The housing complex within the Bażantów Estate consists of two parallel gallery-type slabs, a wide lane between them and an additional free-standing building. The authors’ ambition was to contradict the pejorative image of this type of buildings in Poland, which are still perceived as an infamous legacy of the 70s. The humanized space of the mini-park between the buildings and the protective glazing of the galleries aim at creating an attractive neighborhood space, which usually does not exist in the conventional block of flats with staircases and hallways.

The northern slab is a five-storey unit with underground parking (shared with the free-standing apartment building). Its form is quite simple – a prism with galleries on the northern side, a series of balconies to the south and an opaque volume, containing the staircase and the elevator attached to the eastern side. The whole building was plastered in graphite color, except the last storey that has a wooden siding. The balconies are separated from each other with wooden openwork screens and the openings have been designed as French windows, protected by a glass parapet. The galleries are screened by glass plates and their walls are covered with fiber-plasterboards in intensive yellow color. The ground level contains fully glazed commercial spaces.

The Southern building displays a typology of superposed duplexes. The lower units get individual entrances from the lane and the gardens that face south, while the upper ones are accessed through a northern gallery on the last floor. This becomes the entrance and daytime level, while the night area occupies the third level. Open staircases made of concrete (the eastern one combined with an elevator) are placed at both ends of the slab.

The apartment building location (in the central part of the housing estate) and its high standards make it the dominant element of the estate. It was designed as a six-storey building with underground parking in a „cage” arrangement. The six-storey building houses ten luxury apartments – two units on each floor. The recessed ground floor houses the entrance and the services. French windows on the three façades and terraces protected by wooden screens define the buildin image.

A “boulevard” – a wide and public space – runs between the buildings. In its middle, a recreational space surrounded by hard surfaces on both sides. A children’s playground, surrounded by accessible green space occupies the south-western part of the public area.

millenium inwestycje sp. z o.o.

architects: medusa group architects from Bytom / Poland
principals: przemo łukasik, łukasz zagała
project team: dawid beil, rafał dziedzic, kuba pudo, tomasz majewski, dominik jaksik, maria jaksik, justyna siwińska, agnieszka szewera, dominika marek

structural engineering: statyk