We are hearing more and more about boutique hotels. What distinguishes them is their intimacy, high standard and location - often in historic parts of the city, in unique, historic buildings. One of them is the Hotel Indigo, located in a tenement at 40 Smolna Street in Warsaw, which has regained its former glory thanks to a design by Bogdan Kulczynski of the Kulczynski Architekt studio.
From a summer residence...
The history of the eclectic building dates back to the beginning of the 20th century. After parceling out a plot of land right next to the Branicki Palace, architect Bronislaw Brochwicz-Rogoyski was commissioned to design five townhouses along Smolna Street. The corner building at number 40, completed in 1903, was designated as the summer residence of the Branicki family.
Corner tenement house at 40 Smolna Street
photo: Piotr Krajewski © Kulczyński Architekt
Rebuilt after the destruction of World War II, the tenement house briefly housed the office of the First Secretary of the Polish United Workers' Party, and later - the headquarters of the Union of Polish Socialist Youth. The building was entered in the register of monuments in 1988, and in 2014 it was acquired by a new investor, who decided to create a boutique hotel at the site.
The building eventually turned from a residential building into a hotel, so the function remained basically the same, it only differs in the duration of the stay of the people living there, says the author of the tenement's reconstruction, Bogdan Kulczynski.
...to a boutique hotel
After the reconstruction, the restored historical elements of the tenement house were supplemented with modern solutions. The richly decorated facade was in poor condition, and the building's original roof had not survived. The architects, wanting to expand the building by adding a floor, sought documentation of the original structure in libraries and historical sources.
First we found a site plan that showed the roof, then we saw a video taken from an airplane flying over the building, unfortunately recorded after the Warsaw Uprising. Fortunately, the walls with traces of the fire survived - based on them we were able to map the true height of the roof. This opened the door for us to the conservator, and we immediately received permission to restore the historical character of the building," says Bogdan Kulczynski.
The new elements stand out clearly against the historical building
© Hotel Indigo
The architects decided to clearly mark the new elements in the building - they introduced modern glass dormers into the mansard roof, and added a glazed annex at the back of the tenement.
All walls, ceilings and staircases in the tenement have been preserved, and the interior patio, which was in very poor condition, now serves as a hotel lobby covered by a glass roof. The subterranean part of the hotel houses meeting rooms and technical and kitchen facilities. The restaurant is located on the high first floor. The interiors of the boutique hotel were designed by 2KUL Interior Design studio.
hotel lobby
© Hotel Indigo
