Just a few years ago, it was difficult to persuade real estate investors to use “green” technologies. Today there is even a fashion for certification, and the quality of certified buildings is steadily increasing. The future of sustainable construction was discussed during the session “Green buildings – new challenges for architects and designers” held as part of the international conference 4 Design Days in Katowice (11-13.02.2016.). The discussion was attended by Andrzej Choldzynski president of AMC Choldzynski, Marek Kurylowicz vice president of APA Kurylowicz&Associates, Robert Strzenski partner at Horizone Studio and Miroslaw Czarnik, chairman of the board of the Upper Silesian Industrial Park. Horizone Studio was invited to 4DD as an architect and one of the experts in green building design.
The international conference 4 Design Days (www.4dd.pl), held in Katowice on February 11-13, 2016, is one of Poland’s largest events dedicated to design, architecture and design. This year’s three-day meeting and fair was attended by 3,500 business guests, 170 exhibitors and nearly 20,000 visitors. The conference was held at the International Conference Center in Katowice. Earlier, in several Polish cities, the 4DD fair was preceded by regional one-day conferences on the real estate market – the so-called Property Forum.
Poland, in terms of the number of certified buildings, compares very well with other countries. After England, Germany and France, we rank fourth in Europe. This is an impressive result, considering that this trend is relatively new in our country. – In 2010 there was the first BREEAM-certified building and the first LEED-certified building. In 5 years we have hit the European top,” Robert Strzeński, architect, partner of Horizone Studio, said during the panel discussion. And while this is optimistic information, according to the architect, there is a fundamental difference between Poland and developed markets. – In Ireland in 2006-2007, all public buildings were certified by design, or were green buildings to be certified. And they created a trend in the construction market. In our country, mainly commercial buildings are certified, the public sector lags behind,” he adds.
As Marek Kurylowicz, vice president of Kurylowicz& Associates, noted – Until some time ago, it was possible to obtain a certificate at a low cost. A large part of the buildings that could boast such a certificate had little to do with so-called green building. Fortunately, certification has become popular and obtaining a high rating now involves a fairly large outlay, which precludes the use of pseudo-solutions.
