Health Tech Synergy Hub
a place to connect
Inspired by the characteristic profile and order of Wrocław’s brick architecture, the HTSH is set within the campus of the Wrocław University of Science and Technology as an innovative research centre designed to expand its activities and strengthen its identity. Flexible, rigorous, and immediately recognisable, the project offers a serene and frugal architecture to host state-of-the-art laboratories and educational spaces of the highest standard in Poland.
The HTSH is conceived as the final piece crowning the university campus — a building capable of extending academic activity and projecting an emblematic image for medical research in Wrocław. Its architecture, rational in its urban placement and logical in its structure, seeks elegance through proportion and clarity. The result is an expressive form that represents with dignity the institutional identity of the Wrocław University of Science and Technology: a centre supporting medical research at the forefront of Europe’s leading university campuses, through an iconic and distinctive image that is immediately recognisable.
The building’s geometry responds both to the urban scale and to the desire for integration. Its façade, rigorous and rhythmically modulated, subtly folds to emphasise the corner between Smoluchowskiego and Wybrzeże Wyspiańskiego streets, marking a gesture of openness towards the city. A prow-like form emerges, bringing coherence to the campus as a whole while redefining its edge with a calm and recognisable presence.
At the heart of the building lies a large central atrium — a bright and warm space that visually connects all levels and encourages encounters between researchers, students, and visitors. Its materiality, inspired by the tones of local brick, establishes a natural dialogue with Wrocław’s architectural context and creates a welcoming atmosphere that invites collaboration. Understanding medical technology as a collective pursuit, and given that the HTSH promotes constant interaction between scientists as a vital means for the exchange of ideas and the advancement of knowledge, the new building enhances the collective and international spirit of the centre’s activity.
Designed to accommodate cutting-edge laboratories, the project organises a complex programme within a flexible and open structure that allows for multiple spatial configurations — from large work areas and laboratories to offices or teaching spaces — ensuring adaptability over time.
Frugality and durability are the cornerstones of a design whose façade, composed of a structural grid with varying depths depending on orientation, acts as a climatic filter and defines the building’s technological expression. This passive strategy, combined with restrained construction solutions and low-maintenance materials, ensures a long-lasting, efficient, and honest architecture.
The Health Tech Synergy Hub thus becomes a new active node within the campus — a place where science, technology, and architecture converge to foster knowledge and innovation.
- Area
- 16.000 m2
- Budget
- 65M €
- Address
- Smoluchowskiego 56-48, 50-370 Wrocław, Poland
- Partners
- Lead Design Architects: interplay architects
Design Team: Alicja Kubicka, Borja Martínez, Wojciech Kozłowski.
Competition-stage collaboration: Vaillo+Irigaray
Structure: AKON-projektowanie konstrukcyjne S.C. (Olgierd Rutnicki, Marta Jaracz-Plucińska)
Mechanical and Plumbing: Błażej Zieliński, Paweł Lisiecki
Electrical and Telecommunications: Wiesław Kapłon, Marcin Gatniejewski, Dominik Matz
Laboratory Design Consultant: EDAN (Piotr Złotnicki, Marzena Złotnicka)
Quantity Surveyor: Biuro Kosztorysowe NORMAN Spółka z o.o
Roads: Andrzej Tajcher
Landscape: Aleksandra Hałas - Status
- in progress
- Photography
- BAIrender
A new node for the campus
This proposal introduces a building that expands the university’s activities and strengthens HTSH’s identity as a hub for medical research. With a distinct and recognisable presence, it offers rational, restrained architecture with structural clarity. A piece that represents Politechnika Wrocławska with dignity—and activates its immediate context.
urban articulation
The project completes and crowns the block, marking the junction of Smoluchowskiego and Wybrzeże Wyspiańskiego with an open gesture. The façade, measured and precise, folds gently to define the corner and create an iconic silhouette. Its topographic nature allows the wider complex to be reinterpreted through a new urban and functional logic.
atrium: a vital core
At the heart of the building, a bright, top-lit atrium links all levels and programmes. Its expression is warm, simple, and materially rooted in Wrocław’s brick-built heritage. This central space becomes a place for exchange, reinforcing the HTSH’s collaborative spirit.
structure and freedom
A perimeter structure of screens and solid slabs enables a fully open interior, free of intermediate supports. This guarantees adaptability over time. The façade, modulated by solar orientation, becomes both climate filter and architectural expression.
programme as strategy
Rather than merely fulfilling technical requirements, the programme becomes an opportunity to define a clear, flexible, and legible layout. Its hierarchy encourages dialogue across departments and uses. Every space is conceived as a point of connection.
enduring, precise architecture
The building employs simple construction systems and durable materials requiring minimal maintenance. Energy efficiency is driven by design—from form, orientation, and passive strategies—rather than by technological dependency. Structure becomes image. And image, structure.
