On Tuesday, June 12, 2018, the laureate of the Architectural Award was announced in Warsaw. The Jury has chosen the new headquarters of the Faculty of Radio and Television of the University of Silesia as the best project of the 2017. The Award's Grand Prix was received by the project's authors - Grupa 5 Architekci, BAAS Arquitectura and Małeccy Biuro Projektowe.
Other propositions which made to finals of this year's edition of "Polityka's" Architectural Award were: Akademia High School in Warsaw (project by Medusa Group), a residential building at ul. Sprzeczna 4 in Warsaw (project by BBGK Architekci) and the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk (project by Studio Architektoniczne Kwadrat).
Each year also the readers of "Polityka" vote for their favourite project in the Internet poll. In this year's edition, the most appreciated building was the Bałtyk office building in Poznań (project by: MVRDV, Natkaniec Olechnicki Architekci).
So far, the Grand Prix has been awarded seven times. In the first edition of the competition in 2011, the victorious project was the Scientific Information Centre and Academic Library (CINiBA) - the joint initiative of the University of Silesia and the University of Economics in Katowice. In 2015 the Grand Prix was received by the International Congress Center (MCK) in Katowice. This year the main prize was granted to the new headquarters of the Faculty of Radio and Television of the University of Silesia, and so buildings of the City of Katowice were awarded for the third time.
The visual effect of the implementation of the winning design is based on the combination of three materials: ceramic brick, raw concrete and larch wood. This enabled to combine perfectly the aesthetics of southern Europe (BAAS co-designer is a company from Catalonia) with patterns characteristic for the north of the continent.
During the gala, during which the results of the competition were announced, the Vice-Rector for Finance and Development prof. dr hab. Michał Daszykowski and the Dean of the Faculty of Radio and Television dr hab. prof. UŚ Krystyna Doktorowicz were present.
Photos by: dr hab. Ryszard Czernow