Changing the Face 2013, the DuPont international architectural competition

Changing the Face, the DuPont international architectural competition, will be focused this edition on a architectural project in Poland, the Rotunda building in Warsaw.

The competition calls for innovative designs to revitalize Warsaw’s Rotunda building, to provide a new and sustainable face for Central Europe’s largest bank (PKO Bank Polski). While previous editions of this competition were theoretical, the innovation of this year is that the winning design of the competition will actually be built.

The PKO Rotunda is the iconic focal point of Zbigniew Karpiński’s 1962-69 urban complex in central Warsaw. Located at the junction of two major streets, the Rotunda is a well-known city landmark and favorite local meeting place. The building is a historically significant part of the city’s 20th-century urban fabric. The redesign of the highly symbolic structure is an unrivaled opportunity to bring a contemporary update to a major modern landmark.

The concept for the Changing the Face competitions was first proposed in 2008 within a workshop dedicated to the Colosseum in Rome, and later developed in iconic buildings in the cities of Bucharest, Prague, Zagreb, Athens and Moscow. In every city, architects were asked to work on a challenging public building selected by DuPont in collaboration with local institutions.