Usable area:
Sports Support Center – 6,997.0 m²
Sports Hall – 2,905.8 m²
Stadium building – 18,498.50 m² (including the playing field – 9,725 m²)
The design, through rational land use, generally creates a frontage development while preserving and restoring the complex’s historical compositional axes, including the entrance plaza with a fountain and sculpture facing Bonifraterska Street. The design provides for the renovation and restoration of the historic paving in the plaza and along the compositional axes, as well as the display of historic fences made of wrought iron elements.
The side frontages of the plaza are occupied by the planned buildings of the Multifunctional Sports Hall and the Sports Support Center. The heights of these buildings, not exceeding 16 meters, are sufficient to ensure proper visibility of the historic building of the “Polonia” Sports Club, the former “Kolejarz” Sports Center, which stands in the central part of the site.
A neutral backdrop for its historic façade is provided by a colonnade formed by slender rows of columns supporting the planned stadium roof. The fundamental design premise here is the pursuit of minimalist architectural forms and maximum transparency of the structure, which might otherwise disrupt the desired harmony—created by our design—between the historic façade and the proposed stadium structure.
The openwork character of the stadium structure continues along Międzyparkowa and Konwiktorska Streets, creating colonnaded porticos reminiscent of Greek stoas. From the park side, they blend into the existing greenery, blurring the boundary between the interior and exterior, integrating the design into the landscape and adding to its value.
The project site lies within the historic Warsaw escarpment, though the naturally formed steep cliff was leveled during 19th-century fortification works, which erased the difference in levels and visually flattened the terrain. The construction of the planned facilities offers an opportunity to restore more varied, dynamic spatial relationships as viewed from the Vistula River. The stadium’s structure can serve as a dominant feature in the landscape, emphasizing and crowning the elevations remaining from the natural steep slopes of the Warsaw escarpment, yet without an overwhelming effect. The overall landscape synergy was achieved through the harmonious integration of the colonnaded, openwork façade into the park’s greenery and the minimalist, openwork tectonics of the stadium design, which plays with changing light. The following phasing of the project is planned
The stadium features a simple, logical functional and spatial layout, with particular emphasis on clear crowd flow and evacuation from the stadium. Entry to the stadium is via outdoor stairs and ramps located around the stadium on the west, south, and north sides, as well as via ramps flanking the existing building of the “Polonia” Sports Club. The walkway around the stadium is located at the top of the stairs and ramps at level +0 and continues through the entrance gates to the grandstand entrances, approximately halfway up their height at the level marked on the drawings as +25.00 m e.g. W. This is an ergonomic solution that optimizes access routes to seating areas and evacuation routes from the grandstands. The second walkway around the stadium’s crown runs at the +1 (+30.00 m above ground level), as an open-air walkway with views of the surrounding area from the south, east, and north sides of the stands, and continues at this same level +2 through the space located beneath the new west stand, in functional relation to the stadium’s service areas, including, among others, the VIP stand and others.
The stands are designed as single-level structures, with VIP boxes on the balconies of the west stand. The stands have been raised by 70 cm relative to the turf level and designed as close to the field as possible—in compliance with PZPN and UEFA guidelines
The level of the walkway around the stands is identical to the representative level of the existing “Polonia” Sports Club building; therefore, the entrance for the media and VIPs is planned through the main entrance of the historic building. The entrance for the players is via the driveway from Międzyparkowa Street.
The design retains the dimensions of the existing Main Building—including its existing facade, sports hall, and swimming pool hall—along with the existing and modernized internal ancillary spaces related to the operation and functioning of the swimming pool hall.
Some of the rooms in the Main Building have been adapted to new needs, such as restrooms and VIP facilities, as well as a multifunctional and conference area—in the place of the dismantled existing western grandstand.
The carefully studied functional and spatial relationships of these rooms are presented in the architectural plans and project cross-sections.
The buildings of the Multifunctional Sports Hall and the Sports Support Center were designed in front of the existing “Polonia” Sports Club building, as the side facades of the entrance plaza, symmetrical to its main compositional axis.
The Multifunctional Sports Hall is intended as a venue for youth training and sports competitions, including handball, basketball, and volleyball. At the same time, it is designed to host sports and cultural events that inspire young people, as well as conferences, concerts, film screenings, and theatrical performances for a general audience.
The design provides for an audience capacity of approximately 1,200 seats and an arena with minimum dimensions of 50 m x 28 m, with the possibility of configuring playing fields for, among others, handball (22 m x 44 m), basketball (15 m x 28 m), and volleyball (19 m x 34 m)
The Sports Support Center is designed as a building housing diverse sports, dining, and sports-related services, including a rehabilitation and physical therapy center. The heart of the building is an internal glass-enclosed courtyard with natural skylighting, creating a central, multifunctional, and publicly accessible space that accommodates various activities, including sports—such as a climbing wall. The ground floor is planned to house commercial spaces supporting sports and food service facilities.
The structural and functional module of the Sports Support Center (1.35 m) and the floor plan layout of all three stories are designed in such a way that office spaces can be arranged in any part of the Center. The windows in the 1.35 m module, divided in half, each contain a vertically opening window section 65 cm wide.