Silesian Museum Katowice, Poland

The situation in Katowice is in this respect all the more special as the coalmine is located right next to the city centre. This provides the unique opportunity to adopt a specifically local focus when considering the issues of urban planning, landscape planning and architectural in a central location within one of the future growth regions of Europe. It also represents the chance to initiate an impulse project for a forward-looking, post-industrial re-use of comparable areas – at both a regional and supraregional level. In this regard, the museum project serves as the starting-point for a long-term and definitely sustainable change of use and revitalisation of a large central area in the middle of the city.

From outside in the whole complex appears exclusively through the abstract glass cubes of the administration, utilities and air conditioning, dimensioned in such a way that they blend harmoniously into the ensemble of the existing building. Together with the newly created network of paths, squares and parks, the result is a fine public local recreation centre, a “city park” in the best sense. To this effect the design also provides for a discreet adaptation of the existing building as a café and also as a residential and work building for artists in residence. The existing “Warszawa” tower will likewise be made accessible to visitors thanks to the erection of a lift and stair tower, allowing views over the whole of Katowice.