KXM in cooperation with Lahdelma & Mahlamäki Architects.
CONTEXT
The complex of the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław is situated in a place with a very diverse urban context. Quarters of tenement houses are adjacent to the modern building of the Center for Applied Arts, modernist blocks, the building of the Main Post Office, the Church of St. Maurycy and a busy communication junction.
The planned extension is primarily a careful dialogue between architectural styles. Its form complements the interrupted frontage of the tenement house on the side of ul. Traugutta, and the division of the facade and finishing materials find a common language with the architecture of the west side of the campus. In this way, a coherent urban composition was formed, which, referring to the neighborhood, at the same time has its own, unique character.
IDEA
The creative process of creating cannot be confined within the four walls of the studio.
The creative process is a phenomenon that is difficult to define and individual for each artist. In this case, it is difficult to find a universal recipe for a „work”. We strongly believe that the best ideas and breakthrough discoveries are born in an environment that stimulates interaction and gives users a certain amount of freedom in shaping their immediate surroundings. As architects, we have an indirect opportunity to encourage students to exchange ideas and views more often. It is precisely the moments created by architecture that can contribute to the connection in the artist’s imagination of two previously missing ideas.
“IN BETWEEN”
A number of intermediate spaces have been designed in the facility, the functions of which can be easily adapted by future users. This is a reference to the assumptions of the Dutch architect Hermann Herzberger, the author of many prominent schools, according to which architecture is to be a framework that will be provided by future users – in this case by the artists themselves. These places are to awaken the human need for social activity.
The extended corridors will make it possible to exhibit art, subject it to discussion and criticism, and will give individual floors an individual character. Specially designed spaces such as stairs in the form of a stand connecting the entrance hall of the D1 building with the mezzanine create attractive meeting places with a view of the greenery. The wall of the auditorium can be fully assembled and opened, e.g. for the regularly organized Art Fair. The exhibition space in D3 is a purposefully fixed point on the way from the dormitory to the lecture. The courtyard illuminating between buildings D1 and D2 has been designed as an exhibition space and a place to create spatial installations. The open external terrace between D2 and D3 belongs to the so-called Third places, i.e. places between work and home – in our case, a student quarters and a design studio. It is a neutral space where we meet friends, lecturers, and observe the bustling life on the campus. It strengthens the sense of belonging to a place and helps to tighten interpersonal bonds.
