There is no doubt that Warsaw holds a dominant position on the office space market in Poland. Smaller office centers, such as Krakow, may compete with the capital only on one field – on the field of quality. Apart from comfort of life and its historical assets, Krakow may offer its international companies top quality office space which also meets high security standards. It becomes possible primarily owing to the investors who do not compromise when erecting modern buildings.
VINCI Office Center, given in use this year, is one of such buildings, with 20,000m2 of office space available on 12 storeys. While VINCI might be the strongest landmark in the area, it looks well against the background of neighbouring residential settlements. Owing to architectural solutions, at a glance it seems much smaller than it actually is. The space of each office floor is 1640m2 to be arranged according to tenants’ needs. The smallest available segment is 350m2. 124 parking units have been prepared in a 2-level underground parking with a separate lift to the office floors. But the distinguishing features of VINCI Office Building remain invisible even after the second glance. Intelligent systems hidden in the cubic of the building ensure security of its users 24/7. The entire usable space of the office building is monitored as well as the parking, which has an additional emergency alarm system and exhaust fumes concentration sensors. In the process of designing the office building, particular attention was paid to aspects that, contrary to catastrophic films, are likely never to occur. Fire prevention systems – that’s the paradox we’re talking about – are of the top quality. Powerful turbines for evacuation route ventilation, which adjust automatically to the existing conditions and an advanced alarm system, guarantee safety and security of persons in the building even in case of a fire hazard. Apart from emergencies, daily comfort of building users has been ensured. The room ventilations system has an embedded air humidification function, which is particularly important to call center employees but also, as designers become more aware these days, appreciated by those who spend a big part of their life in the office atmosphere. In addition, designers have also responded to special requirements of international companies in terms of office space standards. Emergency power supply from a power generator may ensure even few days of uninterrupted work. Increased carrying capacity of some parts of the floor has been designed for the purpose of secret offices and archives in client’s offices, while appropriate air-conditioning has been installed in server rooms.  In many respects, VINCI is an intelligent building. Its ventilation system which self-adjusts to the weather conditions, extended light-managing electronics or the building access control mechanism give both employees and visitors the feeling of comfort. The walls of the main entrance hall have been covered with handwriting of the building’s patron. It is clear that designers and builders of the office building in Opolska, who have put a man first in the center of the interest of their intelligent building, were guided by the ideas of the Renaissance.