Bee Breeders has announced the winner of the Krakow Oxygen Home competition, which asked designers to reconsider contemporary architectural conventions with respect to current cultural and global issues in the city of Krakow, Poland. Due to the large number of coal-burning furnaces in the city, residents of Krakow are threatened by air pollution, which has resulted in a sky-rocketing number of cases of asthma, lung disease, and lung cancer. The competition brief called for the “design of a care center for lung cancer patients as part of the Maria Sklodowska-Curie Memorial Institute of Oncology.”
The first prize winner, according to the team of jurors, was characterized by “schematic coherence, sensitive invention, and material resolution.” The design, located in Bror Hansson Park and created by Iran-based Nima Nian and Behdad Heydari, includes a pavilion with an outdoor courtyard space in the middle. The outdoor space is the only defined private space on the site, which serves as a place for the cancer patients to socialize with one another and to host events.
The program of the design is divided into five zones: reception area, office, health care, community area, and the service zone. An opening between each of these zones allows for the park and landscape spaces to penetrate the building. Translucent glass is utilized for the exterior wall, while transparent glass covers the wall facing the courtyard, allowing light to reach all spaces of the building.
An apple tree is located in the center of the courtyard as a symbol of the city and lung health. The tree will be planted by the citizens of the surrounding neighborhood in the presence of lung cancer patients as a symbol of unity.
Learn more about the project here.
