Music Education Centre in Poland completed

The new Science and Music Education Centre building by Konior Studio in Katowice, Poland has been completed. The centre of Katowice Academy of Music adjoins the existing, century-old main building, tightly filling the urban gap between main building, the rector’s office and Damrota street.

The space between old and new has been turned into elongated glass-covered internal courtyard, a forum of the Academy where variety of students’, teachers’ as well as visitors’ activities can take place.

The formal language of the new structure is thoroughly contemporary, but the facade material remains the glazed red brick, so that it f­its within historical context. Other materials such as concrete and wood have been used in the interiors, contrasting with brick and slate of the old building. Untreated architectural concrete faces the atrium, while wooden panels cover the walls of concert hall, the first all-wood one in Poland. Also the concert hall entrance zone and the cloakroom zone beneath it are clad in wood.

The building attracted attention of both professionals and broad public in Poland and has been considered a splendid example of new intervention in historical surroundings, one of the finest in Poland to the date.