SILESIAN MUSEUM IN KATOWICE

international competition for the new Silesian Museum in Katowice

location Katowice
competition design 2006/2007
author dr inż. arch. Tomasz Głowacki
project team mgr inż. arch. Agata Kaczmarek, Michał Mrzewa, mgr inż. arch. Paweł Wróblewski, mgr inż. arch. Paweł Steć, Sylwester Duda,
Anna Patyk, Iwona Nowakowska, Tomasz Szeremeta, Michał Gdak

BACK

The new Silesian Museum building was designed to emphasize the identity of the city of Katowice and the whole region, strongly connected with the mining industry and hard coal output. The designer's aim was not to lose the genius loci of the site chosen for the new museum - a former coal mine in the centre of Katowice. The building recalls the symbol of the coal mine and the whole of Silesia - a rock of hard coal. The hovering cuboid, gently lifted above the ground, has been consciously distinguished in the urban surroundings. As a result it became a monument both to nature and to Silesian culture. The building with its direct symbolism emphasizes the basic importance of the museum as treasury of memory and cultural heritage. Just like a mine excavating precious deposits to the surface, the museum shows its collections to the world. The characteristic look of the site is built with elements of the XIX-th century mine: brick walls, steel industrial structures and pit-shafts. Still it's the black, elongated mass of the museum building which gives the main character to this neighborhood. The delicate, steel openwork of the tower of "Warszawa" pit-shaft stays the vertical dominant of the surroundings, whereas the rough form of the designed building becomes its horizontal counterpoint. The irregular cubical form is perforated with light shafts - glass boxes of atriums.