The Mixed-Use High-Rise Building as a Contemporary Design Challenge: Hanza Tower in Szczecin, Poland

Designing mixed-use high-rise buildings with a predominantly residential use is an interesting challenge. The issues relating to high-rise buildings cover an entire spectrum of matters – ranging from landscape, location, the relation of the building to its surroundings and its impact on its surroundings, to design issues, such as: functional-spatial, technical, structural issues, and the aesthetic of the facility. High-rise buildings constitute an important semantic transmitter; they become symbols or even icons. This article analyses the impact of theoretical urban and architectural conditions on the implementation of high-rise buildings. Using the mixed-use (residential and commercial) Hanza Tower skyscraper in Szczecin (completed in 2023) as a basis, the location of the building within the city was analysed. Particular reference was made to the assumptions of the urban composition of the location of the building within the city, in terms of its dimensional, formal and cultural impact on the immediate vicinity, as well as on the city panorama. The planned composition of the skyscraper and the adjacent preserved, historic buildings (under conservation) was compared with the results obtained during the implementation process. The above relationship was characterised as an illustration of the process of continuous change in the image and function of the city as part of the ongoing process of civilisational and spatial development.