WXCA wins the architectural competition for the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznan, where the building’s form serves as a medium between the city’s past and its contemporary spirit.
The architectural competition for the new Ignacy Jan Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznan envisioned a facility dedicated to cultural, scientific, and educational purposes. Renowned Polish architectural design studio WXCA clinched the top prize. The architects’ design introduces a modern, sculptural silhouette while respecting traditional architectural expressions, proportionally echoing the 19th-century urban context.
The competition organized by the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznan in collaboration with the Association of Polish Architects, aimed to create a new cultural and educational centre, catering to both students and residents of Poznan. The investment includes academic spaces as well as a regional music hub featuring an opera and theatre hall. Additionally, the facility will house a playhouse and performance stage, a chamber hall, an ambisonic hall, recording studios, and ballet and drama studios, among many others.
Studio WXCA’s award-winning proposal embodies a timeless structure harmoniously integrating with Poznan’s traditional architecture and urban fabric while addressing the city’s contemporary needs.
A contemporary spatial landmark amidst traditional urban development
WXCA architects aimed to design a building whose form serves as a medium between Poznan’s past and present. The structure continues the street’s historic alignment, while breaking down its mass into smaller functional blocks of varying heights, injecting dynamism into the composition. Gaps between these blocks engage with the surrounding environment, inviting pedestrians inside. Transitioning from a compact arrangement at the city’s core to a more open composition, the boundary between interior and exterior is blurred, emphasizing the building’s public utility.
The dominant composition at the street intersection acts as a spatial marker, asserting the institution’s presence in the city. The volumes of individual blocks scale in reference to adjacent 19th-century buildings and their restrained expression is achieved through geometric simplicity and rhythmic façade articulation reminiscent of traditional urban townhouses.
WXCA also proposed niches and openings across different levels, integrating the academy with its surroundings. In the concept of the architectural design studio, a green roof becomes a serene meeting place for both students and academia, offering a welcoming retreat. Glass canopies and a green plaza encourage observation of daily life at the institution, with evenings dedicated to cultural events for the local community.
Thus, the building fully embodies its role as a public asset that is open to the city.
The building’s form reflects its internal functional layout, where academy life revolves around a centrally located opera and theatre hall equipped with state-of-the-art stage technology. This space serves both educational and social functions, forming the heart of the entire complex. Addressing diverse user needs, public, educational, and technical spaces are carefully segregated into zones with varied access to ensure independent operation.
WXCA
WXCA is a Polish architectural design studio specializing in projects of public spaces and public facilities, including cultural institutions. The studio was nominated for the Mies van der Rohe Award for its designs of the Memorial Museum in Palmiry and the European Centre for Geological Education in Chęciny. WXCA was also responsible for the design of the renowned Poland Pavilion at the Expo 2020 in Dubai and the Museum Complex in Warsaw housing the Polish History Museum and the Polish Army Museum. In 2023 WXCA won the international architecture and urban design competition for the reconstruction concept of the royal Saxon Palace in Warsaw that was destroyed during the Second World War.
Facts & Credits
Project title The Ignacy Jan Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznan
Typology Architectural Competition “Ignacy Jan Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznan”
Organisation the Ignacy Jan Paderewski Academy of Music in Poznan in collaboration with the Association of Polish Architects
Awards 1st Prize
Design Team WXCA
Project authors Marta Sękulska-Wrońska, Szczepan Wroński, Michał Lipiec, Maciej Wewiór, Jakub Hlebowicz, Jakub Matela, Małgorzata Bonowicz, Maja Przewoźnik, Aneta Szwejk, Jakub Kołomański, Maciej Sachse, Oliwia Pakuszewska
Visualizations Piotr Banak
Text provided by the architects
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