Work submitted for the competition
"Best Diploma Architecture"
The subject of the thesis is a residential building located in one of the courtyards in Warsaw's Sielce district. The subject was inspired by issues related to urban densification.
top view and site plan
© Piotr Stanisław Gontowski
Building in central neighborhoods and using already existing infrastructure is a tempting alternative to metropolitan sprawl and the creation of hard-to-serve suburbs. In accordance with the idea of a compact city, it is advisable to balance and skillfully operate gaps in development. The chosen location offers the possibility of erecting a small residential building and explores the potential of building architecture tucked inside a block of development.
mockup
© Piotr Stanislaw Gontowski
The courtyard, where the building is to stand, has been degraded over the years, and the creation of new buildings on it could become an opportunity to organize this space. The project proposes a new organization of the courtyard. Emphasis was placed on replacing existing barriers with a common, open and green space. Removal of existing fences, fences and detached garages will remove communication and visual barriers.
Attractive, well-maintained and publicly accessible green space combined with a neighborhood community center and a public cafe can become a place to establish and build strong interpersonal ties.
Views from the side of Górska Street to the public cafe and from the side of the inner green space to the neighborhood community center
© Piotr Stanisław Gontowski
Building in such places additionally provides an opportunity to reflect on how the created buildings should fit into the existing context. The starting point for considering the architecture of the designed building was the proximity of socialist realist buildings, and the goal — to create an object that would fit into this space, without necessarily duplicating the historical patterns found around. The character of the courtyard is determined by the multi-pitched roofs with which the surrounding buildings are covered, as well as the numerous skylights, dormers and chimneys that extend beyond the sloping tiles. They give the space a human scale and create irregular, at times chaotic finials that seem to be a natural extension of the irregular, lush greenery incorporated into the Sielce landscape. Therefore, early on in the design process, the sloping roof was identified as an element that should also manifest itself in the final design, and it is on this architectural concept that this project is based.
Views from the courtyard and from Chelmska Street
© Piotr Stanislaw Gontowski
The roof plays a special role in architecture and its relationship with people. This was pointed out by British-American architect Christopher Alexander in his book "The Language of Patterns":
Roofs play a fundamental role in our lives. [...] When the roof is invisible, if its existence is not felt around the building or if it cannot be used, then people do not have a basic sense of shelter. [...] The roof should encompass, cover and surround the life processes taking place underneath it.
The roofs perfectly reflect the description offered in Alexander's publication. They are large, clearly visible, while numerous skylights and dormers indicate that living rooms are located underneath. They harmonize well with each other and with the surrounding greenery. The design ambition was therefore to take this harmony into account, to relate to the aforementioned context in a contemporary way, and to create a large and highly visible roof under which life would take place.
A fragment of a study of the building's shape
© Piotr Stanislaw Gontowski
In the designed building, the roof covers all four residential floors. It begins at the first floor base, housing social functions, and ends together with the top floor. The roof slopes have been varied with dormers, the shape and size of which signal the size and location of the various rooms inside the building. The dormers were arranged according to the internal layout of the rooms, so they do not follow any grid on the facade.
plans of the four residential floors
© Piotr Stanislaw Gontowski
B-B cross-section
© Piotr Stanislaw Gontowski
The roof was stretched between the building's characteristic shafts. They house the main living rooms. Their repetitive arrangement gives a calm rhythm to the whole block and influences the legibility of what is going on inside. The designed shafts, like the chimneys located on the surrounding roofs, provide a vertical counterbalance to the geometry of the roof. They allow the whole block to be read as a composite composition of several elements that together form a coherent whole.
Spatial connections between rooms on the 1st floor
© Piotr Stanisław Gontowski
spatial connections between rooms on the 3rd floor
© Piotr Stanisław Gontowski
Piotr Stanisław GONTOWSKI
Illustrations: © Author
