Silesia Star. How exactly did this name originate?
We organized a competition „Call an Office” at the end of 2013. Participants sent us their propositions for the office's name as well as their justification. Among all ideas, we chose Silesia Star. The name is associated with the building's location and housing estate at which the office was realized, which is colloquially known as Star.
The office in Katowice is the first investment of LC Corp in this region of Poland. What actually decided about the choice of Katowice for a headquarters of your office structure?
Each investment has its own optimal time of realization which is mainly dependent on the expected business efficiency. The local authorities in Katowice have been intensively working on attracting investors to the city for several years. In result, we are currently observing intensified interest in Katowice as a perfect location for BPO services. We believe that the accessibility to the highly qualified staff, investment support of local authorities in Katowice as well as very well communication will certainly contribute to the surge of new investments and thus – demand for office areas. Our investment in Katowice offers 27 500 sq. m of lease area. In the past, we managed to realize commercial structures in Warsaw and Wrocław. For instance, we commissioned the Wrocław Sky Tower complex which combines commercial and residential functions. In 2013, in turn, we launched a modern office complex called Wola Center, which is located at Przyokopowa 33 Street in Warsaw. At present, we are building a modern office in Katowice. I hope that our project perfectly signs itself into a new business strategy of the city.
What do you think about the future potential of Katowice in the area of office investments? Are more and more companies going to locate their office structures in this city?
Katowice favors entrepreneurship and the dynamics of changes in the region creates very favoring atmosphere for running a business. The choice of the headquarters in this city is a certain investment in the future. Therefore, the companies locating their offices here benefit from it. We envisage that the market of office investments is going to flourish in Katowice as well as in other cities in the Silesia region.
Silesia Star is situated in the very heart of the center in Katowice. What facilitations related to location and infrastructure are offered to your tenants?
Silesia Star is located directly at Drogowa Trasa Średnicowa, Silesian University and Silesian Museum, main city communicational hubs and in close proximity to the PKS and PKP bus and railway stations as well as airport, thanks to which our tenants will be able to get not only to other regions of Katowice and Upper Silesia, but also to the whole Poland and other European countries, like Germany or Czech Republic in a very quickly and easy way. Such location certainly favors development of companies, the employees of which often travel.
At present, more and more people are commuting by bicycle. Can we find some solutions dedicated to bicyclists in your structure?
Stands for bicycles are located at the length of the main facade. They were specially designed for Silesia Star in order to fit the building's architecture. Moreover, we are planning to launch a closed bicycle station in the underground garage -1 in the future.
Is the office equipped with ecological solutions?
Silesia Star is equipped with many ecological solutions. First and foremost, the structure was realized on the area of a low ecological value, partially urbanized in the past, which contributed to the increase of this rate. Secondly, the shaping of the building's facade substantially reduces thermal gains coming from the sunlight and small windows with good parameters have a significant influence on the insulation of compartments, which directly contributes to high energetic efficiency of the building. It is worth mentioning about highly reflexive glazing, which is not only an idea for characteristic aesthetics of the building, but also it limits the overheating of interiors and reduces costs of cooling. Furthermore, most of office areas are lighted with natural light. Windows can be lifted, which allows to steer manually the air-conditioning set. The concrete elevation prefabricates were produced in nearby Siemianowice and they enables saving of energy in the area of production and transport. They are also easy to convert in the future. It is also worth emphasizing that the species of greenery planted in the neighborhood of the office do not require intensive watering which has a positive influence on the saving of water.
Does a simple and minimalist solid of the building refers to the adjacent neighborhood? Or maybe it signs itself into the characteristics of Katowice as an industrial city?
Silesia Star, the project of which was devised by the APA Kuryłowicz & Associates architectural studio, is characterized by modern and simple architecture. The external planes of the elevations are built from perforated concrete by opened windows with different size as well as contrastive and golden coloring. Moreover, the elevation materials are subordinated to simplicity and location's character by referring to the rawness of industrial buildings and tradition of the modernism in Katowice.
Thank you for the conversation.