an internal road has been routed along the lowered ground.
- reads the description of the building on the bank's website.
Modernist PKO rotunda on Kapelanka in Krakow - designed by Nina Korecka and her team
photo: Maria Cipinska
Behind the rotunda, deep in the plot, a four-story residential block was built on a quarter circle plan. The facades of the residential building are almost entirely obscured by long balconies, on the axis taking the form of galleries. The rhythm of the facades is given by the splayed risalits of the staircases. The vertical articulation has been solved in the form of concrete elements that obscure the balconies in pairs, climbing from the base of the building to its top.
Modernist PKO rotunda on Kapelanka in Krakow - design: Nina Korecka and team
photo: Maria Cipinska
The two buildings are connected by a glazed, five-story connector, leading to the service premises, located on the axis of the residential building. The unusual shape and corner location of the plot determined the layout of the entire establishment, which from a bird's eye view resembles an anchor.
Modernist PKO rotunda on Kapelanka in Krakow - designed by: Nina Korecka and her team
photo: Maria Cipinska
Bank sells rotunda on Kapelanka
Recently on the Pekao bank website appeared information according to which the characteristic building designed by Nina Korecka is being prepared for sale. For the moment its price is unknown. What is known, however, is that the new owners will acquire not only the rotunda, but also a glazed annex and a commercial unit, which is part of a residential building.
Modernist PKO rotunda on Kapelanka in Krakow - designed by: Nina Korecka and her team
photo: Maria Cipinska
As a representative of Bank Peakao announced in an interview with Dziennik Polski, the sales of the historic edifices are due to the desire to bring the bank's offices up to the standards set by the modern offices being developed as part of the multibranch projects. One can guess that in the case of buildings with historic values or specific functional layouts, adaptation to new standards may prove difficult or even impossible.
Modernist PKO rotunda on Kapelanka in Krakow - proj.: Nina Korecka with team
photo: Maria Cipinska
The last brute in Krakow after all?
The Peakao bank building on Kapelanka is one of the few buildings representing Brutalist architecture in Krakow. With its size, fame or location it certainly does not match the famous Forum Hotel, but by every measure it meets the criteria to qualify it for this trend - the rotunda makes conscious use of the formal qualities of the material from which it was made, the concrete ribs give the facade a sculptural dimension, and the building's communication system has been exposed outside its body.
Modernist PKO rotunda on Kapelanka in Krakow - design: Nina Korecka and team
photo: Maria Cipinska
Despite the building's extremely characteristic mass, it is not covered by any form of protection - probably due to its age, it is not listed in the register or municipal records of monuments, nor has it been classified as a contemporary cultural asset. In practice, this means that if only an idea for profitable development of the site is found, nothing will stand in the way of demolishing the distinctive building. Potential buyers may be deterred by the designation of the plot, which is described in the Local Land Use Plan as an area for commercial development. However, the intensity and height of the development, which has been set at 18 meters, exceed the dimensions of the current building, so the amount of usable space that can be obtained by developing the plot at Kapelanka Street would be significantly greater. The future of the building therefore depends on the intentions and creativity of the next owner.
The building of the Municipal Savings Bank of the City of Cracow
Photo: Zygmunt Put © CC BY-SA 4.0 | Wikimedia Commons
Pekao sells historic buildings
The rotunda on Kapelanka Street is not the only building that Pekao is getting rid of in Krakow. Back in 2017, the bank sold a historic building designed by Adolf Szyszko-Bohusz just outside the borders of the Old Town, on Wielopole Street. It was bought back for just over 44 million zlotys by J.W. Construction, which now plans to create an ultra-premium JW Mariott hotel there. The adaptation of the building for this purpose is being handled by URBA Architects of Krakow.
Jozef Mehoffer's stained glass window in the Municipal Savings Bank of the City of Krakow building.
Photo: Zygmunt Put © CC BY-SA 4.0 | Wikimedia Commons
Currently, the bank's website shows offers for the sale of yet another Krakow property. The property in question is the historic Building of the Municipal Savings Bank of the City of Cracow, built at 15 Szpitalna Street to a design by Karol Borkowski. After the expansion completed in 1933, the building's windows were decorated with stained-glass windows by Józef Mehoffer, depicting allegories of thrift and prosperity. Just three years later, the Bank's headquarters were moved to a modernist "skyscraper" on Szczepanski Square, designed by Frederick Tadanier, while the palace on Szpitalna Street fell into Pekao's hands after 1989.
Commercial Bank building in Lodz
Photo: Ralf Lotys © CC BY 3.0 | Wikimedia Commons
Bank Handlowy in Lodz for sale
Pekao is disposing of historic properties in other cities as well - the most spectacular of which is certainly the Bank Handlowy Building on Tadeusza Kosciuszko Street in Lodz, designed by a partnership of Berlin architects Richard Bielenberg and Josef Moser in 1911. The modernist building, in a neo-Baroque guise, was topped by one of the largest glass roofs at the time, covering a customer service room with large glazing between reinforced concrete ribs. The building, with its ornate, at times overwhelming interiors, still hasn't found its buyer, although Pekao regularly lowers its price.
Modernist PKO rotunda on Kapelanka in Krakow - designed by: Nina Korecka and her team
photo: Maria Cipinska
