The authorities of the Central Transport Port boasted that they are in advanced dialogue with five architectural consortiums interested in designing Poland's largest airport. The list does not include any studio from Poland. Who, then, wants to design the Solidarity Port?
no competition
CPK concept by Foster+Partners - the material was created as part of an international architectural workshop
photo CPK
In the fall of 2021, CPK authorities decided that the largest infrastructure investment in Poland in recent years would be designed not on the basis of an architectural competition, but a competitive dialogue. The construction, worth PLN 12.8 billion (for the first stage only), will be designed by a General Architectural Designer. The contract includes multi-discipline design services for the investment. The work will include designs for the passenger terminal building and possible satellite terminals, an interchange for public transportation, a concept for the railroad station and a design for land development of the passenger terminal area, networks and external installations. We wrote about how the designers were selected in a September article.
eliminating experience
CPK concept by Zaha Hadid Architects.
photo CPK
The main (and basically the only) criterion for selecting a design contractor is experience. The experience of the companies and individual members of the project teams is mainly evaluated. Points will be awarded for station and airport facilities previously implemented by the company and its staff, but also for experience in BIM design and environmental certification of buildings. CPK also gave very little time to submit proposals in the first stage of the proceedings, which would select five entities with which the company is continuing negotiations.
second stage without polish offices
Such criteria seem to favor large international design firms or Polish offices working in consortia with them. The list of studios that made it to the second stage, made available by CPK, seems to confirm these suppositions. There is not a single studio from Poland among them , even acting as a partner in a consortium.
archicorporations
Two British offices - Foster+Partners and Zaha Hadid Architects - made it to the second stage of the proceedings, according to Dziennik Gazeta Prawna . Both had previously prepared sketchy concepts for CPK as part of an international architectural workshop. The American studio Kohn Pedersen Fox, which is also taking part in the proceedings, also participated. New offices interested in designing the Port are Spain's Luis Vidal y Asociados and the Lebanese-American consortium of Dar Al-Handasah and Perkins and Will.
CPK concept by Chapman Taylor
photo CPK
All of the qualified companies have extensive experience in both commercial and infrastructure projects. Among the airports they have designed are two airports in Beijing (Foster+Partners and ZHA), Abu Dhabi (KPF), London-Heathrow T2 (Luis Vidal) or Dubai (dar). The Master Architect is expected to be selected by the end of 2022.
