08.08.2023

Budimex has completed the expansion of the Polish Theatre in Szczecin

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On Sunday, 6 August, the ceremonial opening of the modernised and expanded Polish Theatre in Szczecin took place. This building, unique on a European scale, currently has 5 modern stages, which can accommodate a total of nearly 1,000 spectators. As part of the project, Budimex not only modernised the over 100-year-old part of the facility, but also built a completely new building – located 2 metres below sea level – a modern reinforced concrete and glass structure integrated into the Oder escarpment. The contract value amounted to PLN 170 million net, and the works lasted 3 years.   

The construction of the Polish Theatre in Szczecin was a real engineering challenge. In order to create a multi-storey underground part, it was necessary to lower the groundwater table. For this purpose, more than 60 thousand cubic meters of soil were removed and about 150 thousand cubic meters of water were pumped. That’s not all. Over 5000 cubic meters of concrete and over 2000 tons of reinforcing steel were used to make the diaphragm wall, which is a vertical protection of the excavation lying on the slope of the building. As a result of the work, a structure with an area of over 4500 square meters was created, the highest of which is over 22 meters. However, the numbers alone do not tell the whole story.

“The implementation of this project was a big challenge, not only for purely structural reasons. The pandemic, galloping prices of materials and the outflow of workers from Ukraine are just some of the obstacles we have had to face. In the end, we completed the construction only five months later than planned. It is also a great satisfaction that thanks to the new facility, Szczecin will become a city teeming with cultural life – says Artur Popko, President of the Management Board of Budimex S.A.,

The Polish Theatre in Szczecin was built almost 100 years ago and is a real pearl of modernist architecture. The revitalisation of the historic building while preserving all its characteristic elements was only part of the task faced by Budimex. Its second element was the connection of the old part with a new – modern reinforced concrete and glass structure integrated into the Oder escarpment. The new building, 17 m high, consists of 4 underground buildings and an observation deck, which is also the roof of the New Theatre Building. It is in the new part that the main stage with 569 seats, the stage of the Shakespeare theater (549 seats) and the experimental stage with almost 200 seats are located.

“While implementing this complex structure, we made one of the largest soffits of the building’s foundations in jet-grouting technology. Thanks to this, we can boast of the first such high reinforced concrete pressure wall in Poland, which secures the stability of the old theatre building, and at the same time is a structural element of the new building – says Jarosław Maślanka, director of the West Pomeranian region of Budimex S.A.

The author of the design of the Polish Theatre is Atelier Loegler Architekci sp. z o.o. from Krakow. The first performances on the new stages will take place in August this year.

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