Ingarden & Ewý: Malopolska Garden of Arts

Polish studio Ingarden & Ewý Architects (IEA) has completed the new Malopolska Garden of Arts in Krakow, Poland. The Malopolska Garden of Arts combines two institutions: the Juliusz Slowacki Theatre and the Malopolska Voivodeship Library. The building's side wing features a modern art and media library, with multimedia books and music, while the main entrance gives access to a multifunctional events hall with a capacity to host 300 people.

The 4,300 square metre space allows for exhibitions, film screenings, symposiums, conferences, art auctions, fashion shows, and many more events to be held. The building also features a 98-seat cinema, a café, and premises for the organisation of educational activities.

IEA focused on "interaction with the future recipients," creating an open roofing over the garden which seeks to transport the "gateway of the stage onto the street". The Malopolska Garden of the Arts maintains the lines of the roof and divisions of the façades according to its immediate surroundings.

"The form of the building is a contextual game between mimesis and the abstraction", states architect Krzysztof Ingarden. "In practice, this means that the building is by no means a simulacrum of the context, but rather draws inspiration from the code of contextual forms by making references to the geometry of the roofs and tissue of the neighbouring structures applied for the abstract geometrical compositions of the façades."

Ingarden & Ewý Architects: Malopolska Garden of Arts
Architecture : Ingarden & Ewý Architects (IEA)
Author : Krzysztof Ingarden Ph.D.
Collaboration : Jacek Ewý
Team IEA: Piotr Urbanowicz, Sebastian Machaj, Agata Staniucha, Jakub Wagner, Piotr Hojda, Bartosz Haduch, Bogdan Blady, Maciej Szromik, Anna Kula, Sylwia Gowin, Marta Branska, Piotr Kita, Krzysztof Stepniak
Cooperation: K3 Architekci s.c (Piotr Chuchacz, Benedykt Bury, Rafal Chowaniec)
Interior design: Ingarden & Ewý Architects e Pracownia S.C. (Agnieszka Cwynar- Laska, Marta Spodar)
Acoustics: Inter-Eko Sp. z o.o., Jan Adamczyk, Leslaw Stryczniewicz, Dorota Szalyga
Stage technology: Przedsiebiorstwo Projektowo-Uslugowe OTO, Tomasz Ostrowski, Zbigniew Koska
Structure: GSBK Biuro Konstrukcyjne (Mariusz Szefer, Jaroslaw Zdeb. Samsoor Shaheed)
HVAC: TW Engineers Sp. Z o.o., Tadeusz Wolek, Monika Pantol, Maria Eustachiewicz
Electrical Systems : ES-System (Jan Wachacki, Pawel Bugno, Bozena Paluchowska)
Roads: Altrans, Stanislaw Albricht, Ewa Dudek,
Landscape design: Land Arch (Karolina Bober, Malgorzata Tujko)
Fire consultant : Janusz Siata
Client: Slowacki Theater Kraków
Project engineer : Lider: OTS-IP Sp. z o.o. Kraków; Partner: Dom Inzynierski PROMIS SA, Szczecin
General contractor: PBO Skobud Sp. z o.o., Zywiec
Building area : 1 579,3 sqm
Floor usable area : 4330,76 sqm
Multifinctional Hall: 299 seats
Club cinema: 78 seats
Opening: October 2012