The quarter between Towarowa, Pańska, Miedziana and Srebrna Streets is one of the largest still undeveloped spaces in downtown Warsaw. In recent years, a consortium of investors AFI, Echo and Archicom, for which the JEMS Architekci studio designed the vision of the Towarowa 22 complex, has taken to building in this part of the city. One of the first buildings to be made available to users will be an unusual office building, named Office House by the designers.
We happily said goodbye to the coronavirus pandemic a few years ago. For a while, one of the most conspicuous remnants of that difficult period was the availability of remote work - there was a mass exodus from offices as a result of the restrictions countries put in place, and working from home remained the norm long after the pandemic restrictions were lifted. Today, at the end of 2024, we are seeing a reversal of this trend. Employers are encouraging employees to return to their offices in a variety of ways. One of them is to provide an attractive work space that offers amenities that can be found in vain in private residences. One example of this forward-thinking approach to job creation is the "Office House" office building designed by JEMS Architekci.
Office House in the Towarowa 22 complex in Warsaw.
proj.: JEMS Architekci
starting with words
According to the architects, when designing the building they first decided to lean into how workspaces are referred to in colloquial speech in order to frame their concept on a semantic level already.
The name "office building" is associated with oppressive spaces, repetitive cubicles, cold light and a document factory. Today, however, the workplace is something more - a space that fosters creativity and an individual approach to work
- explains the architect responsible for the project, Maciej Rydz, a partner at JEMS studio.
The references to the reality of the word are not coincidental here - for Office House is to stand within the quarter formerly occupied by the buildings of Dom Słowa Polskiego - the largest printing plant operating during the communist era.
Office House in the Towarowa 22 complex in Warsaw
designed by JEMS Architekci
office house in Wola
Office House will be part of a mixed-use complex located within the quarter between Towarowa, Miedziana, Srebrna and Panska streets. The nine-story building will be built on an "H" plan in the northern part of the premise, on Pańska Street. A characteristic element of the structure will be the glazing, which is arranged at a certain angle to the outline of the foundations. In addition to aesthetic considerations, such a formation of the facade is intended to counteract the intense gusts of wind and drafts, characteristic of areas densely built with high-rise buildings. On individual, most sunny elevations there will be pots filled with greenery watered using rainwater stored by the building's systems. In some corners, openwork cylindrical structures have been designed, repeating the circular motif that is reflected in many parts of the building, including its interiors.
Office House in the Towarowa 22 complex in Warsaw
design: JEMS Architekci
The first two floors of the new office building in Wola will feature common spaces - including a two-story lobby 7.5 meters high, as well as an interior courtyard and two conservatories. The upper floors will be accessible by elevators and specially designed spiral staircases, whose form is reminiscent of the architecture of the Polish Word House. Public areas are to include cafes, restaurants and coworking spaces.
Office House in the Towarowa 22 complex in Warsaw
design: JEMS Architekci
Office House, in addition to providing convenient work spaces, will also be a building with exemplary environmental characteristics. The building is being constructed in accordance with the requirements of the BREEAM environmental certification, and will also meet the guidelines of the WELL certificate, as well as the WiredScore and SmartScore certifications analyzing technological solutions. All of the building's energy needs will be met through renewable energy sources.
Office House in the Towarowa 22 complex in Warsaw
design: JEMS Architekci
Office House is designed with a three-layer glass façade, equipped with a silver coating - this will maintain an optimal temperature inside at any time of the year, reducing energy consumption for cooling or heating. An interesting solution is to base the air purification technology on processes naturally occurring in nature. The building will also carry out heat recovery, such as from refrigeration equipment, while electricity will come from renewable sources.
- reads an excerpt from the justification for the PLGBC Green Building Awards 2024 for the best green project.
Office House in the Towarowa 22 complex in Warsaw
proj.: JEMS Architekci
Concrete pergola in Wola
A two-story pergola made of white architectural concrete adjoins the building on the east side. The ceiling of the first story is supported by columns with wide heads, resembling in their form elements from the Polish Word House pavilion standing nearby. In the corner of the building there will be a spiral staircase, girded by an openwork structure, whose finial refers to the conical skylights that brighten the aforementioned pavilion. The roofing of the building's second story is crisscrossed with large circular openings - these are to be overgrown with greenery in the future. The first floor of the building will house a café. The area around the buildings will also be properly developed. According to the investor's assurances, some 60 new trees will appear here, including 9-meter-tall specimens, and the paths running between the buildings will be made of brick rubble left after the demolition of the printing plant buildings.
Construction of the Polish Word House in Warsaw, 1950. - A pavilion with conical skylights is visible in the background
© public domain | via Wikimedia Commons
complex-position
The buildings of the House of the Polish Word were built according to a design selected in an architectural competition in 1947 and created by Kazimierz Marczewski, Stefan Putowski and Zygmunt Skibniewski. Construction was completed in 1950, and the entire complex consisted of several production halls and administrative pavilions. For many years, the Polish Word House was not only the largest printing house in the country, but also in this part of Europe - "Płomyczek", "Młody Technika", "Wielka Encyklopedia Powszechna PWN", and after 89 also Gazeta Wyborcza or Polityka were printed here. In 2018, demolition began on the buildings of the complex, which had not been used by the original owner since 2010, when the printing works Dom Słowa Polskiego declared bankruptcy. In the meantime, Dom Słowa Polskiego operated as the Jupiter department store.
The entrance to Dom Słowa Polskiego in Warsaw
Photo: Adrian Grycuk © CC BY-SA 3.0pl | Wikimedia Commons
Demolition reached most of the buildings, including the "Lipsk" system office building and production halls, only the pavilion listed in 2012 in the Municipal Register of Historic Places remained. The distinctive horizontal building is topped by four modernist skylights with conical forms. Its ceilings are supported by a series of columns with heads resembling the lotus flower, similar to those that support the roof eaves of the Metropolitan Railway Station in Lublin. It is the rearrangement of the modernist pavilion that is the hallmark of the project by JEMS Architects.
Office House building in Wola, Warsaw.
© vision: JEMS Architekci
Park of Words
At the back of the new office building, in the center of the quarter, Park of Words is to be created. It is a symbolic and spatial reminder of the former function of the site. The entrance to the publicly accessible park will lead through a historic modernist pavilion, topped by four conical "pseudo-domes," in the middle of which the architects have planned restaurants and cafes. Immediately behind it, in the place where the production halls were formerly located, the Polish Word Park will be built - a green space that will make use of post-industrial structural elements left over from the former production buildings of the printing house. The greenery growing out of the ground will thus climb between the steel skeleton of the production halls, filling a unique post-industrial gazebo.
Although the area of the Word Park itself does not promise to be overly large, as it is to be about 2 hectares, even such an area will be extremely important for the immediate neighborhood, where greenery is currently scarce. Looking at photos from the construction site, one can already see exposed fragments of the skeleton of the former building - it is between its elements that one of the most unusual green spaces in the capital will be created. According to plans, the park is expected to be made available to Warsaw residents as early as next year, and the construction of the entire complex, which will include, among other things, skyscrapers over a hundred meters high, will be completed in 2028.
