Polish Television is architecturally associated primarily with two buildings. The iconic and controversial headquarters on Woronicza Street often appears on the air as a backdrop for news and entertainment programs. In contrast, the editorial offices of the news channels and News, located in the building on Powstańców Square, have recently become the site of many protests - from regular Citizens of Poland happenings to the Women's Strike. This is about to change - there are plans to build new recording studios and move the news editorial offices from Jasna to Woronicza.
Tower of Babel
The most distinctive building included in the TVP complex on Woronicza Street in Warsaw's Sluzewiec district is, of course, the main building. The 2001 design by DiM'84 Dom i Miasto - a Czeslaw Bielecki studio - and Atelier Karczewski & Bernier remains to this day one of the most controversial public projects of the 21st century in Warsaw.
photo by Adrian Grycuk / Wikimedia Commons
The new building's open, expanding circular shape signals a new strategy of openness for what was once the most ideologically charged institution in communist Poland.
Authors
The building definitely dominates the surrounding complex of older TVP buildings - both visually and in terms of its dimensions. Such a move was, by the way, intentional and was meant to emphasize the new architectural, but also media language of Poland after 1989. Since its opening, it has been used as a backdrop for all sorts of television events - from scenes from political debates, to hosting concerts in the hall, to using its image for advertising purposes.
VIP studios
Photo: TVP
The TVP campus, however, is not only offices and representative spaces, but also a complex of multiple recording studios and halls, production facilities, archives and all other functions inextricably linked to TV operations.
The construction of a new hall at 17 Woronicza Street with an area of 21 thousand square meters has been announced for 2021. The building will serve as a studio with a representative entrance area that includes space for a red carpet ramp and a striking VIP entrance. Inside there will be a modern shooting hall, warehouses, and rooms for staff and actors. The building will also accommodate six shooting rooms, rehearsal rooms and dressing rooms.
Photo: TVP
Information architecture
A whole new setting will also be given to the government broadcaster's news programs. This does not apply only to the place where they are recorded. The architecture of the new building on Woronicza Street, to which the studios will move from Jasna Street, is to become the setting for, among other things, TVP Info programs.
Photo: Mąka Sojka Architekci
The design stage has been completed. A building permit has already been issued. TVP plans to proceed to the stage of selecting a general contractor through a public procurement procedure. Construction work is likely to begin in early 2022.
TVP Press Release
The design of the complex was selected in an architectural competition announced in 2015. The jury, chaired by Tomasz Konior, was tasked with selecting the best concept for the building, which will house editorial offices, newsrooms and studios for TV programs. The design by Mąka Sojka Architekci studio turned out to be the best. The jury appreciated the optimal layout of all functions and the shaping of the space in such a way that it could serve as an impressive "living set" for broadcast programs. The second prize then went to Atelier Tektura, and the third prize to the Stelmach and Partners studio.
Photo by Mąka Sojka Architekci
In addition to wanting to open up the views from the new building to Warsaw and link it to its surroundings, architects from the Mąka Sojka studio also wanted to fit into the local context of post-industrial Służewiec. This is expressed in the use of several post-industrial architectural themes - the disposition of the massing evoking an industrial hall with a machine room tower, ceramic panels on the facades and translucent elements of the truss structure.
Photo by Mąka Sojka Architects
