Consolidate Housing Unit in Katowice – The SUPERUNIT: Comparative Research on the Technical and Functional Quality of the Building

The paper presents comparative research conducted in 2025 in the Superjednostka multi-family building in Katowice. This is the third stage of research conducted in this building by scientists from the Faculty of Architecture of the Silesian University of Technology. The Katowice high--density housing unit was built in the late 1960s, forming an entire housing estate under one roof. Due to its scale, spatial organisation, and characteristic form, and aesthetics, it has become a permanent feature of the city’s metropolitan landscape. It is an iconic building, described by scientists from various fields. Research conducted at the Faculty of Architecture aimed to assess its technical, functional, and organisational quality after half a century of the building operation. The research was based on the POE method, using the techniques and research tools applied in it. The paper presents the results of current analyses, comparing them with the results obtained in 2004 and 2011. Due to the personal data protection regulations introduced in 2019, it was impossible to access some sources of information and conduct surveys through direct standardised questionnaire interviews, as was the case in the previous study. The conclusions from comparative analyses indicate the possibilities and limitations of developing large multi-family buildings in metropolitan centres from the second half of the 20th century.