Not just architecture. Przemo Łukasik about the medusa group studio

Ola Kloc

15 of June '21

medusa group

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Since its inception,the Festival of Open Architectural Studios has been a companion event to the Open Eyes Economy Summit congress. This year, OEES organizers in cooperation with the City of Lodz initiated another important meeting - the first International Congress on Regeneration of Industrial Cities, we could not miss it!

The Lodz congress will be accompanied by another spring edition of FOPY - a festival inaugurated in 2018, during which we open the doors of well-known architectural studios, together with the architects who create in them we reveal the secret of the office's activities, look at their daily work and design methods.

Due to the challenges and limitations caused by the pandemic, last year's FOPA was held entirely online, which allowed us to open the doors of studios from different parts of Poland and abroad in the Internet space. This will also be the case this year, with offices from Bytom, Lodz and Stockholm inviting visitors to their virtual thresholds.

medusa group

wnętrze medusa group studio

interior of the medusa group atelier

photo: Juliusz Sokolowski

On Friday, June 25, at 1:00 pm, we will meet with Przemo Łukasik, who will show us around the studio at 35 Józefczaka Street in Bytom, the headquarters of the medusa group office, which he founded together with Łukasz Zagała in 1997.

The award-winning Silesian studio (recently also based in Warsaw) has designs for buildings of almost every function and scale, their diverse portfolio includes: Akademeia Highschool building in Warsaw, the Nobu luxury hotel in which Robert De Niro himself invested, a residential complex in Krakow's Mieszkaj w Mieście (Live in the City), Katowice's office buildings .KTW or a small, paper-folding art-inspired Origami House in Toruń.

left: entrance to the office; right: medusa group team

photo: Juliusz Sokolowski

How many people work in the office? What does the design process look like? What should distinguish an architect willing to join the team? You will have the opportunity to ask the questions bothering you already on June 25, and to make the waiting time for the spring FOPA more pleasant, we asked a few ourselves:

A&B: Where did the name of the studio come from?

Przemo Lukasik: Medusa group, is a name that came about as an opposition to the common names of architectural studios, which often use the word ARCH. We were looking for a name that would not be directly associated with architecture.

A&B: What was your first project about?

Przemo: Normally, we started by competing in architectural competitions, but in those days we ended up with an honorable mention or second and third prizes. This, unfortunately, did not allow us to move forward with implementation. I guess the first project commissioned to us after returning from Paris was a single-family house in Gliwice.

A&B: Does the team have any regular habits / rituals?

Przemo: We don't have rituals or a decalogue, but we always valued having coffee together in the morning, and at one time, interchangeably, we had rotating breakfasts. This was always an opportunity for casual conversation, exchange of ideas, but also a chance to be inspired by flavors.

We also value a good sense of humor. Many times in the past, we prepared surprises for each other, or perhaps more like jokes, which had everyone laughing throughout the day. We didn't even spare our esteemed customers.