Zakopane is a difficult nut to crack. Situated at the foot of the Tatra Mountains, the city is, on the one hand , a treasure tro ve of excellent modernist architecture, on the other, a mosaic of conservation zones and the historic buildings located within them, and on the third, an infamous symbol of urban disorder and the stigma left on Polish cities by the tourist industry. In this melting pot was created a building that tries to take the best from Zakopane architecture. We talk about the "Our Home" Family Support Center, but also about the region' s heritage, the challenges facing tourist destinations and the realities of design in Podhale with Bartłomiej Popiel and Wojciech Gajewski, its authors from the POLE Architekci studio.
"Our Home" Family Support Center in Zakopane
Photo: Filip Bramorski © POLE Architekci
Przemyslaw Ciępka: How was the need born for a building like the "Our Home" Family Support Center designed by you to be built in Zakopane? What function do you assume it will serve?
Wojciech Gajewski: Zakopane is developing mainly in the direction of tourism, while only a small group of people care about creating something that will serve the community. This is a problem for all cities located in picturesque circumstances, but unfortunately Zakopane is the best (or worst) example of such a development model. The city has long lacked a hospice for the elderly and ailing. The need arose to create a place that would not be a hospital with the possibility of a permanent stay, but rather an outpatient clinic providing long-term, regular rehabilitation. This is quite an innovative form, not realized before in Zakopane.
Bartłomiej Popiela: The Family Support Center, by its small scale, would not be able to fulfill the function of a facility prepared for a longer stay - we would have to fit in facilities, a canteen and other such infrastructure. It tends to be a one-time but recurring care, so by making an appointment to see a psychologist, a support group or for rehabilitation, patients know that they will come there regularly. Something like an outpatient clinic that functions as a multifaceted support for people who are facing cancer.
Przemyslaw Ciępka: And how did it come about that it was your studio that came up with the design for this building?
Bartlomiej Popiela: Due to the need for this kind of care, the city implemented a tender, which was divided into several stages. It was a very difficult tender - first an order for the architectural concept, then a tender for the construction project, detailed design and interior design. From the very beginning it was not said that the same architect would implement all these stages, and this is exactly what happened. We succeeded in creating the conceptual and construction design - the tender for the detailed design was won by another company. Later it turned out that it did not meet all the marks of such a document, so another tender was held, this time for the detailed design of the façade itself, which we managed to win. As a result, we were able to make the original concept of the facade a reality. The interior is also not of our design.
Wojciech Gajewski: The city was in possession of a building from the 1980s, long out of use. It originally housed a bank, later a furniture store, and has stood empty for the last fifteen or twenty years. The building is located on a very attractive plot of land on Koscieliska Street, near the old cemetery on Pęksowy Brzysku and the church next door. This is the historical center of the city, the place where, one could say, Zakopane began.
"Our Home" Family Support Center in Zakopane
Photo: Filip Bramorski © POLE Architekci
Przemyslaw Ciępka: Such a location must have been quite a challenge for you. What were the biggest problems you encountered while designing this building?
Wojciech Gajewski: Although the existing building itself, which was being remodeled, did not bear the hallmarks of a historic building and was not directly covered by any form of protection, the entire neighborhood is located within a conservation zone, which was an additional difficulty, especially since our role was to expand and superstructure it. So the changes had to be approved by the conservator, and we had to stick to the outline and meet other specific requirements. Economic considerations were also important, as the budget was quite limited.
Bartholomew Popiela: The whole difficulty of this project was the specific surroundings. All around are mainly single-family houses, largely more than a century old, while behind the plot we were developing is a housing development built in the 1960s or 1970s. The difficulty was, on the one hand, to fit in with the dimensions and form of the building into this historical development, and on the other hand to create a modern, urban building with a public function. Our building was to be the element that would bind these two worlds together. In addition, the main facade faces north, so we also had to consider how to solve the issues of interior lighting.
Przemyslaw Ciępka: How did you deal with the difficulties posed by such a demanding environment?
Wojciech Gajewski: We started with an analysis of the historical buildings of Zakopane, which were built to a large extent using wooden technology, which was understood in different ways - these were both log houses and buildings built in frame construction. At the beginning of the development of Zakopane, it was the region of Koscieliska street that was such a little basin of wooden architecture. On the one hand we have cottages, on the other the 19th century Church of Our Lady of Czestochowa on Pęksowy Brzyzek, on the third the Dr. Władysław Matlakowski Building School Complex. They are examples of completely different construction philosophies, although they were built from the same building material.
In this connection, we wondered how to make a contemporary building, which must have all the hallmarks of a design created in Podhale, namely prominent eaves with a length of 80 to 120 centimeters, depending on the location, and an appropriate roof pitch of between 47 and 54 degrees. We used a vertical division of the facade, which helped us a bit in terms of this large eave, so to speak, sunk into these vertical slats. As for the angles required by the conservator, we only applied them to the main ridge of the roof.
Bartłomiej Popiela: The function of our building also proved to be a problem, as public buildings are rarely made of wood. Here our Krakow education helped us, because we both studied in that city. In the architecture of public buildings, the so-called "Kraków school" includes such projects as the design of the National Museum in Kraków by Czesław Boratyński and the Jagiellonian Library building, whose concept was the responsibility of Wacław Krzyżanowski. The elements suggesting the public function of these buildings are not only the monumental scale, but also precisely the vertical divisions of the facade, strongly emphasized in both of these objects.
"Our Home" Family Support Center in Zakopane
Photo: Filip Bramorski © POLE Architekci
Przemyslaw Ciępka: This northern elevation seems to be the most significant and characteristic element of the Family Support Center. What effect did you achieve by providing it with so many vertical elements?
Wojciech Gajewski: When we look at the building from the front, we can see the main entrances and window openings on all floors, while if we position ourselves at a certain angle, approaching the building from, for example, Church Street, only the glazing on the first floor is visible. The upper parts of the facade then appear monolithic, opaque. Thanks to such a solution of the facade, we managed to obtain a building that optically has much more walls than glass surfaces, while maintaining the functionality of a public edifice. We obtained a building that is very sculptural, which in the case of a typical office or residential building, unfortunately, does not succeed.
Przemyslaw Ciępka: Does this solution also somehow affect the functionality of your building, or is it rather just part of a visual game to communicate its purpose?
Bartłomiej Popiela: There are quite dense buildings around, and it's well known, the subject of cancer or other ailments leading to death is often embarrassing for those affected. We have taken care to create a sense of intimacy in the offices primarily through the structure of the facade, which is not very transparent, and in which the window openings are located in recesses obscured by vertical slats.
The first floor is the most glazed - the storefronts are located there, and in these places the continuity of the vertical elements is broken. On the upper floor, where the offices are located, we placed four window modules, while at the very top, in the administrative part, the modules are only two. As for the structure itself, here we were limited by economic considerations, so it is a brick building with reinforced concrete ceilings, which we adapted to the foundations of the existing building.
Wojciech Gajewski: Contrary to appearances, the Family Support Center is a rather budgetary realization, but we wanted to put the main emphasis precisely on this front elevation, which is invaded in the perspective view from Koscieliska Street. The building is located at its end, behind a vertical line of tall trees, which we were very keen to preserve, and the facade alludes to these lines. This building is even sunk in the existing stand of trees.
Przemyslaw Ciępka: Weren 't you afraid that by hiding the window openings in vertical slats this facade would become too uniform or even monotonous?
Bartłomiej Popiela: We placed delicate carved ornaments on the wooden facade, which are at the height of the window openings. So even if we view the building from an angle from which the vertical division of the facade obscures the glazing, the ornamentation sends us a signal that they are right there. We used a simple, woodcarving rhombus motif, which is a distant inspiration from the Witkiewicz style.
Wojciech Gajewski: Such an element was also required by the conservator. However, we didn't want to cite elements that have already been exploited to the limit in highland architecture, such as the parsnips or oscypek chandeliers; our woodcarving is more a reference to the crystal school.
"Our Home" Family Support Center in Zakopane
Photo: Filip Bramorski © POLE Architects
Przemyslaw Ciępka: Well, that's exactly it - how did you manage to get away from this devalued "highlandness" of today, while maintaining the character of the building that is part of the architectural landscape of Podhale?
Wojciech Gajewski: We wanted to avoid direct references, because the beautiful crystal style, examples of which can be found, for example, on the walls of the Kasprowy Wierch cable car station, has been effectively disgusted by Zakopane traders and is now associated mainly with the visual identity of the "Highland Principality."
Bartłomiej Popiela: We have shied away from referring to highland pseudo-tradition, which has already been exploited to the limit, and further reproduction of these motifs is tantamount to vain mannerism and stiffness.
Wojciech Gajewski: Fortunately, this wasn't our first commission in Zakopane, so we knew a bit about the difficulty of designing there. However, the same question always arises - how else can you remake the motif of a mountain hut, which has already been modified in a million ways, each one worse than the last. The difficulty is to create a contemporary building that preserves the spirit of tradition and at the same time does not fall into the usual patterns. As for our approach to this, we try to create mountain architecture, not highland architecture. Highland architecture, the truly historic one, can only be spoiled nowadays.
Przemysław Ciępka: And how do you work in Zakopane? You hear a lot of bad things about the architecture and spatial development of this city.
Wojciech Gajewski: First of all, I myself come from Zakopane, so this is a big plus. My partners, namely Bartek Popiela and Łukasz Gniewek, are from Cracow, so it's the same region of "going to the field" rather than "outdoors." As a result, we know well what the realities of designing in Zakopane are, we know what we can afford and what we should avoid. On top of that, we are quite familiar with the provisions of local plans or development conditions that are issued in this city. We also have 15 years of experience working in other cities, including abroad. Thanks to this, we are able to create buildings that fit in with their surroundings, and at the same time are distinctive enough that they certainly do not go unnoticed. This was the case, for example, with the Tatra Mountains Planet Earth Archive.
Bartholomew Popiel: Zakopane is an endless source of inspiration. I will say something that will stand in contrast to the generally accepted narrative - there are plenty of examples of very good architecture in this city, not only mountain or highland architecture, but also modernist architecture, both pre- and post-war. This is best represented by the designs of Anna Gorska, who did her homework on the modernism of the interwar period very well. Her buildings are perfectly sunk in the landscape, based on the original traditional architecture on the one hand, and serve modern tourist functions on the other. We feel honored to have had the opportunity to create in the midst of such magnificent architecture, and we very much hope that our building will be positively received by the local community.
We keep our fingers crossed that the Landscape Act, in the footsteps of Krakow, will finally affect Zakopane and many unpleasant forms of visual communication will disappear from the urban landscape. It seems to me that they are the main problem of Zakopane, because architecturally - except for Krupówki - this city defends itself very well.
The "Our Home" Family Support Center in Zakopane
Photo: Filip Bramorski © POLE Architekci
Przemyslaw Ciępka: Among your more high-profile projects so far, residential buildings have dominated - La Scala, Potocka Apartments or Ceramiczna Point. Lately, however, we've been hearing about more and more public building projects, such as the revitalization of Castle Island in Elk, the Tatra Mountains Planet Earth Archive in Koscielisko, or the "Our Home" Family Support Center in Zakopane, which we're discussing here. Do you prefer to design housing or rather public buildings? Do you feel a change of "flow" in your work, which came with more public commissions?
Bartholomew Popiela: In all projects we try to do something unique, while 80 percent of our business is residential, where it is harder to stand out. Public building projects come to us far less often. When they are, they become our studio gems.
Wojciech Gajewski: It's also worth asking ourselves how many public buildings are being built, and how many multifamily residential buildings are being built. Recently, we came across two tenders that we managed to win - the Family Support Center and the Tatra Planet Earth Archive in Koscielisko. We managed to win these tenders and persuade investors to come up with bold solutions that we ourselves did not expect at the beginning. These projects, especially TPAZ, were conceived years ago. Now we've been able to gather a little more experience, so I hope that with it will come more public orders.
"Our Home" Family Support Center in Zakopane
Photo: Filip Bramorski © POLE Architects
Przemyslaw Ciępka: There is also the issue of competitions; after all, a significant, though still too small, part of public buildings are built precisely from projects selected in competitions. How do you feel about architectural competition?
Bartlomiej Popiela: We try to measure things against each other - we try to approach our projects in an authorial, original way, but we are a small studio and we are limited by time. We often have to give up some things. And for public commissions you have to make an effort and - usually - enter a competition, which is fraught with a lot of physical, intellectual, time and financial effort, so we very rarely decide on such projects.
Wojciech Gajewski: The level of architecture in Poland has risen tremendously recently - our colleagues are creating fantastic projects. You really have to put in a lot of work and money to create a competition project, and there is only one winner. The level of architecture in Poland has risen tremendously recently. Even if we create a very good work, it is still likely that there will be a lot of better ones. This is a good sign and we are very happy about it, but at the moment our studio cannot yet afford to participate in competitions often. Working on a competition project is a great time, but also an investment that rarely pays off. Even running a small studio like ours, you have to have business issues in the back of your mind - Architecture and Business, you might say.
"Our Home" Family Support Center in Zakopane
Photo: Filip Bramorski © POLE Architects
Przemyslaw Ciępka: Finally, let me ask you one more thing - what are you most satisfied with at the Family Support Center in Zakopane?
Wojciech Gajewski: Given how the whole investment process looked like, it's certainly with the final image of this building. Our colleague Filip Bramorski also took some very nice photos for us, capturing the rays of morning light on the facade. He had to get up early to photograph it!
Bartholomew Popiela: We are happy that we tried from the very beginning, until the very end to sell our idea, and even though the budget was limited, we managed to realize the building as it is now, with a beautiful southern elevation. We very much hope that the Family Support Center will open soon and serve the residents.
Przemysław Ciępka: The building has a very important, but also difficult task ahead of it. Thank you for the interview!
