Offices | Warsaw Brewery

It is rare to see an entire house in the middle of a city. Walking down a narrow street, we usually get a close-up view of shop windows, entrances, portals, advertisements, sometimes ornaments and sculptures that are at eye level with the passer-by, more or less up to the cornice above the ground floor. It is only when we are in a larger space - on a square, at the end of a viewing axis or in another open space - that we begin to notice the rest of the building - the attics, roof shapes and finials. These are the most important, as they determine its character and silhouette. The rest of the mass, the usually repetitive facade between the ground floor and the finial, becomes less important - it is merely the 'filling in' between the most attractive elements. It's a bit like in the mountains: first we look at the flowers, grasses, stones and tree trunks at eye level, and immediately afterwards we look for the ridge and peaks that make up the drawing of the horizon.

The facades of the 'Office at the Brewhouse' have been similarly designed. The plinth and the ground floor have been sculpted and richly decorated (because they are viewed from close up), with a repetitive modular office façade above (one's gaze wanders over it) and a zigzagging chiaroscuro finial at the top, forming a multi-storey attic. Modular façade design principles in office buildings have resulted in the most optimal façade design formula being a large-scale, orderly 'grille' in which open, slightly concave window elements emphasise the building's tectonics. The horizontal strips of the façade are finished with glass cladding. The slight rotation of the vertical attic elements adds depth, additional variation and chiaroscuro to the façade. The orientation of the designed office building results from the urban design concept, the provisions of the plan and the lighting conditions of the neighbouring residential development. The building complements the urban dominant, being the Brewery Gate. The entrances to the building are emphasised by one- and two-storey arcades. At the level of the adapted cellars, the entrances to the commercial premises in the southern façade form the frontage of the Square in front of the Cellars of the Lodge. A 'semi-wild' garden located on the Basement opens onto views from each office floor.

The primary function of the building is offices, but on the ground floor, almost entirely, it has been possible to design service spaces with bars, restaurants and even a brewery (the site's genius loci) to maintain the tradition of brewing beer here. The building was constructed around the historic Leżakownia Cellars in the vicinity of the historic Brewhouse building. The commercial premises on the ground floor and basement level merge with the surface of these historic buildings to form a Food Hall at ground level and a kind of labyrinth connecting catering establishments with a very diverse offer. The proximity of the monuments became a pretext for seeking in the designed, contemporary building elements that correspond and lead a dialogue with the ornamentation and tectonics of the historic buildings. Hence, in the gateway passageways (in the locations of the urban passageways), lace-like, contemporary ceiling palettes reminiscent of the finial of the Cellars were designed.