The Eurobuild Awards for Architecture – the winners!

Projects completed between 2014 and 2015 were adjudicated by a jury composed of architects, developers and investors.

Shopping Centre of the Year

The winner of the Shopping Centre of the Year category is the design of the Tarasy Zamkowe shopping centre in Lublin, by Bolesław Stelmach in cooperation with Marek Zarzeczny, Zbigniew Wypych and Rafał Szmigielski.

Immofinanz was the investor and developer of the project, while the general contractor was Warbud. The jurors emphasised that the architects have successfully managed to integrate the building with its architectural context, i.e. the nearby Castle Hill including the historic part of the town and the Czechówka river. They also admired the functionality of the centre. The vote itself confirms the scale of this admiration. The project came first in this category with an average score of 7.5 out of 10. The 119,000 sqm centre, including a retail and service area of 51,500 sqm, was completed in March 2015.

Tarasy Zamkowe was slightly ahead in points awarded of the Ferio Wawer shopping centre, which was designed by the Kuryłowicz & Associates studio. This is a small centre located in Warsaw’s Wawer district, with forty stores over a combined area of 12,000 sqm. It was completed in November last year. The developer was RE Project Development, while its investor was joint venture BHK Kraków and its general contractor was Porr. The Supersam department store in the centre of Katowice came third in the vote. This was designed Konior Studio, while its developer was Griffin Real Estate and its general contractor was Hochtief. The total area of the centre comes to 42,800 sqm, which includes a retail and services area of 18,000 sqm.

Office Building of the Year

The Ubiq 34 complex on ul. Grunwaldzka in Poznań was the most admired project out of 20 entries in the office category.

The winning design is the work of CDF Architekci, whose chief architect is Karol Fiedor, with a team led by Robert Broniarz and consisting of Dominik Banaszak, Bartosz Małecki, Katarzyna Osipowicz, Agata Ślósarz, Szymon Trzebiatowski, Agnieszka Antczak and Joanna Szawłowska. The investor behind the project is a company set up by Karol Fiedor, while the general contractor was Skanska. “We have here the designer and the investor in one person. That might have been the recipe for this success,” commented Mariusz Ścisła, the president of the Polish Association of Architects (SARP), while presenting Karol Fiedor with the award. The small building, with an office area of 3,500 sqm, is located within the former interwar military barracks of the 15th Poznań Uhlans Regiment. The entire area, including the existing building, is a listed historical monument. In the jury vote the building received an average score of 7.57 out of 10 points.

The Ericpol Software Pool Office Building in Łódź, which was designed by Horizone Studio Project’s team of Dominik Darasz, Bartłomiej Kisielewski and Robert Strzeński in cooperation with Jagoda Bogusławska, Krystian Wawer and Nuno Oliveira, came second in the vote. The X-shaped building has a useable area of over 9,000 sqm and is situated on a plot neighbouring historic Neo-Renaissance palaces. It forms part of the former Księży Młyn factory and residential development. Third place went to the GreenWings Offices building in Warsaw designed by Jems Architekci, which was awarded almost the same number of points as Ericpol’s head offices. It was created by a team consisting of Olgierd Jagiełło, Maciej Miłobędzki, Marek Moskal, Marcin Sadowski and Jerzy Szczepanik-Dzikowski. The seven-storey building, with a useable area of almost 20,000 sqm, including 8,500 sqm of class ‘A+’ office space, was developed by Okre Development with the general contractor being CFE Polska. The double façade of the building made of perforated steel sheets is one of its most striking features. This reduces the amount of sunlight penetrating the interior and limits electricity consumption. It also provides insulation from the noise coming from ul. 17 Stycznia and the city’s main airport nearby.

Revitalisation Award

Ubiq 34 is the only project to pick up two awards, having not only being judged to be the best office building but also the best revitalised facility.

During the jury’s deliberations, one of the jurors said the project was one of those cases “when, in spite of the differences between us, we developers and investors can agree with you architects completely.” Much praise was lavished on the project in the course of the discussion. The building was appreciated not only for its aesthetic qualities but also its functionality. The building, designed by CDF Architekci, earned an average score above 7 points on a 10-point scale. “The days when you could profit from getting every square inch of the site built up are now over. This boutique project, regardless of the large plot it is located on, was built more for the people who will use it,” is how architect and investor Karol Fiedor accounted for its success.

The second prize went to the revitalisation of the Neumann Villa in Gliwice, which forms part of the Aquarium office complex. This design is the work of the Zalewski Architecture studio and its team of Krzysztof Zalewski, Adam Gil and Paweł Zalewski, who hold the view that architecture should both surprise us and change our lives for the better. Indeed, the project does surprise, with its snow white roof that merges with the façade. The Ferio Wawer shopping centre in Warsaw, designed by the Kuryłowicz & Associates studio, came third. It also came second in the shopping centre category. The most significant feature of this revitalisation of a former industrial plant in the city’s Wawer district is its combination of the historic hall of the former factory with a newly-designed four-storey section.

Public Utility Building of the Year

The winner of the strongly contested public utility category is the Centrum Rekreacyjno-Sportowe sports and recreation centre on lake Ukiel in Olsztyn, designed by a consortium of three local architectural studios.

The winning design obtained the highest average score (8.21/10 points) in the jury vote, which was the highest not only for this category but also for all the schemes entered in the awards. The project, developed by Olsztyn administrative district, involved the creation of a city beach designed by the Dżus GK Architekcie architectural studio and its team of Grzegorz Dżus, Katarzyna Orzechowska-Dżus, Małgorzata Sender, Agnieszka Adamczyk and Tamara Zawadzka. The complex also includes a water and ice sailing centre designed by Restudio Architektury’s team of Maciej Jacaszek, Rafał Jacaszek, Grzegorz Porębski, Alicja Jacaszek, Piotr Karaś and Piotr Flisikowski, as well as the Olsztyn Kayaking Centre, designed by Studio-Projekt Autorska Pracownia Architektoniczna and its team of Piotr Mikulski-Bąk, Anna Mikulska-Bąk and Natalia Hasso-Agopsowicz as well as a design team comprising Ryszard Bąk, Agnieszka Mogielnicka, Tomasz Szymański and Mariusz Przytuła. The complex includes promenades, piers, viewing platforms, cafés, restaurants, beaches, bathing facilities, play areas and pitches for a variety of sports, conference rooms, saunas, gyms, a skating park and a snow park. “What we find most pleasing is that people use this space. This place often gets crowded. It is also worth noting that it is one of the few examples when a project outside the larger cities has been recognised,” said architect Piotr Mikulski-Bąk on receiving the award.

The second prize went to the Theatre Square in Lublin, designed by Bolesław Stelmach in cooperation with Marek Zarzeczny, Zbigniew Wypych, Rafał Szmigielski and Sławomir Kłos. The project, with a total area of over 9,500 sqm, includes a public area around Centrum Spotkania Kultur and the Opera Theatre. The investor behind the project is the Lublin provincial government. Third place has been awarded to the design of Royal Wilanów by Jems Architekci, which was the only commercial building among the nominees in this category. Its developer, the Capital Park group, has created a public area around the building, which features plants and elements of landscape architecture as well as sports pitches and playgrounds.

The Eco- and User-Friendly Building of the Year category was won by Europejskie Centrum Edukacji Geologicznej (the European Centre for Geological Education) in Chęciny, which was designed by WXCA.

The building, which has a useable area of 6,000 sqm, has been designed to have an educational function, but also includes a hotel and conference centre as well as research facilities. The main source of the heating and cooling in the building is provided by pumps including a ground heat exchanger (glycol – water), the bottom source of which consists of 91 boreholes with depths of up to 120m. The surfaces of the internal roads around the buildings have been made using the rubble generated during the excavation work. ”We are immensely pleased that we have managed not to spoil such a beautiful place, and we even hope that we have enriched it a bit. Regarding the materials, we have made ample use of what we have found in this area,” said Krzysztof Budzisz, an architect at WXCA.

Centrum Nauki Leonardo da Vinci (the Leonardo da Vinci Science Centre in Podzamcze Chęcińskie, in second place, is located just a few kilometres away from the winning project. The investor behind this project is the Regional Science and Technical Centre Kielce. The building, which was completed in 2014, was designed by the EM4 architectural studio, with Marcin Brataniec (the chief designer) as well as Urszula Forczek-Brataniec, Maciej Gozdecki and Damian Mierzwa, with the additional cooperation of Paulina Nosalska, Paweł Burski, Norbert Wysocki and Tomasz Batory. The general contractor was Anna-Bud. The app. 4,000 sqm building features a green roof that possesses high thermal inertia. Thanks to its simple geometrical shape, heat loss has been reduced through minimising the area of the internal walls, while heat recovery from ventilation has been obtained and efforts were also made to reduce the impact of the building’s construction on the environment. The third prize has been awarded to the Sports and Recreation Centre on lake Ukiel in Olsztyn, which was designed by a consortium of three local architectural studios: DżusGK Architekci, Studio Projekt Ryszard Bąk and Restudio. The project, which has also won the Public Utility Building category, obtained high points for its ecological character and for being ideally designed for comfort of use.

Workplace Solution of the Year

In the strongly represented Workplace Solution of the Year category, out of the nineteen projects entered the competition jury has awarded first prize to the design of the office of three Skanska group companies in the Atrium 1 building at ul. Jana Pawła II 17 in Warsaw.

The winning design is the work of Warsaw studio Medusa Group. The 1,100 sqm of offices have been designed by architects Przemo Łukasik and Łukasz Zagała in cooperation with Justyna Siwińska-Pszoniak, Tatiana Pacha, Dorota Pala, Anna Struska, Lechosław Słomka, Konrad Basan and Michał Sokołowski. The interior has been designed according to the assumption that workplaces should contain areas specific to the tasks being performed. Thus there are areas for creative work, quiet work, conference rooms, telephone conversations and teleconferences, as well as a game room and a kitchen. The tenant emphasises that the offices have been created to reflect Skanska’s values and now serve as the company’s showroom in Poland. An environmental approach was adhered to during the design work, including sanitary fittings that ensure minimal water consumption, along with finishing materials suitable for recycling and that are non-hazardous in terms of health.

The second placed project is the modernisation of the six-storey atrium at the base of the Warsaw Trade Tower building. The atrium includes impressive areas for user integration, such as seats, potted trees and a podium with a piano. The design was prepared by the APA Wojciechowski architectural studio and its team of Michał Sadowski, Aleksandra Pawłowska, Karol Pawłowski, Daria Zając, Piotr Gałecki, Aneta Decyk, Maciej Trzciński and landscape architect Katarzyna Myczkowska.

The third prize went to the design of the offices of Netizens on ul. Porcelanowa in Katowice. This is the work of Gliwice-based architectural studio DNA Works. The former porcelain factory has been converted into offices on two floors with an area of app. 800 sqm. Interestingly, the main finishing material in the offices is painted OSB board in its raw form, which complements the post-industrial interiors and has reduced the finishing costs.