Mall wonders

Statuettes were presented specifically to the architects of Poland’s best shopping centres for the first time in the history of the Eurobuild Awards. It was clear that those nominated for the awards themselves felt that the competition was particularly intense. Out of the ten shopping centres entered in the competition, the jury of seventeen leading Polish architects, developers and investors shortlisted the top three most impressive projects before eventually deciding on the winner.

Tarasy at the top

The bold design of Tarasy Zamkowe in Lublin by Bolesław Stelmach in cooperation with Marek Zarzeczny, Zbigniew Wypych and Rafał Szmigielski was the most admired by the jurors. Thanks to its grey concrete façade, which has been prepared specially for vines and creepers, and the huge garden on the roof, it could even be regarded as more of a public building than a shopping centre. The jurors felt that the architects had successfully integrated this huge building into its architectural surroundings including the nearby Castle Hill and the historic quarter of the town, along with the river basin of the Bystrzyca and Czechówka rivers. This has mostly been achieved with a multi-level green roof contoured to resemble a hillside. “It features trees and beautiful perennial plants as well as flora specific to the local area, which we took from the grounds of the site before starting the construction work. This garden, overlooking the Old Town, is now a meeting place for the residents of Lublin and seems to have been a successful enterprise,” said a very satisfied Bolesław Stelmach. He also stresses that this was a difficult and costly task, the implementation of which was only made possible with the visionary approach of the Austrian investor, which put its faith in ecological, energy-efficient and city-shaping development. “When you develop a 3 ha park on a roof, on which you plant ten or twenty-metre trees, including full root balls weighing several tonnes each, then you are faced with significant engineering and construction challenges,” emphasised the head of the architectural studio. In September 2014, the centre was the first in Poland to be BREEAM-certified at the design stage, receiving an ‘Excellent’ rating. “It has been an extraordinary experience in terms of the ecological knowledge we have gained. You wouldn’t know what I’m talking about unless you had gone the whole way in obtaining a similar certificate for such a huge project. They assess everything from the impact of the centre on the migration of frogs in the area, to the view from the office windows. If you want to obtain such a score, you can only drop points in a few categories from an extremely long list,” revealed Bolesław Stelmach. The concrete façade is also a talking point. “It is monochromatic grey with black and white advertising. So it does not add to the chaos of information pollution – the clutter of pictures and advertisements typical of the Polish landscape,” explained the architect. This sets the centre apart from a lot of others. “We live in a world where shopping centres are entirely covered with gigantic advertisements. And this one is not. This is probably the greatest paradox. It is the appearance of the mall, which has little in common with other shopping centres, that is the winning factor,” added Bolesław Stelmach. The vote itself provided a measurable confirmation of the high regard the centre is held in, giving it an average score of 7.5 points of out 10 and first place.

Marriage of old and new

Tarasy Zamkowe came ahead of the Ferio Wawer boutique shopping centre, which was designed by the Kuryłowicz & Associates architectural studio. The shopping centre, located in Warsaw’s Wawer district, comprises forty stores with a total area of over 12,000 sqm and was completed in November last year. It was built through the successful conversion of the pre-war K. Szpotański i Spółka high-voltage equipment factory, which after the war was nationalised and renamed Zakłady Wytwórcze Aparatury Wysokiego Napięcia ZWAR. The project to give a new life and function to this post-industrial site was the work of RE Project Development in a joint venture with investor BHK Kraków and Porr as the general contractor. Ewa Kuryłowicz, the vice-president and head architect of the studio, beamed with some pride at the success of the development. “We design many commercial facilities and try to make each of them unique, but this shopping centre is outstanding because it is a revitalisation and extension of an historic building at the same time,” she said. The spatial composition of the centre combines its existing old section with a newly-constructed four-storey building. The transport axis between the two sections is a passageway in which original elements of the old building are displayed: the brick walls with all their details, the delicate structure of the steel roof trusses and columns, as well as the original industrial lamps that lit the halls. The new section contrasts with the old one thanks to its frugal, modern form and white colour scheme. The architect stresses that the design work was not easy because the form of a retail facility is determined by its function. “We have managed to retain the character of the historic building to successfully emphasise that this is a unique and extraordinary shopping centre. I am very glad that it has now been recognised,” added Ewa Kuryłowicz.

Tradition continued

Dom Handlowy Supersam in Katowice came third in the vote. The mall, which is located in the inner city centre, was designed by local architects Konior Studio. The building has a total area of 42,800 sqm (including an 18,000 sqm retail and service section) and was built on the site of a 1930s indoor market hall. It has a characteristic glass façade, which lets in a great deal of light – not only for its retail section but mostly for the offices located on the upper floors. “It is definitely an urban building. Its frontage, shop windows and entrances emphasise this character and continue the high street tradition, while the interior is shaped like a public square,” is how architect Tomasz Konior describes the concept. The shopping centre is crowned by a glass atrium, which resembles the former indoor market in its shape and proportions. A few of the steel curved girder roof supports have been retained from the original hall and can be seen in this section. “The building continues the tradition of a popular shopping location before the war. The original roof truss in the former indoor market hall is an authentic witness to its history,” Tomasz Konior told us. The design work itself was not such a smooth ride. One problem was the change in the investor – in 2013 the project was purchased by Griffin Real Estate from Centrum Development & Investments (CDI). “In such a situation you usually end up designing a different building. What we had to do was finish the design we had started and retain the structure of the building with a much more limited budget. We needed to use different and fewer expensive materials. First of all we decided against having a ceramic façade and we also reduced the use of glass in the skylight above the atrium,” Tomasz Konior recalled. The architect explained that reconciling the plan to having as large a retail area as possible and the limitations imposed by the permits issued for the project was a difficult task. “It was a valuable experience. In spite of the difficult circumstances, Supersam was eventually completed and opened. It has integrated well with the everyday life of Katowice. And this is the most important thing,” stressed Tomasz Konior. The investor is now able to boast not just an impressive building that fits perfectly into the surrounding urban fabric, but one that is also a success in terms of commercialisation. Out of its 76 tenants a considerable number of brands opened in Katowice for the first time, and the centre was 100 pct leased before its opening.

How do the architects themselves assess the awards? “They are an important token of recognition for architects, investors and contractors who have contributed to the development of excellent buildings that will be inherited by future generations,” commented Agnieszka Kalinowska-Sołtys, an architect and director of the APA Wojciechowski architectural studio, which supported the organisers, when asked to summarise the awards. “We hope that the competition will become an important cyclical event, not only for architects but for the entire real estate market. We would also like it to become a venue for meetings and the cooperation of the various fields involved in the creation of new projects,” said Katarzyna Matejuk, the director of the Eurobuild Awards.

The members of the jury:

Grzegorz Stiasny (ARE Stiasny/Wacławek, SARP), Mieczysław Godzisz (Hines), Aleksandra Zentile-Miller (Chapman Taylor), Ewa Maria Kuryłowicz (Kuryłowicz & Associates), Szymon Wojciechowski, (APA Wojciechowski), Zbigniew Pszczulny (JSK Architekci), Anna Duchnowska (Invesco Real Estate), Tomasz Konior (Konior Studio), Marek Tryzybowic (Bose International Planning and Architecture), Arkadiusz Rudzki (Skanska Property Poland), Brian Patterson (White Star Real Estate), Michał Skotnicki (BBI Development), Leszek Sikora (ECE Projektmanagement Polska), Krzysztof Giemza (Echo Investment), Marek Borkowski (IMB Asymetria), Tomasz Tondera (Griffin Real Estate), Marcin Sadowski (Jems Architekci).