Krasiejow Paleontological Pavilion
Goczołowie Architekci and OVO Grąbczewscy Architekci
with Arch. Arch. Beata Goczoł, Witold Goczoł, Oskar Grąbczewski, Katarzyna Chobot, Maciej Grychowski
Krasiejow, a small village placed in Ozimek city in the province Opolskie (Poland) , became in the 80s, the place of unusual paleontological excavated finds. The vertebrates’ remains, which were found on the area of the loams’ quarry and the cement plant Gorazdze, appeared to be pre-historical amphibians’ and reptiles’ fossils.
Silesaurus opolensis. The oldest pre-dinosaur, a herbivorous, not large ( about 1 metre high), living on the Krasiejlw area, about 230 mln years B.C. is the greatest scientific discovery.
The village, itself a very neat and tidy one, with beautiful river Mala Panew, was dominated by a huge quarry area, that needed an intervention on a scale far beyond commune possibilities.
The leading plot of the idea of the paleontological excavations management in Krasiejów is the landscape, surface layer-structure both geologic and functional.
The center of the area the post-quarry excavation, constitutes a huge crater in the ground which presents the growth of another geological stratum.
Another time coats are being shown.- eons, eras, periods. A delicate, diversified composition paradoxically more visible by violent human interference.
The specific spacious structure of Krasiejow and its area- interlacing the ribbons of forests, the Mala Panew river windings, meadows, fields - are the ground configurations, the precious entirety which we want to modify and respect as well.
The noticed layer-structure finds its continuity in all project scales- from the town- planning plan through post-quarry area management to the museum architecture.
The Paleontological Pavilion was created with the idea of protecting and exhibiting the unique fossils of Triassic reptiles and fossilized amphibians found in Krasiejow.
It was created as the documentary post predestinated to sightseeing.
The pavilion center and the retaining wall protecting the slope are the integrated space composition. The retaining wall also constitutes the pavilion north wall and makes the upper viewing terrace.
Either the full walls and the retaining wall are made from reinforced concreted, but the pavilion is finished with face concrete while the reinforced wall with texture concrete.
Using different concrete textures on the retaining wall in the layer-structure presents the idea of layer- structure of the ground showing the Earth, which can be seen both in the pavilion and in the whole competitive idea of the project being realized in the future by the museum- scientific unit.
In the pavilion’s body there is contrast for the heavy walls of face concrete which is constituted by a glazed front from the south and west side, what enables the view both from the pavilion inside onto the post- quarry landscape and onto the display from the outside.
The glass floor on a steel grate fixed over the bony-bearing lets the visitors to move without collisions over the fossils.
The moving terrace for the paleontologists’ was designed over the field of fossils which will be explored for the next few years. The observation of the paleontologists’ work is the next attraction for tourists.
CLIENT: DINOPARK ASSOCIATION
CHRONOLOGY:
- IST PRIZE IN AN INTERNATIONAL OPEN COMPETITION : 2003
- DESIGN: 2003 – 2005
- COMPLETION PAVILION & WALKING TRAPS: 2009
- RESTORATION OF QUARRY AREA: 2012
DATA: - usable floor area: 317 m²
- total floor area : 374 m²
- volume : 1820 m³
- plot area : 5760 m²
- masterplan / traps area : 30 ha
