Apartaments | Warsaw Brewery

The location along the main street and at the central square of the planned Warsaw Browaries complex, which has the ambition to become the new centre of Warsaw's dynamically developing Wola district, sets the bar high both in terms of spatial solutions and the standard of the designed building. The planned function - which is a response to market demand - of compact flats for rent allows for the application of solutions other than in conventional residential development. When developing our concept, we considered the issues of scale and privacy in a building inhabited by hundreds of people. In an attempt to avoid the character of an anthropomorphic, flat machine, we broke up the body of the building into smaller, independent parts. Each has proportions similar to a traditional tenement house - a scale that allows the residents to feel a sense of identification with where they live. Halls designed around sculpturally treated open flights of stairs will be surrounded by a garland of flats to avoid the long, dark corridors associated with a low-end hotel.

The form and shape of the development is a response to the requirements of the local plan and the specific function asked for by the Investor. The large quarter is divided into smaller parts, resulting from the internal structure. The outer frontages repeat the layout of streets and squares, emphasising the gentle curve of Krochmalna Street and the shape of the Brewery Market. The varying heights and the division of the frontages into shorter fragments allude to the typical development of this part of Wola. In the place designated by the local plan, one part of the building, extended to 18 storeys, forms a local height dominant. The outline of the garden part is free, referring to the character of the courtyards and outbuildings of the neighbouring tenement houses. The shape of the development on the courtyard side, apart from the requirement to provide all the flats with the required sunlight, divides the garden into smaller, intimate courtyards belonging to successive sections of the building.

The designed buildings are located in an extremely important place of the Warsaw Breweries. The facade forms both the wall and the dominant feature of the Brewery Square, on the other hand, the corner from Wronia Street flanks the entrance to the Brewery premises. To emphasise the uniqueness of the investment, its uniform, coherent character is important. The colors, materials and proportions of the window openings continue the style of the Breweries.The detail of the wall cladding, glyphs and window frames gives it a metropolitan character. The depth and drawing of the facades depends on the location in relation to the world sides and the exposure to urban and private space. Street-side facades have a smaller shelf overhang and a strict division. Brick screens, almost parallel to the facade, tilt out to reduce the glyph and let in the maximum amount of sunlight. Alternating angled panels differentiate the individual buildings, giving them a variable character depending on the direction of view. This treatment will optically shorten the lengths of the facades on the square and street sides. The garden elevations are deeper, providing shade to the larger windows on that side. Here, the brick screens act as screens to direct the gaze and ensure privacy.