poland

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1 Contemporary Polish construction is of very high quality. Not just buildings designed by excellent Polish architects, but also international developments have put Poland on the world architecture map. One of the most publicized projects has been the Szczecin Philharmonic, for which Spanish studio Barozzi Veiga won the Mies van der Rohe Award. 2 The home of Polish architect Robert Konieczny of KWK Promes is based on the bold contrast between an idyllic meadow and a clearly articulated concrete structure with a saddle-shaped roof and polygonal base. 3 The dark times of Stalinism are recalled in the monumental Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw, which was the tallest building in the city when its doors opened in 1955. Based on the designs of Soviet architect Lev Rudnev, the palace now houses several museums and a convention hall. 4 Visitors to the northern port of Gdynia can admire the rich modernist legacy of the interwar era. Among the exceptional residential and public buildings is the Municipal Market Hall, designed by architects Jerzy Muller and Stefan Reychman in 1935–1938. 5 The nearly 200-meter Zlota 44 tower has soared over Warsaw since 2016. The project marked a symbolic return for Polish-American architect Daniel Libeskind, the star of this issue of Dolce Vita.

The starting point was not exactly “rosy.”

Located at an industrial park, the site marked out for the company’s new offices was surrounded by a production facility, parking lot, truck yard, and an old office building. Well, you can’t choose your neighbors. The architects at the PolishSpanish studio used a small birch grove as a springboard, maintaining it and using it as the physical entryway to the new single-story building, whose thick brick walls create a barrier against the outside. The tall vertical blinds are a bold element.

Designer Maria JeglinskaAdamczewska lives and works in Warsaw. Designing under her own furniture and product design brand for twelve years now, she also works as a curator. We were fascinated by her continuously expanding Series 3 collection for the young Polish furniture brand Plato, in which she explores the concept of universal furniture. From conventional bedroom closets and chests to a bookcase that completes the living room – all this can be replaced by this variable aluminum profile and corrugated glass collection.

The TRN Collection of pendant lamps, mirrors, and tables by Pani Jurek, a brand founded by artist and designer Magda Jurek, is characterized by calligraphic forms, bold colors, fine materials, and craft techniques. She created it as a tribute to Polish artist Jan Tarasin. His work formed the premise for the series, which is growing to include new custom pieces designed for specific interiors.

Noke Architects

Va Bene Cicchetti Bar, Warsaw

The sprawling Marszałkowska housing development is now home to an enchanting bar whose interior and very concept may make you think for a moment that you might be in Venice. A cicchetti bar is the Italian version of Spanish tapas bars, where drinks are accompanied by a small plates of savory nibbles. The arched entryway is lined with antique “Venetian” mirrors; the enormous red travertine bar has an integrated drink cooler hollowed out from a large piece of stone. Most of the interior is executed in shades of red and gold in a nod to the flag of Venice; the floor and everything up to about 20 cm in height is finished in sea green, alluding to the flooding in the Veneto region known as acqua alta.

Medusa Group

.KTW High-Rise Complex, Katowice

This skyscraper and office complex have become the new prominent landmark of Katowice’s cultural zone. Its composition and architectural gesture are a reflection of the industrial city’s gradual and successful transformation into a bustling metropolis. Before .KTW was built, this was the location of Polish Railways’ former district headquarters, a 90-metre office building designed by Polish architect Jerzy Gottfried in the 1960s. “We wanted to create architecture that would be sober in form, not an astonishing work of art. We gave the new towers features that aimed to immortalize the features of how we perceive Silesia, the region we come from. The buildings are simple and easily adapted to their surroundings, yet they do not lack a certain energy and dynamism,” explain architects Łukasz Zagala and Przemo Łukasik.

Marcin Rusak

Tephra Credenza 197 Chest

For years Marcin Rusak has been working with botanic materials, using them to design and produce everyday objects. A few years ago, he cast flowers in black and light-colored resin and used the result to create tabletops. To produce the Tephra Credenza 197 chest, he used the Tephra technique, which involves mounting flowers to a flat form made of steel and jute and pouring a stream of liquified zinc over them. After solidifying, the flowers are left unpolished to appear as if they were covered in volcanic dust.

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PROJEKT PRAGA / MAMASTUDIO

Syrena Irena Restaurant, Warsaw

The concept behind this downtown restaurant is based on a combination of handmade pierogis and contemporary design. Two teams contributed to the project: graphic agency Mamastudio and architecture firm Projekt Praga, who chose the symbol of Warsaw – a mermaid – as the patroness of the new venue. In collaboration with illustrator Ola Sadownik, the graphic designers created eclectic branding. “We were influenced by the aesthetics of jazzy Warsaw of the 1960s, when this part of town was full of bars and clubs. Everywhere there were neon signs and colorful artsy types. With that, we decided that the mermaid logo should resemble a retro cut-out,” explain the designers, who were inspired by the Polish School of Posters. Their ingenuity has helped turn Syrena Irena into a witty goddess of the daytime, when tasty pierogis are served, and of the night, when vodka flows like water.

Grupa 5 Architekci

BaseCamp Student Dormitories,

A beautiful example of a conversion can be found in the very center of Wrocław, in a huge complex once occupied by a bakery and pastry factory. The development adapted two listed buildings – a former flour warehouse (facing the street) and bakery (in the courtyard). Several new wings complement the historic buildings, forming a building development serving the entire borough. The original buildings house student rooms and a broad range of multipurpose common spaces. The seven above-ground stories in the new wings are used as student and hotel rooms, while the two underground stories contain a parking garage.

Aleksandra Wasilkowska

Park and Market, Błonie

Aleksandra Wasilkowska has been exploring “shadow architecture,” informal street trading and bazaars, for years. Her latest project, a renovated open market, is located in Błonie. For centuries, the local community has been cultivating the tradition of fairs and sales of good quality food directly from the source. The main feature of the project is biodiversity, with green islands with pine trees, hornbeams, beeches, and alders designed around the roofing.

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Kwk Promes

Plato Gallery, Ostrava 10

The redevelopment of the city slaughterhouse, planned by Robert Konieczny and his architecture firm KWK Promes, took seven years. The team of architects preserved the valuable historical quality of the building, keeping its coarse masonry and other original elements. This was no easy feat considering the condition of the 1881 building. “It reminded me of a brick palace,” Konieczny recalls his first impression of the slaughterhouse. The character of the weathered bricks was preserved, while large holes in the walls were filled with contemporary material. Using moving architecture, the architects turned the open holes into shortcuts connecting the interior of the gallery to the city. Art can thus literally go outside and unfold around the building. Konieczny also came up with a unique approach to the exhibition rooms, which can be separate or interconnected through the use of six original rotating walls.

Apartment, Gdańsk

In the densely settled historic downtown of Gdańsk one can find a house containing this discreet, but very elegantly designed apartment. Numerous wooden fitted functional elements help make the best possible use of the 70 m2 available to the family residing here. Half of the apartment contains an open-plan living, cooking, and dining area, while the bedrooms and bathrooms are located in the other half. The designers used blocks of wood, stone, concrete, and a surface called microscreed to define the different spaces.

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Katarzyna Baumiller

Apartment, Warsaw

Warsaw’s architecture suffered greatly during World War II, so it’s always a pleasure for architects and designers to work on one of the few pre-war buildings that survived. This is the case for this apartment in a century-old building in downtown Warsaw that interior designer Katarzyna Baumiller renovated for a young family who recently moved back to Poland from New York. “I deliberately juxtaposed rich plaster moldings, classical parquet floors, and traditional wooden doors with reflective tiles and color lacquered steel and glass in order to complicate the bourgeois character of the building a bit,” she explains. And “complicate” she has, not least by customdesigning much of the furniture based on abstract geometric forms and dreamy colors like lavender, pink, and indigo.

Design

Julia Sulikowska

Urban Coolspot

This modular system is inspired by traditional Egyptian and Mediterranean evaporative cooling inventions, exploring the potential for using ceramics in urban environments to create a cool microclimate. A thirty- to fortycentimeter ceramic cylinder, which can be variously arranged and rearranged, captures runoff water, absorbs it through its porous surface, and sends it back into “circulation” on hot summer days. The wind then carries the cooled air over the parched urban landscape.

Buck Studio

interior

Design

Zuzanna Spaltabaka

Capsule Collection

In her graduation project, Spaltabaka attempted to reinterpret traditional craft techniques whose complexity has often become more important than the products themselves. The created objects were made in collaboration with fourteen artisans: carpenters, locksmiths, a ceramicist, a weaver, a spinner, and a glassmaker. Each is a story of how it was made –carefully considered joints and hand-made mechanisms are not hidden from view. The exacting process of creating the objects is reflected in the way the products are used, based on haptics and attentiveness.

One of the main motifs of the interior of the Belmonte Hotel is the circle, which is reflected in the design of the mirrors, tables, and other decorative elements and details. Semi-circular granite tiles on the floor accentuate the reception area, while spherical chandeliers made in a local glass factory and the mosaic wall composition in the corridors refer to decorative designs popular in the 1960s and 1970s. The interior is further enhanced by a color palette inspired by the mountain landscape.