The six-story corner tenement at the intersection of Koszykowa Street and Przyjaciół Avenue in Warsaw's downtown was built in 1936-1937 to a design by Lucjan Korngold, commissioned by Oskar Robinson. In this modernist building, architects from Aneta Faner and Duma Studio designed the interior of one of the apartments, creating a coherent (though contrasting) space drawing on the materials and geometric forms of the luxury townhouse.
The 
The architects changed the existing functional layout to legibly separate the day and night zones
© Aneta Faner, Duma Studio
Ola Kloc: What was the priority for the investors?
Aneta Faner, Piotr Duma: Director Robinson's tenement at Koszykowa 10, designed by Lucjan Korngold, was one of the most luxurious and elegant rental tenements in the country in interwar Poland. The investor consciously chose to live in a modernist tenement and wanted the interiors to be consistent with its character.
The original sixty-meter apartment had a different functional layout with two rooms, including a pass-through room, and a kitchen with windows facing the inner courtyard. We decided that changing the functional layout would allow a clear separation of the day and night zones. As a result, after demolishing the wall between the former rooms, a living room with a kitchen was created, overlooking the green Friends Avenue. On the opposite side of the apartment, meanwhile, a bedroom separated by a bathroom. The apartment thus became more spacious and bright, which was also the investor's goal.
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The white marble in the lobby was the inspiration for the bathroom design
© Aneta Faner, Duma Studio
Ola: The apartment is located in a modernist townhouse, how did the architecture influence the interior design?
Aneta, Piotr: In the interior you will find references to the finishes in the common parts of the tenement. At the intersection of the wings of the building, on the side of the courtyard, there is a representative hall built on a semicircle plan. Entrances to three staircases lead from it, with an open entrance to the most interesting one - with a spiral staircase and a circular elevator. The floor of the lobby was made of white marble, the walls were clad with travertine panels, sconces were made of alabaster. Marble imposed itself on us from the beginning when we thought about the floors and wall cladding of the hallway and bathroom.
The hallway with the entrance to the spiral staircase in a tenement building on Koszykowa Street 10 in Warsaw.
Photo: Jerzy S. Majewski | miastarytm.pl
On the other hand, the inspiration for lining the recess in the bedroom with narrow strips of mirrors came from the remnants of the original elements of the apartment's decor, which had been preserved residually under the tarnishings of the communist era. It was the forms that remained in constant dialogue with each other, so for example, as a reflection of the recess in the shape of a concave arch, we designed a closet with a rounded front.
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The alcove in the bedroom lined with narrow strips of mirrors
© Aneta Faner, Duma Studio
Recalling the architecture of the townhouse was the decision not to encase the structural column, exposed by taking down the partition wall between the rooms.
Ola: You juxtaposed the light colors of the walls with very dark furnishings - black furniture in the kitchen and hallway, dark couches and decorations. What influenced such a choice of colors?
Aneta, Piotr: The investor wanted to use high-quality natural materials, so we made the decision quite quickly to make the furniture from wood-faced blockboard. Black appeared as an answer to break the more classic colors of wood. To be precise, it is blackened oak - it has a deep, distinctive hue, but unlike, for example, lacquered MDF, it retains the texture of wood. Combined with the white of the walls with a visible plaster structure, it creates an elegant space and allows you to play with the geometry of the form. While in the hallway this geometric simplicity worked well, in the living room and bedroom it needed to be broken with colors that would give it a more warm character. That's why it appears there against a background of oak parquet and cherry wood in the living room and maple in the bedroom.
Left: living area; right: bedroom
© Aneta Faner, Duma Studio
Ola: What was the most difficult part of this project, and what are you most satisfied with?
Aneta, Piotr: From the beginning, we liked the character of the apartment and agreed with the investor on the aesthetics we wanted to go with. These are two important factors that influenced the fact that we felt that working on the project did not present us with any particular difficulties. The most spectacular effect of the renovation is the aforementioned opening of the rooms. The wall with windows in the kitchen and living room is located on the east side, and rarely receives direct sunlight. Thanks to the remodeling, the apartment has gained in brightness and space.
Ola: Thank you for the interview.
