Development of the Entrances to the Tatra Mountains National Park
2015 Project - 1st prize
Investor: Tatra Mountains National Park
Location: Tatra Mountains National Park
Team: Michał Adamczyk, Piotr Bylka, Piotr Musiałowski, Krzysztof Nowotka
The Park's entrances are situated in a close vicinity to parking lots and public transportation stops where tourists start their visit to the Tatra Mountains National Park. They incorporate checkout desks, a tourist information (combined with a small bookshop), information boards, communications routes, resting spots, and toilets. The current buildings are more than a dozen years old, built in the Zakopane architectural style. They do not meet the requirements needed to serve touristic traffic. On the Park's premises there are 17 such entrances, of different sizes. The competition work comprises the design of two of such entrances, Białego Valley (smaller) and Kościeliska Valley (of higher capacity), with the possibility of adapting them for the rest of the entrances.
The recommendation for the competition in regards to small architecture was a simple form, not imitating Zakopane architectural style, with modern constructional and material solutions, and the use of wood as the main elevation material.
The team's starting point was the construction of a koliba (a mountain cottage), its gabled roof's shape, and the exploration of associations connected with its washed-out, silvery roofing. In order to avoid direct historical associations, the building's structure is geometric, additionally emphasized by a perpendicular layout of a plank covering and a placing of one level of the roof over the other, initially applied in sheds. However, the roof's ridge, parallel to the level of terrain, is built at an angle in relation to the horizontal projection. The roofing and the covering of the object's walls is made from silvery-grey wood. The object's fourth wall, open at the communication route that incorporates the entrance to the park, is "carved out" from the structure. As a contrast to the roof's naturally aged texture, the weatherproof plywood makes up an optically much warmer accent. Glass windows provide good visibility of the entrance area, and the parzenica motive placed on them is a suggestion for voice communication.
In the smaller variant (Białego Valley) the group of objects consists of a two-function pavilion. It encompasses the cash registers and tourist information as well as a roofing for tourists and information boards. In the bigger variant (Kościeliska Valley), the pavilion got enlarged to house additional cash registers, while the tourist information was moved to a separate building. Based on suggested modules, there is a possibility of generating different spatial layouts. In all of the entrances, the pavilions are situated on both sides of the pathway, which creates a symbolic gate that sets the Park's borders, further emphasized by the placement of metal elements in the ground containing the name of the place.
According to the jury board's appraisal, the project presented by 2pm blends with the surroundings the most thanks to the stylistic solutions and its small size. The functionality as well as the simplicity of solutions comprises of this project's great implementation potential.