The competition task of this year's edition of BARGEWORK® – OFFICE ON WATER was design of an interior in the first office in Poland the whole area of which would be situated on water. A press conference, on which laureates of the conference were announced, was held on the second day of the VIth Polish Carpentry Congress, that is on 22th May 2015. The general level of sent entries was so high that we had a lot of difficulties in the process of selecting a winner – comments Marcin Wojciechowski, Chairman of the BARGEWORK Foundation which continues the project of the budiling of the first office on water in Poland and Creative Director in Aveex Innovative Marketing Group – the organizer of the competition. Finally, we decided to grant the main prize and not two but four additional financial honorable mentions. Moreover, we decided to honor twenty other entries. All of them were presented during the „Future Architecture… on water?” exhibition – adds Marcin Wojciechowski.
The main prize in the amount of 20 000 zlotys was granted to the team of designers from Cracow – Joanna Lenart and Izabela Kisielewska. We have been looking for a competition in which we could take part, extend our horizons, do something interesting and new as well as check ourselves somehow – explains Joanna Lenart.
The interior designed by the winning duet is characterized by numerous references to nature as well as diversity of comparisons, textures and shapes. A distinctive factor of the project is transparency combined with strong forms which give an unusual effect dominated by the balance of contraries. The totality is spacious, clear and functional. The design process lasted ca. 2 months – it was living, evolving, we were looking for some inspirations. We wanted all to look harmonious and thus pleasurable to work. While imagining a person sitting at his desk, we decided to avoid boring and traditional sets which are popular in Polish offices – we gave our project „something new” and we did succeed – sums up Izabela Kisielewska.
Jury decided to award not two – as it was initially planned – but four honorable mentions amounting to 1000 zlotys. First of them was granted to Małgorzata Szydło and Mateusz Szydło for a project in which a relaxation zone is the central part of an office, thanks to which it is easy to find inspiration. We very liked the idea of creating some space for creative people. We are also creative and thus we eagerly help such persons – says Mateusz Szydło. We decided to particularly distinguish the relaxation zone because work is of course important but we wanted to offer a place in which it is also easy to relax, focus and create new ideas – comments Małgorzata Szydło.
Next prize was granted to Monika Kalita and Karol Skowerski. They prepared a project in which the office interior blends together with an existing surroundings and establishes a harmonious dialogue. The inspiration for our project was a solid which won in the first edition. We associated it with crowns of trees in a wood. Therefore, we thought that relaxation zone will go along the whole building. It is marked by freely placed wooden bars. All this allowed to create an atmosphere like in a wood – says Monika Kalita.
A honorable mention was also granted to a project which is characterized by a high and bright entrance part which enables free and easy observation of other rooms. It was prepared by Krzysztof Gryglak. The idea was to design a friendly area to work – the one in which I would like to work myself – explains Gryglak.
The author of the fourth project is Jakub Chojna who designed an interior with a dominant element – an interesting and waving structure covered with wood and spread out the outline of the central core. I liked the winning solid presented in the first edition. I decided to use its most characteristic factor – that is waved roof. I added to it quite a broken and wooden structure. The form seems to be floating in the air – explains Jakub Chojna.
The list of laureates (single ones and teams) who were awarded honorable mentions includes:
- Anna Kazecka;
- Ewa Andruszczyszyn;
- Mateusz Warzecha;
- Michał Góralski i Marta Mateusiak;
- Małgorzata Dębowska i Mateusz Dąbkowski;
- Krystian Dziopa;
- Katarzyna Florczak, Dariusz Florczak i Tomasz Florczak;
- Agnieszka Pasieka-Adamek, Katarzyna Bruch, Michalina Rurek i Aleksandra Stankowska;
- Marta Tyszkiewicz;
- Krzysztof Krauze i Piotr Nowicki;
- Małgorzata Barnał i Andrzej Chmura;
- Ewa Klimkiewicz;
- Iwona Lisowska;
- Ewelina Gryc;
- Iga Szczugieł;
- Edyta Ogorzały;
- Michał Sroczyński;
- Michał Bartecki i Ewa Nowak;
- Paulina Hałasa;
- Martyna Wróblewska.
The competition for the first office in Poland situated on water is the second edition of the BARGEWORK® – OFFICE ON WATER initiative which envisages creation of an innovative workspace located in the city and at the same time remaining in close contact with nature. The initiative is aimed at talented architects and designers of interiors as well as ambitious students of architecture. The task was to design a modern and ergonomic place which favors productivity of a workplace for a creative team. The project of office space was to be distinguished by innovative approach to an assignment and break set architectural patterns. It was supposed to have a flicker of visionary and thus be „at a slant” with reproduction. Since the creative thinking is a driving force of all innovations in enterprises, the factor of releasing the creativity must have been taken into consideration in the project. Our mission is to restore people the possibility of working and creative designing in an ecological environment close to nature – explains Marcin Wojciechowski from the BARGEWORK foundation.
The laureates of the competition were selected by a jury board composed of famous experts from the industry: PhD Eng. Architect Krystyna Januszkiewicz – research and teaching staff in the Szczecin University of Technology; PhD Eng. Architect Piotr Obracaj – professor at Opole Technical University, director in the Unit of Construction and Architecture on this university; PhD Eng. Architect Jan Kubeca – research and teaching staff in the Unit of Residential and Service Architecture Design at Department of Architecture, Silesian University of Technology, owner of the „RAr2” Architecture Laboratory studio; Mateusz Mastalski – architect, urbanist and journalist who devised a project of a winning solid in the first stage of the competition together with Karolina Raczek and Ole Robin Storjohann; Szymon Wojciechowski – architect professionally associated with the APA Wojciechowski Sp. z o o.o. studio; Tomasz Pyszczek – researcher at Department of Architecture, Cracow University of Technology; Marcin Wojciechowski – originator of the project.