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U:AMC2021
H:Cj891230h
EXCERPT FROM THE DESCRIPTIVE SECTION OF THE COMPETITION ENTRY FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION COMPETITION FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF AN ARCHITECTURAL AND URBAN CONCEPT FOR STAGE II OF THE INVESTMENT “NEW TECHNOLOGIES DISTRICT – KATOWICE GAMING AND TECHNOLOGY HUB,” INCLUDING A FACILITY WITH PRODUCTION HALLS FOR THE GAMING INDUSTRY AND THE MANAGEMENT OF ADJACENT AREAS (“HUB 2”).
I. LANDSCAPE. URBAN PLANNING. ARCHITECTURE
IDEA
The second phase of the investment, titled “New Technologies District – Katowice Gaming and Technology HUB,” is a facility with a gaming industry production hall and its surroundings, integrated with the first phase of the Katowice HUB.
The project’s idea is to continue the logic of the creation and growth of the industrial complex – the former Giesche-Wieczorek mine, as a witness to the history of industrialization in the late 19th and 20th centuries, and now to the new technologies of the 21st century.
The new building – the HUB’s studios/production hall – is designed with the same functional and industrial logic that guided the creation of the Giesche mine and its buildings, and the subsequent expansion of the Wieczorek mine complex. This is a logic of beauty stemming from rationality and pragmatism. We know that the historic Wieczorek mine complex has been adapted to new functions without altering the spatial relationships of the buildings or interfering with their architecture and detail. The existing historic buildings have been functionally connected with a two-level linear passage of an above-ground and partly underground garden, illuminated by light tunnels and plantings.
The gaming production building functionally joins this functional and landscape synergy of the above-ground and underground garden passages, developing it as a new element and sequence of development of this local landscape.
The spatial logic of the first phase of the HUB (HUB 1) is being developed and continued. On level -1 of the HUB 1 landscape passage, at the heart of the functional layout, the lower hall of the production studios connects with the HUB 1 hall of the Auditorium and the immediately adjacent mine buildings No. 5, 8, 3, and 4. From this lower hall of the production studios, we connect to an underground parking lot with over 300 spaces, bicycle storage rooms, and technical rooms, as well as, via a complex of elevators and escalators, to the ground floor Entrance Hall.
On the ground floor garden level, the main Entrance Hall of the production studios connects via an elongated plaza of the outdoor Gaming zone to the public space of the linear landscape garden HUB 1. A water surface and a flowing water surface connect the HUB 1 landscape garden with HUB 2, its functional and spatial extension. Bridges – wide landscape connections – connect visually, contemplatively, and functionally the linear meadow lawn of HUB 1 with the stone plaza of the outdoor production studios zone. The southwestern section of the ground floor Entrance Hall connects functionally and visually with the terrace of the HUB 1 restaurant and café, while the corner and southern section of the ground floor Entrance Hall opens onto the glass roof of the HUB 1 Auditorium, which forms one of the functional and compositional agoras of the upper and lower gardens of HUB 1. Opposite the production studio hall on its southeast side is a zone of four (4) delivery unloading docks, each serving one of the four component sections of the production hall, and warehouses located along both shorter sides of the production halls. This zone also features two entrances/exits – one to each of the two garage hall zones of the underground parking garage. Access to this area serving the building is provided by a circular road leading in both directions along the edge of all the connected HUB areas and connecting with Szopienicka Street to the south and north. The circular road also serves as an access road for the fire department and a fire escape route for the adjacent building facades. Its parameters therefore also meet the requirements of the technical requirements for the fire protection of the newly designed building. The road’s load-bearing capacity is sufficient for regular, intensive traffic, even for the heaviest, oversized trucks and firefighting vehicles. Along the circular road, landscaped parking spaces are located in clusters throughout the area, shaded by newly planted trees. The entrance/exit for production technicians using the production hall is located in the southern part of the building, from the park-like service entrance plaza. The two outermost sections are regularly tree-lined squares, while the central section is a paved Netturf lawn with a load-bearing capacity of 120kN-230kN/m³. This area can accommodate heavy vehicles, including artists’ coaches, gamers, and production technicians. It can also accommodate a “producer village” with gamers, artists, and production technicians, or, if the production hall is used for television or film production, with actors, directors, production crew, and technical staff. The “producer village” can be retrofitted with an open tent roof, making it a practically year-round space. Its area is connected to the west and northwest by a café and restaurant terrace, the so-called “Producer Village.” building no. 5 – the former sorting office, but it is separated from both terraces – the restaurant and the café – by a wide mass of trimmed bushes and a double row of trees, providing appropriate visual and partly acoustic separation.
Struktura funkcjonalna budynku. Dachowy taras widokowy obwodowy.
The required complementary functions are rationally arranged around the gaming/entertainment/television production hall, and all operational details are presented in the plans, sections, elevations, and design details. A moderate rectangular plan with an ambulatory surrounding the main service space has been known since the ancient times of the Sumerian, Mesopotamian, Mayan, and Egyptian civilizations, and naturally, in our modern culture. This functional scheme has proven itself time and again, becoming a permanent element of architectural culture. We also use it in our building.
The gaming/entertainment/television and film production hall (because such a broad spectrum of possibilities, including the possibility of competition in the production market, is our fulfilled ambition) also has the additional functional advantage of a terrace and terraced garden surrounding the production hall on the top floor. The roof terrace, also designed as a serving ambulatory, offers panoramic views of the surrounding area, including the historic winding tower complex and former mining buildings of the Wieczorek mine, as well as the historic panorama of Giszowiec and Nikiszowiec.
The terrace is accessible via a series of elevators and stairs. It can be used by gamers, fans, and technicians, for example, during breaks from performances, gaming competitions, TV shows, or films.
The perimeter roof terrace is protected from the northwest by a transparent glass façade and a perimeter glass roof approximately 4 meters wide, supported by glass ribs, which protects the terrace’s perimeter from rain, wind, and snow year-round.
The remaining terrace façades are constructed with a light-permeable brick grid parapet wall and also feature the perimeter roof. A roof garden completes the landscape of this terrace. It will serve as a space for meetings, events, and professional and social exchanges, similar to the ground-floor entrance plaza of the Outdoor Gaming Zone.
Materials Details
Architectural reinforced concrete, stained with a glaze and wax finish, rolled steel, rust-resistant or varnished in its natural color, double-glazed glass on the outside or laminated, glued and safety glass, iron-free and highly transparent, brick from local brickyards, glazed brick, local stone from Silesian quarries, and ceramics create a post-industrial, natural range of textures, as always semantic. The terrace and all ground-floor and upper-floor halls are floored with oak paving stones, laid edgewise on a floating floor. Raised floors are provided in the work and office spaces. The roofs are sculptural, shed-like, as a fifth elevation, viewed from a bird’s-eye view and from the lift tower. The roof covering, made of heat-sealed roofing felt in a patinated green copper color, is visible, as are the frameless photovoltaic roof modules, using glass/glass technology enameled in a similar green color.
Planting
The north side of the building is filled with an entrance plaza and a functional outdoor gaming area. In the plaza, near the building’s entrances, along the glass walls of the foyer and to the south, a composition of flowering hydrangeas and ornamental grasses stretches, creating a garden that permeates the building’s interior. Modular wooden benches are positioned on the granite slab surface, allowing the gaze of those seated to be directed towards the particularly attractive view of the historic former mine building with its clock tower and adjacent hoist tower. Trees with characteristic spherical crowns are arranged in an irregular arrangement on the plaza, planted in containers recessed into the pavement, constructed on the lower technical level of the building.
The plant selections included trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants that are resistant to changing temperature and humidity conditions, as well as flowering grasses that mitigate the potential effects of climate change.