Amazing Architecture

Polish national stadium will be placed in country’s capital – Warsaw. That solution could be obvious, but not many of us know that first national stadium was placed on the south of the country, in traditionally-mining industry part of Poland called Silesia. Slaski Stadium is still there, but it is surely out of date by now and is placed on the substitution list of potential Euro 2012 objects. New national stadium is placed almost in the city center, near river Wisla.

Final look of Poland National Stadium. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

This object will contain almost 56 thousand seats. The construction stands on over two thousand reinforced concrete pillars, because of characteristic geological conditions in the area. Stadium’s grass will be placed on reinforced concrete plate, over eight meters above the ground. Two rings of tribunes will give audience excellent visibility during sport and music shows. The roof will become totally independent construction covering not only the tribunes but also pitch – that gives enormous possibilities in creating a theater of many spectacular events.

Poland National Stadium construction site. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Unfortunately this stadium will not be used by the most popular local football club Legia Warsaw. Some people say that building two big stadiums in one large city (about 2 millions residents) is not such exceptional thing, but still, every stadium could use a club appearance. In my opinion this is just a little waste of money and place that could serve more multiple purposes.

Poland National Stadium construction site at night. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

This stadium will host Euro opening game, some group matches, a quarterfinal and semi-final. The big final is decided to be played in Kiev, but with Ukrainian problems with cash flow this show is in still jeopardy. It is still unknown how many matches the Ukrainian will finally host and some of the Polish stadiums must be prepared just in case, to take some of those games.

Poland National Stadium final look. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Today we begin a new cycle of interesting new buildings being constructed especially for soccer Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine.

Poznan City Stadium. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

The first stadium we will check is the Poznan City Stadium (used by the local club Lech Poznan). This arena was first placed in 1980. The first version of this stadium had a shape of a horseshoe and had a part opened to the city from the north side of the pitch. After installation of chairs and refitting existing tribunes the stadium could hold up to 25.000 people. I late ’90s city council decided to build the missing part of the stadium, giving the whole object new shape. This one tribune (called “The Fourth”) contains about 8.500 seats and will remain as an integral part of the new stadium. Everything else is brand new. The picture below presents the old view of the stadium (with characteristic four spotlight towers) taken from The Fourth:

Poznan City Stadium - an old view. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

The old tribunes were dismantled and new ones are being currently built. New stadium will contain 41.018 seats during Euro 2012 tournament and 45.830 seats after this event. The whole stadium will be 213 meters long, 220 meters wide and 56 meters high (this is approximately the height of 18-floor building). The most interesting part of the whole stadium will be the roof (currently being constructed). This construction will be based on two main frameworks, each at weight of 1.400 tons and two auxiliary elements, each weight 450 tons. The movie below is taken from Skyscrapercity forums and shows the auxiliary element no. 1 placed on two main frameworks:

The whole stadium construction was supposed to be finished on may 2010, but this time limit will be probably shifted to autumn 2010. This is still very reasonable term – two years before the tournament starts.

Other construction pictures:

One of stadium main frameworks at night. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

One of two auxiliary roof elements. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

View on two main frameworks and The Fourth (smallest tribune). Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Old Brewery is a center of business, art and commerce. Placed in Poznan, Poland this red brick complex was builded in two parts (first one finished in 2003, and the second one in 2007). The building is settled on a place where one of Poznan’s old breweries was situated. The remanings of the old developments are componed into new investment industrial architectural style of the whole complex. Total area of the center is about 130.000 quadermeters in the first part and 65.000 in the second. Both parts are connected with so called “courtyard of art” – a place with coffee shops, organized events such as movie projections and concerts, the gallery and a bookstore.This complex is one of the most interesting architectural objects in Poland built in 21st century. First part of the investment won several architectural awards including International Council of Shopping Centers Best Shopping Center in the World and International Council of Shopping Centers award for the best shopping center in Europe (in category of medim sized commercial buildings).

Stary Browar Part 1, main entrance. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Stary Browar Part 2. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

The whole complex idea came out of Grazyna Kulczyk (wife of one of the richest men in Poland), which also owes Fortis – company that became the investor that builded Old Brewery.

A part of Old Brewery that is surrounded by fog of mystery is The Blow Up Hall 50 50 Hotel. It is an unique element of complex, not easy to access with very original architecture and artistic design. The hotel has only23 rooms and no receptionist. The key to each room is iPhone, that also uses to communicate with hotel’s staff. Every room looks different and was projected as a complete element of the hotel.

Blow Up Hall. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Blow Up Hall, room. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

For Poznan’s inhabitants Old Brewery (Stary Browar in Polish) is more than just a building. It is a standing prove that Polish people  can build greatest buildings without any abroad financing – using their own hands. All stores, restaurants, museums, coffee shops and public spaces are place where Poznan inhabitants often meet and. The building is now one of the places visited by tourists (next to Poznan’s rich offer of beautiful historic buildings).

Inside Stary Browar Part 1. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Stary Browar Part 1, the main hall. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.

Third part of the coplex is planned by Ms. Kulczyk, which will contain museum for her huge collection of modern art. This part will be placed underground (under a park) and will be projected by world-wide known Japan architect Tadao Ando.

Stary Browar Complex with surroundings. Photo taken from Skyscrapercity forums.