DuPont announces a call for applications for the "Changing the Face 2013” competition

DuPont, one of the leading market-driven science companies, announces a call for applications for the 7^th edition of “Changing the Face" architectural international competition. The competition calls for innovative architectural designers and architects from all over the world, including Gulf Cooperation Council [GCC] 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 competition is in cooperation with PKO Bank Polski, the Union of Polish Architects, SARP, the Polish Green Building Council, and Architizer.com. The PKO Rotunda is the iconic focal point of Zbigniew Karpiński’s 1962-69 urban complex in central Warsaw. 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. 

Beyond maintaining the historic qualities of Rotunda building, the revitalization is planned to be certified with two out three systems - LEED, BREAM or DGNB. An additional condition set by the organizers is the use of at least three DuPont materials, from DuPont Corian advanced surface for exterior cladding to DuPont SentryGlas and DuPont SentryGlas Expressions high performance interlayers for structural and decorative laminated glass, from DuPont Tyvek advanced membranes for the building envelope to DuPont Teflon architectural fabrics and surface protections for decorative coatings and DuPont Plantex root barrier and plant protection solutions. 

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.