LOCATION
Wrocław, Poland
CLIENT
Wrocław University of Science and Technology
STATUS
Competition 1st prize
YEAR
2025
TEAM
Architects: Vaíllo+Irigaray – interplay
This proposal introduces a building that expands the university’s activities and strengthens HTSH’s identity as a hub for medical research. With a distinct and recognisable presence, it offers rational, restrained architecture with structural clarity. A piece that represents Politechnika Wrocławska with dignity—and activates its immediate context.
The project completes and crowns the block, marking the junction of Smoluchowskiego and Wybrzeże Wyspiańskiego with an open gesture. The façade, measured and precise, folds gently to define the corner and create an iconic silhouette. Its topographic nature allows the wider complex to be reinterpreted through a new urban and functional logic.
At the heart of the building, a bright, top-lit atrium links all levels and programmes. Its expression is warm, simple, and materially rooted in Wrocław’s brick-built heritage. This central space becomes a place for exchange, reinforcing the HTSH’s collaborative spirit.
Rather than merely fulfilling technical requirements, the programme becomes an opportunity to define a clear, flexible, and legible layout. Its hierarchy encourages dialogue across departments and uses. Every space is conceived as a point of connection.
A perimeter structure of screens and solid slabs enables a fully open interior, free of intermediate supports. This guarantees adaptability over time. The façade, modulated by solar orientation, becomes both climate filter and architectural expression.
The building employs simple construction systems and durable materials requiring minimal maintenance. Energy efficiency is driven by design—from form, orientation, and passive strategies—rather than by technological dependency. Structure becomes image. And image, structure.
