Silesia City Center Extension wins ICSC European Shopping Centre Awards 2013

Silesia City Center

The winner of ICSC 2013 "Refurbishment and/or Expansion" category

On  17 April 2013 in Stockholm the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)  announced the winners in seven categories. In "Refurbishment and/or Expansion" category the award was presented to Silesia City Center in Katowice. The author of the original building, as well as architectural design of expansion, is Bose International Planning and Architecture, Warsaw office.

Every year, since 1977, the International Council of Shopping Centers grants awards to new and revitalised shopping centres. The awards are considered the most prestigious in retail development community.

We are truly satisfied with the project, says Marek Tryzybowicz, a co-founder and design principal of Bose International Planning and Architecture. One of the most basic challenges for us, as designers of both phases of the project, was to create a complex which would be homogenous as far as its functionality is concerned and at the same time spatially and stylistically diversified. An additional challenge was to plan the expansion so that the existing building would function without any interruptions, adds Marek Tryzybowicz.

The plan of the extension was created as a carefully worked-out aesthetic counterweight to interior decoration and atmosphere of the original complex. The aesthetics of the extension refers to mining but in a gentle and metaphorical way. Also ambitious leasing expectations were included in the architectural concept, which remained coherent in retail and other functions when considering both phases of the project. The plot constraints resulted in creating a semi-circular shape of the extension and allowed to create an attractive front wall, facing an existing car park. In the facade of the complex one may find a motif of a miner's basket, structured with ceramic and metal elements, which surround the oval shape of the building. The functional design of the expansion includes two retail levels: the ground floor and, partially, the first floor, which are integrated with the original levels. The internal flow of people in the extension is fully integrated with the existing mall. New parking spaces were located under the extension and on its roof.

Silesia City Center is a modern retail complex, located in Katowice in Upper Silesia, a  region which is very tightly connected with bituminous coal mining. The project is located on former coal mine and in no time has been recognised as one of the best examples of revitalisation of post-industrial areas. Bose International designed the first building and then, few years later created a plan for extension. The completed investment has become a dominant, multifunctional retail complex in the region. The technical complexity of the design required cooperation of the best multidisciplinary consultants of: Bose International (architect of the design), Arup (chief engineer) and Stabil Architects (architects of building permit design). The inspiration for the first phase of the complex, developed almost ten years ago, as well as for the extension, was the mining history of the region.