New City Hall in Gorzów Wielkopolski

Phase: competition design, 2015

Design team: Mateusz Gierszon, Ewelina Siestrzewitowska, Antoni Surowiak, Kamila Szpakowicz

energy standard: energy-efficient

additional: renovation and rebuilding of historic buildings

FORM

The shape of building U3 results from the need to recreate and bring order to the inner-city urban fabric. The building therefore has the same height as the ridge of the 'old town hall', and the eaves height from Sikorskiego Street refers to the attic height of the current city-hall building. The roof pitch also repeats the roof slopes of both buildings. A device referring to the traditional city centre is the raising of the corner at the junction of Herberta and Sikorskiego Streets, which 'reveals' the retail unit designed along Sikorskiego Street and the entrances to the restaurant in the basement of building U2. The new building adjoins building U2 directly, continuing the frontage and building up the windowless gable wall of the existing building. Between building U3 and the 'old town hall', however, a slot was shaped in which the entrance hall was designed. This both emphasises the new entrance and exposes the dynamic mass and gable wall

of building U1.

FACADE

The facade form results from several factors. Owing to the need to operate with a set of architectural and building elements associated with traditional inner-city development, building U3 was designed to form a solid mass with punched walls. Related to this is the choice of facade material – travertine, referring to the colours of the nearby buildings. Only the entrance hall already described is built of structural glazed walls supported on glass columns and beams.

The choice of a punched wall is also related to the orientation of building U3. The northern, eastern and western exposures, with more glazing, would in winter risk greater heat losses than solar gains, and in summer overheating. Finally, this type of facade allows a compositional reference to the neighbouring facades. The cornices on building U3 refer to the levels of building U2, and the facade module itself transposes the tripartite window module of the existing city hall. The individual thirds of this module were tilted away from the facade plane so that, projected onto the facade, their edges define the windows and facade 'fins'. Thanks to the progressive tilting of successive thirds, the facade seems to undulate, reducing the heaviness of the homogeneous mass and changing character with the viewpoint. The direction of the 'fins' matters for protection against overheating, but also means the building, seen along Sikorskiego Street from the existing city hall and along Herberta Street from the 'old town hall', has a very calm expression and forms a backdrop for the historic objects. The same building, seen from the junction, appears far more dynamic, both because of the 'lifted' corner mass and the 'against-the-grain' arrangement of the 'fins'.

FUNCTION

The whole Gorzów City Hall quarter is divided into several functional-spatial groups. The 'heart' of the new layout is the glazed courtyard between buildings U1, U2 and U3, where a customer-service hall is designed on three levels. The service hall can be reached from Sikorskiego Street through building U2 – so its entrance staircase and hall keep their importance; from Herberta Street – through the hall in building U3; and from Obotrycka Street – through the staircase of the 'old town hall'. The service hall and its functions are arranged to connect functionally with the halls of buildings U2 and U3 and some functions in building U1. Thanks to this and the arrangement of stairs inside, overcoming the height differences between the entrances from Herberta or Obotrycka Streets and the 'high ground floor' (first floor) of the existing building is imperceptible. The conference/plenary hall group forms a complex that can be separated and rented after office hours, with an entrance hall from Herberta Street: two conference halls and a multifunctional hall conceived as catering back-up, plus cloakroom, sanitary and storage facilities and a restaurant on the ground floor. Thanks to this, the building can 'live' and earn after office hours. The Conference Centre is also part of another functional group of conference halls and meeting rooms for councillors and spokespeople with citizens.

Buildings U2 and U3, with floors at the same levels, are directly connected, allowing City Hall departments to be located by floor rather than by building. Another separate group is the 'old town hall', housing the offices of the mayor, his deputies and secretary, the office director and the organisational department – located in the most architecturally valuable object, with its own entrance, a view of the Oder and an extraordinary conference room. The last group is the Municipal Guard, with its own building, without an entrance to the service hall but connected to the office. Spaces for rent are planned: a restaurant in the basement of building U2 and rooms on Sikorskiego Street accessible also from the hall of building U3; the B1 service building can also be rented. Functions were distributed according to access to sunlight, with bay depths chosen to light the rooms appropriately.