ICE Kraków Congress Centre, the modern, top-class congress and concert center, was designed by Ingarden and Ewý Architects in cooperation with the Japanese architect Arata Isozaki and Associates — the result of an open international competition won by the team in 2007.

The building is dedicated to cultural events — music, ballet, and theatre performances as well as congresses — and comprises three main halls with 1,791–1,915, 600, and 300 seats, respectively, and a multifunctional conference area with a floor space of 1,800 square feet that benefits from a system of mobile partitions allowing the free arrangement of this space plus ancillary rooms and areas including offices, artists’ dressing rooms, and a commercial area.

ICE Kraków Congress Centre was designed in conformity with the highest functional and acoustic standards and equipped with state-of-the-art stage technology systems — the responsibility of experts from Arup Acoustic (London), Arup Theatre Consulting (Winchester), and Ramboll Acoustics (Cambridge). With the extensive range of events to be held on the premises in mind, ranging from symphony concerts, rock and jazz music, and theatre performances to major international conferences, the architects decided to design the main hall as a semi-vineyard, which allows various configurations of both audience and stage, thus ensuring the best acoustic setting for every purpose.

Besides the need to cope with functional and technological requirements, the architects designing the building had to take into account its exquisite and unique urban environment. ICE Kraków stands in one of the most prestigious locations in Poland: opposite Wawel Castle. The attractiveness of the Congress Centre results not only from the merits of its architecture and functions, but from the location and the valuable panorama as well. The building boasts a spectacular glass façade facing the Vistula embankment with the multi-story foyer offering a panoramic view of the ancient City of Kraków situated directly opposite. Suspended in the foyer area is a fantastic staircase leading the visitor to the many levels of the center and opening before them successive levels of a panorama over the city, with Wawel located in center view. The form of the building stoops down in a cascade toward the Vistula so that the scale of the development is optically reduced from the embankment side. The façades are composed of glass, ceramics, and aluminum. The colors of the external ceramic wall tiles reflect the color range applied inside the building: the red of the Auditorium Hall, the graphite of the Theatre Hall, the white of the foyer, and the silvery aluminum used for the roof finishing. The architects intended the multi-element composition of the façades to reflect motion and life: the dynamics of a modern developing city.

Through its scale and spectacular form, the building provides a new architectural point of reference for ancient Kraków, a spatially dominant feature symbolizing the gate to the city and its modern strategy of development.

Architecture:

Ingarden and Ewý Architects (IEA), Kraków, main architect
Architect: Krzysztof Ingarden
Collaborating architect: Jacek Ewý

Arata Isozaki and Associates (AIA), Tokyo, collaboration
Architects: Arata Isozaki, Hiroshi Aoki

IEA team:
Project manager: architect, Piotr Urbanowicz
Architects: Jacek Dubiel, Sylwester Staniucha, Dariusz Grobelny, Piotr Hojda, Sebastian Machaj, Grzegorz Miąsko, Joanna Bielawska-Ząbek, Olga Jasiak, Bartosz Kardaś, Piotr Kita, Tomasz Koral, Jakub Wagner, Anna Biskupska-Sperka, Sławomir Janas, Hiroyuki Mae, Agata Staniucha, Krzysztof Stępniak, Maciej Szromik, Jacek Szuba, Maciej Wierzbiński, Maja Wilczkiewicz-Janas, Tomasz Żełudziewicz, Marta Brańska, Joanna Domagalska, Sylwia Gowin, Łukasz Kępski, Jakub Turbasa, Bartosz Haduch (competition)
Project administration: Renata Skowron

AIA team:
Architects: Yoko Sano, Tadayuki Uchida

Cooperating partners:

KKM Kozień Architekci, Kraków
Architects: Marek Kozień, Magdalena Kozień-Woźniak, Katarzyna Kozień-Kornecka

K3 Architekci, Kraków
Architects: Piotr Chuchacz, Benedykt Bury, Rafał Chowaniec, Justyna Chuchacz-Kciuk