Who designs houses in Poland?

No, but those financing a project are rarely remembered for being visionary, usually for mediocrity as a by product of maximising profit. As are the builders (developers)

Slightly different from comments on people vision, but, a friend of mine was one of the project managing team of a £5,000,000+ project in Aberdeen a few years ago. For those who don't know, Aberdeen is known in the UK as the Granite City due to it's architectural history as a result of the local building materials. The developer imported granite from China in order to save £3000.

What they should have done was got far more than £3000 in PR by making a big thing about it, but no, it was better to import the stuff, which doesn't even look the part.

of course its investors who design the buildings. of course architects plans are changed. even on site plans are changed. i know many architects, and the process always goes like this:

investor - we want it to look like this and with these fantastic ideas. our budget is $10
architect - ok, we made it look even better, with your fantastic ideas and some of ours
investor - omg we love it. how much?
architect - $12
investor - oh, then lets change this to save some more money.
architect - ok, we can do that, itll still look good. $9
investor - hmm our budget has changed, change this.
architect - thats not going to look good, but we'll try. $7
investor - nope, still too much. that cool stuff has got to go, too expensive, and we're going to use bare concrete for everything.

architect - ummm. but... ok. $6
investor - hey, it doesnt look like the fantastic rendering you first submitted! btw, budget cuts again, and this empty space over here, for a park? lets put some kiosks in there. oh, and......

and of course foster and his investors cared or sometimes didnt care about what they put where. i can give you many examples of where some architects/investors went out of there way to take into consideration what was around them, for example lodz's manufaktura or poznan's stary browar, wroclaw's renoma, or where other just went f'ing nuts, like the sol pol in wroclaw.

right. and architects usually plan for this while still keeping the integrity of their design. not to mention that foreign investors are getting polish architects at good prices comparable to ones from their home country. is it not standard practice to aim high then settle in the middle?

but there is also a huge difference between something that is built in warsaw centrum as opposed to something that is built next to the airport.--if you know warsaw, poleczki business park is a square mess- but it does the job where as the projects that aig lincoln did on grzybowska are modern but take into account the surroundings. so if an architect is designing something on the outskirts i am sure he doesn't give a rats about the changes that will be made but something built in the city that will get a lot more notice will have more thought behind it.

I am sure the architect behind stary browar would be seriously pissed if somebody altered his design.

the original building is as old as the hills. the interior has been changed a few times. the new extension looks ok/good from the street.


another building that's been around for some time (at least twenty years). as something modern it works for me, but the inside design is terrible. not to worry though, it's going to be replaced. at least that's the plan.

for commercial buildings: architects start with the basics (minimum thermal values etc) and then, with agreement, add extras. at least that's how it was.

actually, if im not mixing up poznans stary browar and galeria malta, i know from a friend who designed it.. basically he was hired on as a consultant, the moment he finished the basic renderings he was fired, his plans stolen, and then modified. wait, i think im thinking about malta. that retarded 3rd floor where the food court and move theater is was not in the original plan, thats why it looks so ******.

wroclaw, the renoma was an example of modern architecture but taking into consideration what was old, and it was done very well as the investor knew what they wanted. i know the people who designed it. and even though solpol is 20 years old its still modern architecture. how it works for you though i have no idea, its a perfect example of an arhictect/investor who took NOTHING into consideration when designing it. let alone using quality materials. its still one of the worst designed buildings ive ever seen from a functional point of view, both sol pol I and sol pol II.

one usually can only see one face of the building, but i had a look at google images before making my last post. as it is i would change the colour scheme. the inside was never right. it is probably the most hated building in wroclaw.

it works for me because it was an attempt at something new.

i hate the fact that every little thing must conform in this city. unless one makes a huge investment and then it's possible to get away with it. an example being that piece of shite standing on plac grunwaldzki

I have never been in Malta- it looks ok on the website, I have seen worse. Warsaw has some ugly buildings. I have been inside- it is a hideous mess. luckily it is not a public building.

bem.plo.pl/projekty-zrealizowane.php?id=65 here is the architect. notice all the buildings look the same.

Your last post proves how moronic your opinions are . If you want to post something informative you better learn the language . All the buildings look the same ,yeeeeees and they should , because it is a link of a door maker not an architect, Einstein . Instead of complaining better devote your time to other subject as you have no knowledge about Polish architects and architecture whatsoever .

given that pip works in the trade... you might have rephrased your comments to show a mistake and leave it at that

ok whatever you say. edit why would I post a link to the architect when I know him and have worked with him- then only to slag him off. not very nice.

I know what I posted. I did it on purpose.

I think the idea about this thread was to give ideas about the quality of the architecture in the topic of "houses" in Poland. If we are going to judge architecture in general could be better to create another thread. And adding to this to judge mistakes also is senseless. My opinion about how influences an investor in architecture is quite similar as the example from "pantsless". Unfortunately in any society money controls everything and to get the maximum profit investing the less is quite a rule for everybody. Anyway, trying to keep and optimistic thought as i said before it depends in architects to convince investors in doing things in favor of a better architecture. I don't think that top architects like Norman Foster pass trough this situations as their salaries are already over the average architects in the world and for the same reason investor are in the same condition so they wont care to spend more money to get something with more quality or expensive materials (if they are necessary or not is not my business). I remember once i read in Dubai they made a christmas tree for an important shopping center or hotel all in gold. So i don't think they cared about costs in such case. Adding to this the architecture also doesn't need to have very expensive materials to be defined as good or modern architecture...thats why architects can look for options according to the need of the clients and at the same time trying to get a good quality product... at the end everybody deserves to be satisfied.

But not the builder of this house. From what I can tell, it's been for sale for months. He's probably still at a loss at to why it isn't sold.

Examples of projects of just one Polish architect :

koniorstudio.pl/#/en/projects/most-important/katowice-symfonia/03/

They are all very beautiful, visionary and versatile

Are they in Dubai or Beijing?

You will never find out, if you don`t even bother to check the links I gave .

BTW The visionary house of Konieczny was named as the safest house in the world . The main idea was to build the house that is safe from even radiation . So, the project was focused on delivering and fulfilling this obejectives rather than the creating more interesting structure , that`s why, the form of this project is very simple . People who are architects appreciated this project very highly in contrary to some posters who claim to be connoisseurs,, but seem rather amateur .

I did look at all the links and all I saw was the same purile OTT armadillos that seem to be built these days by the barrow load all over the world, in a certain profile of country that feels it has something to prove... especially in China and Dubai. I like to think of this style as "complex architecture" and I don't mean difficult.

House designers would be my answer to the thread.

the school looked good from the outside, but i didn't like the inside. too many posts preventing use of space is one problem. it has the atmosphere of being 'dead' and 'heavy'. not pupil friendly.


one would expect such people to pat one another on the back. but as usual the architect doesn't live or work in the building he designs. yet over the years thousands of others do and have to put up with it.

As in the sense that anyone who cooks become a Cook? :)


I think you hit the nail on the head with that one.

Would that be Peter or Robin? Two dead Cooks.

Do they toss a coin before choosing the designer or...?

Geez, two vastly different cooks!

It must have been a loaded coin, as in he lost a bet. The house in my pic appears to have had very little in the way of artistic input and would have to be one of the most unimaginative new build houses I have ever seen.

Whomever designed this really didn't like windows and it's 490,000zl in a reasonably modest size town! Surely an architect can't have been involved in it. It looks like something designed by a 'builder'.

Konior and Konieczny are already world renowned architects and their projects were appreciated by The European Centre for Architecture Art Design . So I am glad that Polish architects are awarded every year by this body where jury consist of architects but not few members of PF , for my great relief .

I'd refer you to Wrocław's back slapping comment.

Peer review in architecture (or fashion or cooking) has little connection to peer review in science, as it's all eye of the beholder stuff. Like the man with light sensitive eyes who design the house above.

Foul isn't it. There are 'houses' like these all over Poland - real eyesores. And they don't even have the good grace to build them from shoddy materials so they'll fall down eventually.

Hahaha! :(

Christ, I've just noticed that its got integrated roller-shutters. It's like a poor man's version of that square bombproof monstrosity that Polmed bangs on about.

you think these are visionary and versatile? That is quite sad.

ark-l-m.fi

this is visionary and versatile and just plain genius.

is it just me or isn't there an over the top fascination with having pillars when a building a house in Poland ?

Yes, particularly round, poured concrete ones.

I don't mind them, but a bit of imagination, like some stone would be nice.

it's the overhanging roof that does it. u may notice it more in Poland because it's not the usual brit style.