European Centre for Geological Education in Chęciny is the best designed green building

European Centre for Geological Education (University of Warsaw) in Chęciny (Poland) has been awarded a 1st prize in a prestigious competition “Life in Architecture” in the category: “The best designed structure for climate in 2015-2019”.

The jury of the competition “Life in Architecture” with Dariusz Herman as a chair, described the building as being “a symbolic structure in which nature and culture unite.” The prize has been awarded specifically for “creating the building that perfectly fits into the landscape of the Swietokrzyskie (Holy Cross) Mountains and highlights unique resources of the place, limiting at the same time the negative environmental impact. Placing the object in the basin left after the now depleted Korzecko quarry, using the locally extracted limestone for building’s construction and facades, as well as covering the flat area (including roofs) with xerothermic grasslands typical for this region – all this creates a harmony between the work of the nature and that of men’s hands. A great advantage of the building are carefully considered solutions for the energy efficiency. All partitions in the building have a very good thermal performance and the compact structure of the building helps to decrease the energy consumption for heating and cooling. The building has been constructed using locally available materials which increase its thermal capacity, and as a result help to maintain indoor thermal comfort at a lower energy loss. Increased amount of daylight, external blinds and installation solutions consistently follow the chosen design strategy and add to the final effect. The area surrounding the building is structured with respect to the local fauna and flora. The mineral permeable paving facilitates rainwater retention. The natural rock which has been used to replace one of the walls in the lecture hall allows the visitors to get into direct contact with the nature and its wonders.”

Architects: Szczepan Wroński, the late Zbigniew Wroński, Paweł Grodzicki, Krzysztof Budzisz, Marta Sękulska-Wrońska, Katarzyna Faszczewska, Ewa Gajda, Agnieszka Nowicka, Katarzyna Kwiatkowska, Patrycja Michalak-Dębiec, Michał Czerwiński, Marcin Jurusik, Jacek Hawrylak, Maciej Rudnicki.