Infosys Green Horizon, an office building located in Łódź, its edifice bears marks of its peculiar history. The building in question was commissioned in May of 2013 and recently it made appearance in a comic.
Fabryka Chustek Wełnianych, Wyrobów Włókienniczych i Towarów Jedwabnych Abrama Ajzyka Piaskowskiego (Abram Ajzyk Piaskowski’s Factory of Woollen Tissues, Textile Articles and Silken Goods) - located near Solidarność roundabound, Łódź, Pomorska Street - had a staff of 220 employees and 100 hand looms and 10 automatic looms, which at that time were considered to be very modern. The factory was closed in 1939, its owner forced by the ongoing war was forced to emigrate. Taken over by the government factory was turned into Północno-Łódzkie Zakłady Przemysłu Zgrzebnego (North-Łódzkie Broadcloth Factory) which was closed in the ‘90s of the last century. Remainings of the building were demolished.
Skanska Property Poland hired Hanna Jung-Migdalska i Xenia Modrzejewska-Mrozowska to make the study of history and architecture of the old Piaskowski’s factory. Owing to this, the design of completion had a touch of the industrial history of the place. The building has the original visual signage system of information, which allows for better orientation. Ground floor corridors, near the entrance, as well as signs in halls of the higher floors are adorned with graphic representations of historical edifices of the factory, its name in the original lettering as well as headers of legal documents and the official stamps.
History of Łódź was closely associated with the textile industry, which left its legacy in shape of riveting architecture, hence now there is abundance of beautifully/ excellently restored post-industrial buildings. The Green Horizon’s case is different, we bought an empty real property. Fortunately we had chance to learn about its history and we decided to honour it. We are lucky to work with people full of passion, their ideas had inspired us to introduce minor elements that would remind about Piaskowski’s factory, and more recently emerged an idea to tell the story of this place in form of a comic. This idea joins what is domestic/local with the soul of innovation, which I hope will have an impact on receivers, especially on all young denizens of Łódź and not only those who work in our building. – states Waldemar Olbryk, the president of Skanska Property Poland
One of factors that dictate nature of the architecture is the context. The context in question consists of not only geological, scenic vicinity and the topography as well as the history. From the very beginning we wanted the design of this building to remind everyone, whether they will work there or will be walking through the open for general use courtyard, about the old Piaskowski’s factory. Together with the investor, we decided that the very soul of the place where we were building the new edifice should be honoured and preserved. For this reason we decide to use specific means of expression in order to avoid the memory of what was before did not vanish, in contrary, we want to preserve and assure its role as a place linking the past and the present day. – comments Przemo Łukasik the architect of the Medusa Group, who designed the office building.