The European Commission and the Fundació Mies van der Rohe have announced the 40 shortlisted works that will compete for the 2015 European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award. One of the works is the new seat of the Silesian Musuem.
The prize, one of the most prestigious awards in international architecture, will be awarded on 8th of May 2015. Before that, five finalists – to be chosen from the 40 shortlisted works – will be announced in London by the end of February. Then an expert jury will visit the five finalist works and will collect first hand information from their users.
In total, 420 works were nominated for the award, 18 projects were from Poland, including the new venue of the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra, the living-garden house in Katowice and the remodeling of the recreational area at the „Paprocany” lake in Tychy. All the 420 nominees will be presented in a dedicated publication.
The Silesian Museum’s new seat is one of three Polish buildings shortlisted for the 2015 prize. The remaining two are: POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw and the Philharmonic Hall in Szczecin.
The Silesian Museum’s building was designed by Riegler Riewe Architekten from Graz, Austria. The cultural and exhibition facility was delivered in December 2013. The museum is now moving to the new seat and the great opening is planned on 26th of June 2015.
As the description of the building says, the museum develops its spatial programme on the basis of the areas former significance (a coal mine) and is situated entirely underground. From the outside the whole complex is visible only as an ensemble of abstract glass cubes, which provide daylight for the exhibition levels below.
The building is located at 1 Dobrowolskiego St. in the area of the cultural district of Katowice.