OFFICE AND SERVICE BUILDING

MŁYN MARIA

The char­ac­ter­is­tic post-war ap­pear­ance of the Mills, with the link­ing sec­tion just above the wa­ter and the logo, has cre­ated a spa­tial mem­ory of the place which we de­cided to pre­serve. We added a cosy green square in the form of an em­bank­ment hid­ing the garage and serv­ing as an open pub­lic space. The ex­ist­ing win­dow open­ings have been en­larged, mak­ing the orig­i­nal out­line vis­i­ble while vary­ing the de­gree of trans­parency of the new glaz­ing. The dif­fer­ence be­tween the new and the his­toric is still clear. The build­ing takes on a dif­fer­ent form de­pend­ing on the amount of light and tem­per­a­ture, which may seem more dy­namic be­cause of the mo­bile façades.

 

WITOLDA 3840

Witolda 3840 is an ex­am­ple of how to re­claim a place for the city and en­ter into a di­a­logue with its pre-war, post-Ger­man fab­ric. Be­cause of the in­creas­ingly vi­brant ur­ban life along the Oder, we de­cided to cre­ate a met­ro­pol­i­tan boule­vard in keep­ing with the ex­ist­ing de­vel­op­ment in the area, thus re­vi­tal­is­ing and ac­ti­vat­ing the wa­ter­front. The new pavil­ion with flats and restau­rants in­creases the func­tional at­trac­tive­ness of the area while for­mally re­duc­ing the height of the sec­ond line of de­vel­op­ment, mak­ing the front more ac­ces­si­ble from the side of the river. The styl­is­tic sim­plic­ity of the build­ing re­flects our in­ten­tion to be un­ob­tru­sively pre­sent in this his­toric site.

 

GRAU’S GARDENS

 

The re­vi­tal­i­sa­tion of the neo-Gothic build­ing was an­other at­tempt to re­store the old fab­ric of the city. The dom­i­nant char­ac­ter of the his­toric palace is em­pha­sised by the aus­tere style of the new res­i­den­tial part and the lim­ited, mod­er­ate land­scap­ing. Old trees in the re­ha­bil­i­tated park have been given pri­or­ity and thor­oughly cared for, while the muted colours high­light the his­tor­i­cal con­text. The build­ings si­mul­ta­ne­ously con­sti­tute a frame for the park com­plex and pro­vide a set­ting for Gdańska Street, thus strik­ing a bal­ance be­tween the open char­ac­ter of the plot and the scale of the sur­round­ing quar­ter de­vel­op­ment.

ALEJA DĘBOWA 17

Em­bed­ded in the chaotic fab­ric of this part of the city, the build­ing was pri­mar­ily in­tended to clearly sep­a­rate the most im­por­tant com­po­nents of the newly con­structed ser­vice com­plex. The sim­ple form, clas­si­cal di­vi­sions and muted colours bind the whole to­gether, while the lim­ited means of ex­pres­sion, rep­e­ti­tion and mod­u­lar­ity con­vey in­for­ma­tion about the func­tional pro­gramme. All this has been done so as not to di­vert at­ten­tion away from the new spa­tial re­la­tion­ships and al­low lo­cal res­i­dents to be­come fa­mil­iar with them. Time will tell whether a bustling piece of the city can be cre­ated in the vast­ness of this mono-func­tional res­i­den­tial dis­trict.

 

NA OSTATNIM GROSZU 3

 

Em­bed­ded in the chaotic fab­ric of this part of the city, the build­ing was pri­mar­ily in­tended to clearly sep­a­rate the most im­por­tant com­po­nents of the newly con­structed ser­vice com­plex. The sim­ple form, clas­si­cal di­vi­sions and muted colours bind the whole to­gether, while the lim­ited means of ex­pres­sion, rep­e­ti­tion and mod­u­lar­ity con­vey in­for­ma­tion about the func­tional pro­gramme. All this has been done so as not to di­vert at­ten­tion away from the new spa­tial re­la­tion­ships and al­low lo­cal res­i­dents to be­come fa­mil­iar with them. Time will tell whether a bustling piece of the city can be cre­ated in the vast­ness of this mono-func­tional res­i­den­tial dis­trict.

 

NOWY TARG

Nowy Targ is a new ex­pe­ri­ence of a build­ing on the scale of an ur­ban quar­ter. In it, we looked for met­ro­pol­i­tan ar­chi­tec­ture with good pro­por­tions and sus­tain­able ma­te­ri­als. In an at­tempt to de­part from in­tro­verted struc­tures, we planned a bustling ground floor with ser­vice out­lets ac­ces­si­ble di­rectly from the street. Rhyth­mic façades with dis­tinc­tive court­yard cuts added dy­namism to the body of the build­ing and broke up the mon­u­men­tal scale. Façade el­e­ments were dif­fer­en­ti­ated ac­cord­ing to their com­po­si­tional role and grained. We be­lieve that it is pos­si­ble to build of­fices that con­tribute to the re­nais­sance of the street and coun­ter­act the func­tional mono­cul­ture in city cen­tres.

VOTIVE CHAPEL

The chapel was cre­ated as a vo­tive of­fer­ing for the con­struc­tion of the mo­tor­way by­pass. We tried to trans­pose the tra­di­tional model of the sa­cred into con­tem­po­rary forms and mean­ings, keep­ing the in­ter­est­ing in­ter­ac­tion with the mo­tor­way. We out­lined ar­bi­trary space lim­its us­ing the EPCH 420 en­ergy-ab­sorb­ing bar­ri­ers that form five off­set rings around the sa­cred cen­tre. Most of the el­e­ments used in the con­struc­tion had been re­cy­cled. The site is com­pletely open and ac­ces­si­ble. Per­haps the road­side chapel with an in­trigu­ing geom­e­try, seem­ingly aban­doned amongst flow­ery mead­ows, will prompt some­body to med­i­tate on the tran­sience of life?

GREEN 2DAY

“Ed­i­fice” was the key word, and the prox­im­ity of Ostrów paved the way for for­mal ex­per­i­ments. Feel­ings of per­ma­nence, qual­ity and time­less­ness were im­por­tant. Hence the trans­po­si­tion of the mo­tif of wall with open­ings and ref­er­ence to the res­i­den­tial tex­ture of the frontage. In place of the one-di­men­sional façade, the start­ing mo­tif be­came the win­dow with its at­trib­utes: re­veals, glyphs and chiaroscuro, geometrised and mul­ti­plied to achieve the in­tended ef­fects.

It is sat­is­fy­ing to see that a ba­nal set of of­fices gave rise to a piece of the city with a com­pletely new mor­phol­ogy, which can now be filled with dense life.

GREEN DAY

“Ed­i­fice” was the key word, and the prox­im­ity of Ostrów paved the way for for­mal ex­per­i­ments. Feel­ings of per­ma­nence, qual­ity and time­less­ness were im­por­tant. Hence the trans­po­si­tion of the mo­tif of wall with open­ings and ref­er­ence to the res­i­den­tial tex­ture of the frontage. In place of the one-di­men­sional façade, the start­ing mo­tif be­came the win­dow with its at­trib­utes: re­veals, glyphs and chiaroscuro, geometrised and mul­ti­plied to achieve the in­tended ef­fects.

It is sat­is­fy­ing to see that a ba­nal set of of­fices gave rise to a piece of the city with a com­pletely new mor­phol­ogy, which can now be filled with dense life.