Acclaimed internationally, the CODA awards celebrate the projects that most successfully integrate commissioned art into interior, architectural, or public spaces.
The Spirit of Palatium is a glass art installation that represents the outline of the remnants of the Palatium of Polish ruler Mieszko I and his wife Dobrawa in Ostrów Tumski, Poznań. The palatium, the first Piast dynasty building, dates back over 1000 years.
Meanwhile, the origins of the project go back to 1999, when a team of archaeologists from Poznań’s Adam Mickiewicz University made an extraordinary discovery of the remnants of the palatium right next to the Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The winning design, by the ARCHIGLASS studio in Wrocław (southwestern Poland), shows the outlines of the building in glass. The entire composition covers an area of about 750 square metres, with a total glass weight of 13 tons.
The architectural installation is illuminated, allowing for the display of the outline of the walls and historical content also after dark.
According to the 2022 CODA awards jury member Kevin Walz, the glass structures designed by Polish architects “are remarkable for their delicate graphic representations, their impressive structural technology and respect for the architecture whose mysteries they are revealing."
(mk/pm)