Walking through the Polish city of Katowice, it quickly becomes apparent which of the city’s streets have been shaped by the coal-mining history of Silesia. They are lined with buildings with dark and stained brick façades, which bear witness to their past. Indeed, on an otherwise mainly empty plot of land, which was the intended site of the new Institute of Radio and Television at the University of Silesia, there was an abandoned residential building, in the style typical of accommodation for coal mine workers. Rather than demolish the building, the three architectural agencies – BAAS Arquitectura, Grupa 5 architekci, and Małeccy biuro projektowe – incorporated it into their design. Because, as they say, their aim was not ‘to create an iconic building but, rather, to complete a certain district of the city’. With this in mind, despite building something new, they have succeeded in preserving the unique atmosphere of the surrounding area and even bringing it to the fore.