Cichy Dwór is a project to modernize and revitalize the former carriage house, part of the palace establishment in Policko. The old building will be turned into a modern wedding house. For this reason, a particular challenge for the architects of the AMJ studio studio was to transform the function and construction of the building, while referring to the regional architecture of Pomeranian villages.
The old carriage house will be transformed into a modern wedding house
© AMJ studio
The project envisages placing the wedding hall along with the catering area in the ground floor, while the attic will be adapted for guest rooms. The architects solved the problem of vertical communication by adding galleries and two segments with staircases on the sides of the main body. By creating wooden galleries situated along the longer sides of the building, they created a shaded bypass around the wedding house. At the same time, this allowed access to the balconies from the guest rooms. The use of large glazing on the first floor and dormers in the attic frame the view of the picturesque landscape of the area.
Cichy Dwór is part of the palace complex in Policko
© AMJ studio
Dobrawa Bies: What does design work look like in historic, old buildings? Does it involve significant limitations (such as the choice of materials)?
Kamil Paszek: In working with existing, and especially with old objects, the key thing is to proceed from a site visit, an inventory of the object and a thorough analysis of the existing structure. This ensures that the project is well thought out, respects the context and uses as much of the existing fabric as possible. The carriage house, although beautiful and full of potential deviates in standard from contemporary buildings and therefore required our intervention. There were limitations in the design process - like the aforementioned choice of materials. We were tasked with applying them skillfully, so that they would lead the dialogue between the existing and the added part, while maintaining the coherence of the premise. In the design process there are often limitations - we like them (to a certain extent), we think they trigger creativity in us and treat them as a challenge.
The architects took care of the consistency of the premise
© AMJ studio
Dobrawa: Was it easy to convince the investors about the project? It involved considerable structural changes. Please tell us about the work.
Kamil: At first glance, it seems that the project heavily interferes with the structure of the existing carriage house. In fact, thanks to a thorough inventory and in-depth analysis of the structure, we were able to offer the investor striking solutions that, at the same time, do not interfere with strategic elements of the structure, such as, for example, the main trusses of the roof structure. The wooden galleries at the longer walls of the building and the two additional segments clad in anthracite sheet metal at the shorter edges are independent, dilated structures that do not strain the existing structure.
Wooden galleries form a bypass around the building
© AMJ studio
Showing respect for the existing architecture made the investor trust us and our solutions. In addition, it is worth noting that the carriage house, due to its original warehouse character, was not a building very open to the surroundings. By remodeling and creating new, larger glazing , we wanted to achieve better contact with the surrounding greenery in the most representative zones - the entrance and the wedding hall. Such a procedure allows greater contact with nature, and the spaces gain in quality, which also appealed to the investor.
The wedding hall and catering area are located in the ground floor
© AMJ studio
Dobrawa: How do you wisely combine "new" with "old" so as not to create dissonance?
Kamil: In this context, we adopted an overriding principle for the project - not to imitate. We believe that this approach to expansion is the best solution. We wanted what we were creating to be sincere. We renewed the existing structure - the form and color scheme, while the added segments are clearly distinguished by modern materials and extensive glazing (we want to use modern solutions). At the same time, we kept in mind that the whole should complement each other.
carriage house now and after expansion
© AMJ studio
Dobrawa: What challenges did you face in designing Cichy Dwór?
Kamil: The challenge in the design was to adapt the building to the restrictive technical conditions that a facility intended to accommodate a large number of people must meet. For this reason, we decided to introduce segments at the two ends of the building. These are modern annexes housing sanitary facilities and staircases that meet fire safety requirements. The new function also required us to design modern technologies in the building that fit into the existing structure. Upgrading standards to modern ventilation and heating requirements, for existing, long-standing facilities, is always a considerable challenge.
Dobrawa: Thank you for the interview.
