Environmental Education Centre in the works in Gliwice

It will teach children about waste management and recycling

Gliwice will soon have a new ecological education centre, the authorities in the Polish city announced last week. It will be built on the premises of the new seat of the waste management company, in the vicinity of an existing landfill at Rybnicka street. The facility will therefore perform two functions: didactic and practical, related to the ongoing supervision over the storage and management of waste in the city.

An educational path explains the cycle of waste management

The waste management company of Gliwice – a Polish city in Upper Silesia with almost 180 thousand inhabitants – could have easily opted for a simpler and more practical building to take as its new seat. Instead, they chose a concept that is much more than that- it turns a place where no regular citizen would want to go into a site for active leisure.

The design of the new seat of the waste management company and its headquarters has been developed by local company STUDIO BB ARCHITEKCI. They envisaged a one-story irregular building with a green roof suitable for pedestrian traffic, which would easily blend in with the immediate surroundings.

The neighbouring hill which is currently used as a waste disposal site served as an inspiration for the studio. On the building’s roof, there is an educational path with information boards, a photovoltaic installation and a place for beehives. The pre-entrance zone is meant to fulfil educational functions for the youngest in the open air; there is also a place for resting and relaxation.

Two educational paths have been proposed from the pre-entrance zone: the first one to the roof of the building and the second one goes up to the reclaimed garbage quarters. There, visitors will be able to walk around the dump and discover the section before recycling at a distance.

The covered area of the site comprises 531,6 square metres. The entire construction of the new seat of the waste management company of Gliwice is meant to graphically convey the idea of recycling. Video: STUDIO BB ARCHITEKCI

The building will also have offices, social rooms, an exhibition and education room, and a conference and education venue. Inside one can also discover a place for a naturally growing tree that will emphasize the symbolic meaning of the project. Next to the conference and education room there will be a space for the demonstration of modern technologies of energy recovery and building heating.

The introduction of ecological education is part of the company’s strategy to develop positive relations with both the city's inhabitants and ecology, their representatives told 24 Gliwice.