The World Architecture Festival’s jury gave the World Building of the Year award to the Dialogue Centre Upheavals in Szczecin, as designed by Robert Konieczny and his team, KWK Promes, explaining:
This project enriches the city and life in the city. It’s a reference to a place which has three histories – pre-WWII history, the history of martial destruction, and the history of post-war development which left a big gap right in the middle of the city. … It’s a project that refers to the past in an optimist, poetic and imaginative way.
On 16th November 2016, this year’s World Architecture Festival started in Berlin. The international event, organised annually since 2008, is aimed at popularising knowledge about architecture and promoting the best designs from all over the world. Each year, the three-day festival attracts a number of experts, scholars, curators, critics and architects who present their vision and debate about the future of architecture. One of the most crucial elements of its diverse programme are its esteemed architectural awards. Except for the main global prize for Best Construction of the Year, there are 17 thematic categories (including Sport, Housing, Public Facilities, etc.). This year, 343 buildings from 68 countries were shortlisted for the awards – nine of them constructed in Poland.
During each of the three days, the laureates of respective categories are subsequently announced and the awards are given out. Polish architecture was successful during the very first day of the event – the Dialogue Centre Upheavals in Szczecin was announced as the laureate in the Culture category. The centre is the headquarters of the National Museum in Szczecin. It was designed by Robert Konieczny and his studio KWK Promes. The Silesian architect designed a construction that defeated 17 other competitors from all over the world.
The bar in this category was set very high, and the shortlisted buildings represented various architectural ideas: an ethereal, fairy-tale-like wooden construction (the Romsdal Folk Museum built in the Norwegian city of Molde, designed by the Reiulf Ramstad Architects bureau), a monumental concrete building (Mu Xin Art Museum in Wuzhen, China, designed by OLI Architecture), a structure inspired by folklore (Miyahata Jomon Museum, Fukushima, Japan, designed by Furuichi and Associates), and an incredible edifice with a distinct and wavy elevated mirror elevation (Len Lye Centre, New Plymouth Taranaki, New Zealand, designed by Patterson Associates). Except for the Szczecin museum, the Silesian Museum in Katowice was also shortlisted (designed by Riegler Riewe Architekten) and the CKK Jordanki in Toruń (designed by Menis Arquitectos). Robert Konieczny even defeated Zaha Hadid herself – the multi-award-winning architect was also shortlisted thanks to the Messner Mountain Museum, which was designed in her studio and built at the top of a mountain in Plan de Corones in the Dolomites in Italy.
But an even greater success was to come – the laureate in the Culture category was also dubbed World Building of the Year 2016 during the third day of the festival. Among 343 constructions from all over the world, the international jury decided to award the Dialogue Centre Upheavals for its extraordinary conjoining of urban topography with a museum. The jury wrote:
By going underground, we inspect the memory and history of the city, and by going on the surface, we see the public aspect of the edifice. Its wavy roof can be interpreted and used in many ways.
The Dialogue Centre Upheavals in Szczecin opened at the end of 2015 and has already been awarded numerous times, including the prestigious European Prize for Urban Public Space 2016. Perhaps it’s the only building in Poland which can be equally successful at both architecture and public space competitions. It’s all thanks to Robert Konieczny’s idea of hiding the edifice underground and covering it with a slightly elevated public square. Widely commented on, this construction is next to a very special place – the Szczecin Philharmonic, probably the best known Polish building in the world, and dubbed Europe’s best building of 2015 (the Mies van der Rohe Award). Both edifices, even though they were constructed at a different time and designed by architects of various nationalities, comprise an outstanding whole, bringing the city publicity and showing how well contemporary buildings can harmonise with each other and the urban development surrounding them.