The new Radio and TV Department at Silesia University emerges from an almost empty plot with a simple building as a survivor. By mimicking materials, colors and shapes, the new construction goes unnoticed in one of Katowice’s most consolidated areas.
The new Radio and TV Department at Silesia University will be located on a vacant plot, located in a consolidated area of Katowice. The plot, mainly empty, contains an abandoned building which the client initially planned to demolish.
Our winning proposal plans to preserve this existing building and add an extension to it while protecting the character of the old construction. The project also includes a lower height building occupying the interior block area which confers prominence in the intervention to the central courtyard.
Our design aims to be sensitive to the existing building’s aesthetics and takes advantage of its materiality and visual values by building an abstract volume on top of it made out of a brick latticework, which follows the section of the neighboring building.
The new building fills up the whole plot and, at the same time, hollows outa central courtyard, which becomes the key element for all the social activities taking place around the studios and lecture rooms in the new university department.
