The final of the first Polish edition of Brick Award competition, organised by Wienerberger company, the producer of ceramic construction materials, has taken place on the 18th April. The prizes were awarded in three categories: Residential building, Public Building and Renovation/Adaptation/Refurbishment/Reconstruction. Also four awards were granted, including two in the category of Unexecuted Project, present only in Polish edition of the event. Only those projects, which made use of ceramic materials, could enter the competition.
In the first edition of the contest participated 48 projects created after the 1st January 2011. The competing buildings are located not only in big cities such as Warsaw, Wrocław or Kraków, but also in smaller towns, such as Knurów, Siechnice or Rakownia.
Engineering ceramics is one of the oldest material ever known, and as proved by its current uses – still a revelatory and surprising one. Also in hands of Polish architects, who can obtain its most modern qualities and connect it with memory, which it bears as a material used since generations, giving the sense of cultural development continuity and simultaneosuly emphasising what is a motive force of this development. It is definitely innovativeness, which is best visible in the awarded project of Małopolskie Centrum Sztuki created by the team K. Ingarden & J. Ewý – Architekci. We are glad that Polish architecture will be represented on the international forum of the competition by such a creative and fresh solution, proposed in the eternal city – Kraków. In other awarded projects ceramic material presents its elegance and timelessness, flexibility in use and humanism of the scopes achieved. In our assessments we awarded a set of this values, looking for the spirit of the 21st century – says Prof. Ewa Kuryłowicz, the Chair of Jury in Polish edition of Brick Award.
Jurors in the competition were: Prof. Ewa Kuryłowicz, Vice-President and General Designer of Kuryłowicz&Associates sp. z o.o.; an architect Maciej Miłobędzki, co-founder of JEMS Architekci; Janusz Kaniewski, a designer, a lecturer at Istituto Europeo di Design in Turin and Royal College in London; Ewa P. Porębska, a Chief Editor of "Architekura-Murator" magazine; Agnieszka Bulanda, a Chief Editor of "ARCH" magazine; Piotr Sarzyński, a journalist of "Polityka" weekly; Grzegorz Piątek, an architecture critic and custodian. The Competition Secretary, Marek Szeniawski, supervised the the process of competition.
The winner in the category of Public Building was the design of K. Ingarden J. Ewy – Architekci, on basis of which Małopolski Ogród Sztuki was created. The prize in Residential Building was awarded to the building in Wrocław at Grabiszyńska and Inżynierska streets intersection, created by Biuro Projektów Lewicki Łatak. The category Renovation/Adaptation/Refurbishment/Reconstruction was dominated by the design of the Home Army Museum in Kraków. Refurbishment of the building was carried out by AiR Jurkowscy – Architekci.
A prize in Public building was awarded to Ratusz i Centrum Administracyjno-Usługowe in Siechnice. The design was made by Maćków Pracownia Projektowa. The same design office has been also awarded in Renovation/Adaptation/Refurbishment/Reconstruction category for refurbishment of Gimnazjum no. 15 in Wrocław. Award in the Unexecuted Project category was exceptional in the Polish edition. In this category two projects have been awarded: Agata Rogowska’s, the design of identification of Wrocław post-war architecture, and also for Zespół Budynków Biurowych "UbiQ Business Centre", the authorship of CDF Architekci from Poznań.
Prizes in Single-family house category were not awarded.