Despite the heart of the new Silesian Museum will be hidden under the ground, the most characteristic feature of the project – glass boxes – already present its shape. Builders of the seat are providing the so called cuboids with the last slabs of glass.
The innocent-looking glass boxes are in fact quite massive buildings reaching several meters in hight. There are seven cuboids including one to serve as the entrance to the underground foyer. The two biggest buildings located on the ground are also covered with the glass. The first one is the administration’s office facility and the second is the central hall’s building separated from the main part and located north from the glass boxes.
All of them are based on a steel construction and are made of an acid-etched glass with a texture on its surface imitating fossils. These blocks are going to have a technical asset – some air-conditioning system’s installations will be hidden inside.
Also, the cuboids are designed to provide daylight to the interiors. “While the illumination is also possible by typical garret windows in the roof, our aim was to create a symbol for this place, some kind of a sign. These abstract glass boxes will be lighten up after dark. And this is another function which will make a question asked by passers-by: “what is this, maybe it’s worth a look?”. The illuminated boxes will have a strong effect on human imagination” – Anna Pędziwiatr, leading architect of the project, told in an interview to katowicethecity.com.
The new Silesian Museum was designed by Riegler Riewe Architekten from Graz, Austria.
Pictures were taken on 6th of March 2013.
