The project, along with a second interior, won the top prize in the Art in Architecture Festival 2023 competition in the Apartment/Home category.
The apartment refers to the work of Paweł Wróbel
Photo: Tomasz Zakrzewski / archifolio
A place with history
The apartment is located in the unique location of Katowice's Nikiszowiec district. The project was created by Barbara Grąbczewska, Marek Grąbczewski, Oskar Grąbczewski, Kamil Kajdas, Maria Grąbczewska, Natalia Hołoś and Sandra Chodura from the OVO Grąbczewscy Architekci studio. The arrangement is inspired by the work of Paweł Wróbel. The artist from the Janowska Group was a miner who worked at the Wieczorek (formerly Giesche) mine, next to which this beautiful estate was built in 1908-1919.
The walls of the apartment are covered with rhythmic decorations
Photo: Tomasz Zakrzewski / archifolio
Colorful bricks
In his work, Paweł Wróbel showed his fascination with the rhythms and colors of Silesian architecture, which served as a backdrop for the scenes of parades, games, festivals or everyday activities that filled his paintings. The artist is known for his richly detailed landscapes and small human figures in colorful, distinctive costumes. His extraordinary paintings are sometimes compared to the work of Peter Brueghl himself.
The furnishings are reminiscent of furniture from the communist era
Photo: Tomasz Zakrzewski / archifolio
- We have selected from Wróbel's work the characteristic motif of obsessively painted colorful houses, with almost op-art rhythms of bricks. This play with rhythmic patterns appears on the walls of the apartment on Św. Anny Street - describe the architects.
The wall in the bedroom is decorated with bricks with green ornamentation
Photo: Tomasz Zakrzewski / archifolio
Landscapes of everyday life
The second motif of Wróbel's work is that the paintings are firmly rooted in the reality that surrounded the artist. We won't find excursions into the depths of history in them. There are no fantastic, mystical landscapes known, for example, from the paintings of Teofil Ociepka or Erwin Sówka. Wróbel showed the reality of the Polish People's Republic era directly. He synthesized it and filtered it through his artistic sensibility, but these are undoubtedly realistic works. Even if sometimes a green utopia appears in the colorful interior of a miner's house or outside the window there are pink and blue horses. Choosing furniture for the interior, the architects were inspired precisely by the years of mature communist Poland. Chairs, sofas and tables are a reference to the models that were in these very apartments in the 1970s. However, they were decorated with strong colors directly from Wróbel's paintings.
The bathroom arrangement is subdued
Photo: Tomasz Zakrzewski / archifolio
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Compiled by:KATARZYNA SZOSTAK
