Background
Szczecin, located in the north-west Poland is currently one of the main towns on so-called Recovered Territories that bacame an integral part of Poland after Second World War. The old part of the city, severely destroyed in 1944 by Allied bombing has be been partly rebuilt and now still loaded with Prussian architecture style buildings from previous times when Szczecin (then Stettin) was a German city, has unique and complicated cultural heritage. Recently Szczecin became a real peril of modern architecture with two sites that won international contests, where one is consequently a Philharmonic Hall.
Concept
A new building of Philharmonic Hall is located on the historical site of German "Konzerthaus" that was destroyed during Second World War and then never rebuilt again. Local Philharmonic Orchestra was missing its proper building for years and thus was giving its concerts in the Town Hall. Finally in 2007 Szczecin municipality has organized a formal architectural contenst in order to choose a new project for the Philharmonic Hall. Among more than 40 works there was also the most exqusite project provided by Spanish architectural studio of Fabricio Barozzi and Alberto Veiga. The project was finally chosen by Polish Architects Society and Szczecin authorities whereas construction had started in 2011 and ended in 2014.
The building concept with its expressive architectural form has many interpretation and it seems that most of can be equally appropriate. With is purely white facade made out of glass panels and sharp "attics" it refers to the neo-gothic architecture popular in Szczecin, matching perfectly even with its direct surrounding context of neighbouring building of Police Command build at the end XIX century.
The glass facade is iluminated and makes the building a real light monument during the night. Our journey continues in the great interiors of the pure white foyer with spiral staircase as the main eye catching element. We finally ends in the main hall that was designed according to Fibonacci sequence rules and with its gold covering resembles a great concert and opera halls from the previous century.
Mies van der Rohe Award
From the very beginning the building was highly appreciated by international architecture critics gaining its most important award in 2015, when Philharmonic Hall get to the final of Mies van der Rohe Award and won the contest. The building became Szczecin's greatest architectural landmark while its nearest surrounding was recently enriched by another awards winning building of National Museum.
