I am a recent graduate of the master’s programme of Architecture and urban design at Politecnico di Milano, having received my bachelor’s degree from Warsaw University of Technology. During my studies, I conducted internships in offices in Poland, Switzerland, and Italy and worked as an assistant in the Sustainable Building Research Group at Chalmers University of Technology. Additionally, I had also a chance to facilitate some of the architectural workshops and engage in organizing participatory processes.
+48 693 705 197
+39 327 366 1012 e-mail
dominika.komisarczyk@outlook.com
Table of contents
1. Living in and between villages
2. The meadow hill in via Palmanova
3. Rethinking student’s living space in Collegio di Milano
4. Women’s house
5. Camposaz 31:31 in Garniga
1. Living in and between villages
The thesis examines a strategic approach on revival possibilities of the settlements in the mountainous context. For this purpose, Comune di Malè, a municipality located in the Alpine context of northern Italy was considered.
Strategic approach on re-vival possibilities in various settlement typologies in the mountainous context | Comune di Malè, located in Val di Sole, Trentino, Italy | Politecnico di Milano | Master Thesis | 2024 supervisors: Alisia Tognon, Mauro Marinelli; co-supervisor: Ekin Olcay
agriculture river buildings of Arnago, Magras and Pondasio other buildings
fig. section A-A through Comune di Malè
Having over 2000 inhabitants Malè is the most populated municipality in Val di Soleone of the Trentino valleys with an extensive alpine scenery. In this context, for centuries the landscape was shaped by a collaboration between humans and nature.
Nowadays, the territory could be considered fragile - and it is experiencing an ongoing process of abandonment of historical centers and the agricultural activities.
Due to these mechanisms, municipality presented a willingness to create a development strategy that could ensure the livability of the territory and utilise its underused assets. The methodology for its preparation included both mapping and participatory processes.
fig. location within the Alps
fig. landscape in Trentino
fig. settlements in Val di Sole and neighbouring Val di Non fig. population and vacant houses water
In the last part of the thesis, three villages of Arnago, Magras, and Pondasio were considered in detail due to their agricultural heritage and ongoing process of population increase. Despite that, their historical centers remain abandoned and services disappeared.
section with the view over Arnago, Magras and Pondasio and proposal of public buildings locations
fig.
Based on the research and workshops with the inhabitants the final strategy for the hamlets was developed together with three architectural prototype projects. the abandoned dwellings were re-used to offer local inhabitants a sheltered public space, services and simultaneously attracts visitors.
Arnago, Magras and Pondasio
2. Casa di Comunità
Co-working
1. Public Maso
Re-opening
dining
entrance
storage
1. tools shed 2. storage 3. hidden garden
outdoor dining 5. path through the fields 6. dry-stone terraces
restored fields
Public Maso - ground floor
Public Maso - perpendicular section
Re-adaptation
fig. Casa di Comunità - section
fig. Casa di Comunità -
fig. Co-working - south elevation
fig. Co-working - view from the street
fig. Public Maso - hidden garden
fig. Public Maso - south elevation
2. The meadow hill in via Palmanova
The design proposal for the existing neighbourhood is focused on the minor alterations to the built issue and the major one to its landscape - currently concrete, abandoned courtyard.
Why is living in Milan so exhausting ? | via Palmanova, Milan, Italy Politecnico di Milano | Architectural Design Studio | 2022 in association with Agnieszka Kilian and Weronika Kozak professors: Caterina Anna Bassoli, Alessandro Carrera, Stefano Tropea
fig. physical model of the re-adaptation proposal
In the center, between the buildings, a new layer that breathes is added and it constitutes a new identity of the place - nature. A common space that grows, and changes, exactly as the inhabitants do.
Part of the proposal is creating typologies of living and sharing, which could invite new types of users into the estate. For this reason, the interior layout of buildings surrounding „the meadow” was changed to make the space diversified. Windows are overlooking not the abandoned, grey courtyard but the new public space where inhabitants and Milan’s residents could meet and play biglie by the chimney.
1. the centre of the plot is narrow, cold and unoccupied
3. the side overlooking the meadow is more open, the other is intimate
2. the central space is elevated and becomes a public meadow
4. proposed shared spaces are overlooking the meadow
gardens (with greenhouse, and bee hives)
elevation with the section through the meadow
fig. masterplan model
fig. concept diagrams fig. site location
fig. perspective section through the meadow This estate with the proposed adjustements could become a home for both humans and other species.
2nd floor 2nd floor
fig. infill - option with 4 flats
fig. infill - option with 2 flats
fig. retrofitted building by the meadow - second floor plan
fig. retrofitted building by the meadow - third floor plan
first level of the retrofitted apartment part of the elevation of the retrofitted building
second level of the retrofitted apartment model of the retrofitted apartment
3. Rethinking student’s living space in Collegio di Milano
The Collegio di Milano is a merit-based campus nestled in a park, located in a historical building designed by Marco Zanuso. This adaptation project aimed to extend the lifespan of the Collegio by improving its living conditions.
Retrofitting project for the Collegio di Milano | Collegio di Milano, Milan, Italy Politecnico di Milano | Construction and Sustainability Studio | 2021 in association with Ja Yoon Lee and Pamela Nicole Matamoros Cedillo professors: Leonardo Bellaldelli and Maria Teresa Blazquez de Pineda
In order to achieve that we decided to re-organise dormitory units by providing a semi-private, shared room with a kitchenette in-between two bedrooms. To improve the climatic conditions shared balconies were transformed into winter gardens. In order to re-equilibrate the amount of the rooms, new, duplex apartments have been suspended on the building as the parasites. This typology also contains in itself a shared room for its tenants.
Additionally, ecologically sustainable solutions have been introduced: such as a new water distribution and retention system, green roof, and insulation of the building with local cork. The surrounding park has been redeveloped with the addition of a pavilion for co-working and workshops.
fig. site location
fig. isometric view of the current state
fig. isometric view of adaptation project
fig. master plan
student’s rooms before
conversion of one room into a shared space
addition of a kitchenette and winter garden
re-equilibrate the amount of the rooms adding a two-level parasite with a common space level with a private bedrooms
shared living rooms with winter garden
parasites
pavillion
0 5 10 20m
fig. first floor plan with the intervention
CONSTRUCTION AND SUSTAINABILITY DESIGN STUDIO
Students: Dominika Adrianna Komisarczyk Ja Yoon Lee
Pamela Nicole Matamoros Cedillo
PARASITE 1
4. Women’s house
Women’s life runs in cycles - same as days, years or rainy and dry seasons. That idea was introduced to create an emotionally flexible house with various spaces that will resonate with the inner needs of the users.
Women’s House | Baghere Senegal Kaira Looro Competition | 2021 in association with Martyna Kędrzyńska, Marta Zapaśnik, Aleksandra Pendrasik
fig. site location
The circular form creates a democratic place where each room can be used for different purposes. Moreover, it becomes a distinct element in the village’s urban plan, emphasizing the importance of women in the community.
The permanent element of the Women’s House is an endless earth wall which defines flexible areas. It waves, changes, closes, and opens, leading the user around the building. Following its shape, we pass by the rooms for meetings, administration, or commercial activities, to finally enter the courtyard for conducting labs, seminars, and exhibitions.
The form of the building opens onto the village and intertwines with it through its mobile outer skin made of lightweight bamboo shutters.
VI. covering straw
V. roof substructure: bamboo bars
IV. outer skin: bamboo shutters
III. roof construction: bamboo frames
II. wall: baked clay bricks
II. floor: earth and broken tiles
thatched roof covered with straw
bamboo frame (main column+truss) bound with a raten rope
stairs to the central courtyard glass bottle openwork for ventilation
adobe brick wall finished with white earth plaster
recycled ooncrete continous footing
earthen flooring covered with recycled red tiles
cornice of bamboo structure panels: pressed wild bamboo interwoven around a steel ties
bamboo column
recycled concrete footing entrance stairs
bamboo roof substruture
6. Camposaz 31:31 in Garniga
Two elements of the project - a tower and a platform were designed and built in Garniga view point during one week long self-construction workshop.
Benedetti, J. Xu, J. Wang, J. Cousijn, P. De Vries, K. Li, M. Mahjoubi, P. Saie tutors: Andrea Simon, Massimiliano Piffer, Oliver Savorani, Elisa Zatta
The first element - the tower serves as an observatory, an element establishing a new dialogue with its surroundings: the Adige Valley. The vertical form is designed as an invitation to curiosity through which the discovery of the landscape takes place. The tower narrows with its height, which gives the object’s form additional verticality. The cladding patterns of a tower refer to the location by its resemblance to the agricultural patterns visible in the valley.
The second element of the project develops horizontally to offer a protected resting corner, where one can lie down in the shade of the trees’ foliage. The platform’s horizontality breaks through an inclined plane that raises the observer’s point of view.
