GA Drilling Headquarters’ Building was Honoured by a Prestigious Architecture Award

The ARCH Prize is being awarded by a Slovak journal “ARCH“, on architecture and other culture from 1998. For the 22nd time a jury of top European architects judged ten domestic works of art, chosen by the ARCH Journal’s editorial council. The criteria of nomination were the exceptionality of the work, as well as the work has been published in the journal in the previous year. The GA Drilling’s production hall with offices won the main ARCH prize for 2019.

Authors of the building are Roman Žitňanský, Lukáš Kordík a Štefan Polakovič. Elements of the interior and navigation design have been created in cooperation with Ľubica Segečová (graphic design) and Juraj Výboh (design).

“From the beginning we were attracted by a human aspect of this company – by what GA Drilling is about, the people who work here, their research in unexplored spheres, and the way they communicate in an informal manner.. Thanks to the environment – a stone quarry near the national park, where the company building is set-in, the area has a potential to become a very pleasant industrial park. It is not usual to be confronted with an assignment to design administrative building with a production hall, strongly affecting material-construction concept. We worked with modular prefabricated materials, using mostly dry solutions, having flexibility as an important criterion, since the company is developing very dynamically. All these aspects had a very positive impact on our work. “– one of the authors Roman Žitňanský described their work on this project.

The jury were impressed by the materials used, the interior arrangement, but also by the flow of energy emanating from the people in the building. “I was mostly impressed by the system of employees’ work, the way they moved around the building using spaces for individual work, as well as for joint discussions in separate semi-detached areas within the corridors. I had a good feeling from the development part – a feeling of positive energy from the employees, eager to create and to develop. “– architect Tomáš Bujna evaluated.
Spanish architect Esther Rovira Raurell appraised the added value of the design “in a way how it enables flexibility. The design, together with its extra large balcony, tries to be open to nature and to the natural reserve . “ Maja Ivanič from Slovenia positively evaluated the building, as well as its sponsor: “Investors think of their people. It is a great gesture from the company owners and a great message for society. “

The winning hall was built in the GA Drilling Technology Centre area as the last one, therefore, it had to be logically interconnected with other company premises and to fit into the surrounding environment on the border of the National Natural Reserve Devinska Kobyla. The assignment was not easy for the architects. How an idea for such a company building originated, one of GA Drilling founders Dušan Kočiš described: “We knew that we needed to build production premises and at the same time we wanted to combine them with offices. We have a lot of employees in both areas, thus we put emphasis on flexible exchange of information. We had two architectural concepts to choose from and our budget was limited. Moreover, many different requirements had to be met in the concept – legislation, fire safety, acoustics, and besides plenty of meeting rooms we also wanted to create some informal spaces for people to meet. “

In the GA Drilling building, besides the standard working facilities, you can also find a big coffee corner, a library with a sofa and armchairs, table tennis and calcetto corners. Entrance area is lit up by a unique creation by designer Juraj Výboh, constructed from the real, historic PLASMABIT technology prototypes combined with Edison-like bulbs. The adjacent outdoor area offers activities for free time, above usual standards – a pétanque field, and a fire place with seating and herbal beds, set up and built by the employees themselves.