HUB Katowice
P2PA, 2022
type: competition entry for the revitalization of coal mine in Katowice
collaboration: Aleksander Blicharski, Paweł Floryn, Łukasz Kaczmarek, Jakub Podgórski and Maciej Popławski
sketches: Paweł Floryn
visualizations: Piotr Banak
responsibilities: designing architecture conception, designing landscape conception, drawing landscape plans, drawing urban diagrams
The mine for the local community has a multi-level and multidimensional significance. It is the main source of livelihood, a place of professional fulfilment, an organizer of the local community, a creator of culture, traditions and rituals, as well as a dominant, spatial reference point. For almost 200 years, KWK "Wieczorek" influenced the areas of Janów-Nikiszowiec by shaping the surrounding space - building housing estates and service buildings, changing the natural landscape, and organizing the lives of residents. The buildings of the mine are not only monuments of technology but also a place of exceptional importance, which focuses on memories and human fate for generations.
The concept addresses this creative, fundamental role of the mine. The adaptation and revitalization of the fabric of the KWK "Wieczorek" mine respond in a comprehensive and coherent way to both the programmatic assumptions of the Gaming and Technology HUB and the social and urban conditions. The emerging complex, through minimal and respectful interventions to the historical fabric, should be a perfectly functioning machine adapted to the needs of developing new technologies, but also continue to play the role of a spatially important, socially activating place that attracts with its aura.
Precise actions in the existing buildings allowed us to clean and rebuild the historic buildings of the "Wieczorek" coal mine that tell us about the specific identity of the place. This also made it possible to extract from them the characteristic language of industrial buildings composed of linear sequences, modularity and simple intentional additivity. Based on this language, a clear, legible grid was built directly from the main directions given by the historical layout. On its basis, a functional composition was created, respectfully referring to the existing buildings and emphasizing the qualities and importance of the "Wieczorek" Coal Mine facilities. The clear space of clear interiors and squares was limited by the existing buildings and buildings of subsequent stages referring to their dimensions.
The New Technologies District is intended to be an open and integrative area, actively operating regardless of the time of day and year, being an axis of events and activity similar to the previous function located here. Both on a local and urban scale, it should serve as a cultural and recreational place. Giving the whole premise the character of a parking space linked to the neighbouring green areas made it possible to create an attractive space that works not only for the HUB's employees but also for the residents.
The surrounding greenery, now located on the south-eastern side of the complex and visible as a distinct strip located behind the Nikiszowiec estate, influences and, as it were, takes over the former mine site, shaping the landscape of its urban interiors. It creates parks, alleys and squares, which, thanks to their connection in the context of the fabric of the complex, but also of the individual functions of the facilities, become spaces for relaxation, rest, and leisure. They can be used not only by HUB users but also by residents of Katowice. The greenery so strongly outlined in the concept is also reflected in the form of details related to the introduced interventions, which refers to elements that can be found in historical buildings - the clock tower, elements of glazing, painted brick details or the former mine machinery itself, as well as in the nearby Nikiszowiec estate.