Competition – Presidium Building of the Slovak Academy of Sciences

Our proposal deliberately steps away from the image of a contemporary office as a glass object. Instead, we explored what a low-tech, long-lasting institutional building can be today, one that relies more on its architectural form than on layers of technology to ensure comfort over time.

The building is conceived as a compact vertical structure with a minimal footprint, opening its ground floor to the campus and returning what it occupies through a green rooftop landscape.

It is organized in three layers: a semi-open plinth connected to public life ~ flexible office floors arranged around a central core ~ and a roof landscape that replaces the built ground with greenery.

Materiality, mass, orientation and depth play a key role in regulating the indoor climate. By reducing unnecessary glazing, working with thermal accumulation and shading, accepting seasonal change as a design parameter, we avoided the logic of an airtight office building dependent on permanent mechanical heating and cooling.

Placed at the intersection of the campus’s main axes, the building shapes the Climate Cluster and acts as a clear point of orientation. Openness and permeability extend into the interior layout, reflecting an institution that does not isolate itself, but invites collaboration.

Thank you to the jury for the recognition and to everyone involved. Here, we explore whether restraint, durability and architectural intelligence can be as expressive for scientific institutions as technological intensity.

Copyright: Delta Pods Architects / DELTA Group SK