"The Katowice International Conference Centre project situated nearby the Spodek arena erected in 1962 posed a challenge in both urban planning and architectural terms.
Spodek (meaning ?Saucer? in Polish), a building ranked among the finest achievements of Poland?s contemporary architecture, and one of its foremost icons, a symbol of Katowice and the Upper Silesian region, is an instance of unambiguous architecture with outstanding com-positional features, whose value must not be diminished by any new development.
The general philosophy was to create a facility with a value created not only by providing functional solutions, but also by creating conditions for its strong existence within the social space. Specifically, this region is traditional coal-mining region and shutting down same major coal mines is the matter of last decade. Katowice received this devaluated areas as a heritage in the very city centre. The ICC building, with its straightforward, distinct and clear-cut form, has been integrated into the public space of the city through links provided along the city?s key axis connecting the ""honorary"" square in front of Spodek (also the main traffic node of Katowice) and the city?s oldest, historic district of Bogucice. The links are implemented in a two-fold manner: in the form of a public passageway across the main hall and foyer of the Centre (a link to be used especially during open events, such as fairs or exhibitions) and in the form of an external route running over the building roof, called a green valley.This philosophy has led to the formation of the building as a part of landscape, its core composition elements being the roof integrated into a system of land slopes and natural diversity of terrain, and the hall/foyer space below, taking advantage of the ceiling deformation as a unique feature, a negative of the ?green valley? form."
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