Master's Degree Project — 2023
CENTRUM
KULTURY
LUDOWEJ
One building, three worlds. None of them colliding.
A cultural center and concert hall designed for the “Śląsk” Song and Dance Ensemble in Koszęcin. The core challenge: fit a 4,400 m² program — a 450-seat concert hall, a folk museum, and administration — onto protected heritage parkland without altering its landscape. The answer was to bury the entire building underground.
Roles
- Spatial & Experience Design
- User Flow Architecture
- Accessibility Design
Context & Timeline
Master's Thesis, Silesian University of Technology Gliwice, 2023
Skills & Methods
- Stakeholder & user analysis
- Flow & circulation design
- Constraint-driven design
- Accessibility (inclusive design)
- Spatial storytelling & pacing
A protected park beside a historic palace had no room for a large cultural venue — yet the resident ensemble needed a professional concert hall and a museum. Any visible structure would disrupt heritage landscape under conservation protection. Three user groups with conflicting needs had to share one space without ever getting in each other's way.
Placed the entire 4,400 m² program below ground — preserving the park's surface completely, leaving only an entrance zone and a service ramp visible. Separated three distinct circulation flows (visitors, audience, back-of-house) across vertical levels, and designed the museum path for emotional pacing, not just movement.
A building that disappears into its surroundings while serving 450+ concert guests and museum visitors simultaneously — fully accessible, environmentally integrated, and resolving every stakeholder conflict the site imposed.
The Underground Move
Faced with a hard constraint (heritage protection) and a heavy program, I chose to bury the building up to 15 m deep, under a green roof that recreates the existing meadow. The trade-off: significant structural complexity (waterproofing, prestressed concrete spans) in exchange for zero landscape impact. The constraint became the concept.
Three Flows, Zero Collision
Visitors, audience, and back-of-house each needed a path that never crossed the others. A full-height glass wall behind the stage — central to the audience experience — physically blocked the performers' backstage route. I moved their circulation beneath the stage, accepting an extra technical level to protect the view every audience member sees at every show.
Designing the Visitor's Journey
The museum path was shaped to prevent fatigue: alternating room sizes, rest alcoves, and deliberate turns that control rhythm and attention — the spatial equivalent of pacing a user through a long flow without losing their engagement.
Accessibility From the Ground Up
Step-free access throughout: a ramp at the entrance, an elevator between all levels, wheelchair positions in the hall, threshold-free museum doors, and accessible restrooms on every floor. Inclusive design treated as a foundation, not an add-on.
* All drawings and visualizations: Krystian Wrona, Master's Thesis, Silesian University of Technology, 2023