On March 31, 2017, the results of the 2-stage international architectural and urban planning competition for the new headquarters of the Academy of Music in Krakow were announced. The university is to move from the center of Krakow to the Grzegórzki district, to green, post-military areas in the vicinity of the Vistula embankment. Seventy-eight offices from all over the world applied to participate in the competition, and 33 companies finally submitted entries in the 1st stage (12.2016).
In January 2017, Horizone Studio’s concept was selected along with 9 other projects for the 2nd stage. On the 31st of March 2017, the results of the competition were announced. The Academy of Music chose world-renowned architect Frank Gehry (USA) as the designer of its new headquarters. Our work was finally among the 5 highest rated projects. Congratulations to the winners!
On this occasion, below we show “behind the scenes” some photos of our four-month work on the project.
The subject of the first stage (12.2016) was to present a comprehensive architectural and urban design concept, including all the basic functions of the Music Academy and defining the idea of connections with neighboring areas. In turn, the task of the second stage of the competition (03.2017) was to detail the functional solutions and design the concert hall and 4 main rehearsal rooms, taking into account the investor’s high acoustic and environmental requirements.
The second stage also required a detailed mock-up (1:200) of the main concert hall, which was produced by Horizone Graphics.
Below are 10 boards presenting the 2nd stage of Horizone Studio’s competition concept.
And this is what our four-month activities during the 1st and 2nd stages of the competition looked like in a nutshell.
Thanks to the entire HORIZONE Studio team for their hard work and creative discussions about the shape of the project!
Thanks to the acoustics consultants (Andrzej Klosak, Krakow, Poland and Anders C Gade, Denmark) for their factual and professional contributions to the design, as well as the green building consultant (Rafal Schurma) and the landscape architects (ST raum A, Berlin) for their interesting inspiration and work.
The preparation of the concert hall mockup and schematic building mockup took about 1 month.
All this work was carried out by specialists and modelers from Horizone Graphics, for which we thank them very much. The mock-up showed the hall as we imagined it!
The mock-up was made of wood and Plexiglas.The elements were laser cut and handmade. Particularly a lot of precision and perseverance was required to make the seats and the wall panels in the interior of the hall (all these elements were individually made by Horizone Graphics for our model). Color printing on wood and LED lighting completed the presentation of the concert hall concept.
