Interview about City Rooftop Residential, winner of the A' Interior Space, Retail and Exhibition Design Award 2024
City Rooftop stylistically fits into the architectural style of modern residential building located in historical surrounding. Details of the designed furniture and doors correspond to Polish ornamentation from the 20s and 30s. but the are modern in the same time. New bespoke furniture has been juxtaposed with modern Italian sofas and chairs. The décor of the flat is complemented by paintings of the Polish artists from the first half of XX century.
View detailed images, specifications, and award details on A' Design Award & Competition website.
View Design DetailsI treat the dialogue between old and new as the project’s primary voice: rather than pastiche, I pursued a restrained translation of Polish interwar ornament geometry, stylised foliate friezes and elegant cornice rhythms into contemporary proportions and materials. The trick was to extract the grammar of ornament (scale, rhythm, negative space) and recompose it as modern intervals: recessed panels become acoustic-lined niches, a decorative frieze becomes a thin metal inlay, and geometric motifs are suggested in brass insets rather than carved plaster. This keeps the emotional memory of Warsaw’s interiors while avoiding sentimental replication; the result is a living interior that reads as both familiar and new, respectful of context but calibrated for 21st-century use.
The apartment’s location framed by the city’s layered riverside and its mixture of nineteenth-century façades and newer geometry demanded a design that could hold both civic gravity and domestic intimacy. I studied local cornice heights, window rhythms and the muted palette of riverside masonry, then translated those cues into an interior scale that feels of-a-place: tall sightlines, generous window reveals and a palette that references river-stone, oxidised metals and old varnish. The apartment thus becomes a compact urban belvedere: it paraphrases the river’s muted light and the city’s stratified history while remaining a contemporary retreat for cultural evenings and quiet mornings.
Preserving the interior’s historical temperament required technical discretion. We concealed mechanical systems within bespoke joinery, used slim linear diffusers in vaulted profiles and built service corridors into panelled walls to avoid surface clutter. Early coordination with MEP specialists allowed us to route ductwork behind stone cladding and drop bespoke ceiling soffits only where proportionally necessary. Where active systems had to be visible, their finishes were carefully chosen — matte black grilles, hand-finished brass registers — so they read as crafted details rather than aftermarket additions. This is how I safeguarded authenticity while delivering modern comfort.
Designing the furniture and doors began with archival study: I examined Warsaw flats from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, old joinery patterns, surviving door mouldings and cabinetmakers’ drawings. Visits to workshops and conversations with master carpenters helped me reinterpret techniques (panel profilation, veneering direction, inlay scale) for contemporary joinery tolerances. The contemporary interpretation strips ornament to essential lines, uses modern engineered cores for stability, and applies traditional veneers, hand-rubbed finishes and discrete metal details so each piece reads as new but genealogically correct. The process produced furniture that anchors every room in an intelligible lineage.
Art was never an afterthought; it is the apartment’s second skin. Working with the collectors we identified works by Leszek Nowosielski, Jerzy Mierzejewski and Henryk Musiałowicz and placed them so that light, sightlines and daily choreography amplify their narratives. A bold canvas anchors the lounge, a quieter study hosts figurative work that rewards close reading, and the classical bronze by Tomasz Górnicki punctuates a transitional corridor. The artworks were chosen and sited to create an internal museum of personal taste - each piece converses with the architecture, modulating scale and mood and legitimising the apartment as a cultural pied-à-terre.
Designing for weekend inhabitation shifts priorities: spatial generosity in living and dining, flexible sleeping arrangements, and storerooms that conceal infrequently used belongings. We focused on conviviality - a kitchen and dining zone that can host ten, layered lighting for evening gatherings, and acoustic treatments so guests can talk over music or theatre recordings. At the same time, the bathroom and bedroom suites were conceived as restorative refuges with tactile materials and subtle climate control. The result is a compact program that supports both host-led evenings and solitary mornings immersed in the city’s cultural rhythm.
On a 120 m² footprint every centimetre matters. The plan strategy was to define three spatial archetypes: a public living cluster, a semi-private study/dining zone and a quiet sleeping suite. We used continuous sightlines to make spaces feel larger, carved niches to accommodate storage and custom joinery to avoid furniture clutter. Circulation is efficient: a single ‘spine’ corridor distributes daylight while shifting floor materials and ceiling heights signal programmatic changes. These measured moves allow each area to keep its identity while the whole reads as a single composed interior.
Pairing water-jet precision with artisanal craft created a deliberate contrast: water-jet-cut stone allowed us to realise exquisitely thin inlays, precise thresholds and intricate bathroom basins without compromising structural solidity; meanwhile traditional carpentry brought layered warmth and hand-finished detail. The technological precision informs the plan and interface logic, while the handwork softens and humanises surfaces. Together they create a dialogue where technique is visible but not dominant - a choreography between machine accuracy and the imperfect poetry of craft.
The palette is intentionally restrained: warm, reconstituted stone and soft plaster base layers, oak and ebonised joinery, and calibrated accents of burnished brass and deep oxblood leather. These materials reference the patina of older Warsaw interiors: mellowed stone and dark wood while meeting modern durability and maintenance needs. Finishes are matte to mute reflections and create a sense of age; accents are used sparingly to heighten moments of ceremony — a dining table, so the apartment feels like an edited, lived-in collection rather than a staged exhibit.
Recognition (including the A’ Design Award) validates an approach that privileges cultural continuity over novelty for novelty’s sake. I hope this project shows colleagues and clients that preserving historical cues is compatible with contemporary luxury: with disciplined design, respectful material choices and technical precision we can make interiors that honour place and time while offering modern comfort. The award is an encouragement to pursue future projects where memory and craft meet new technologies, and to advocate for interiors that are both rooted and forward-looking.
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