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But I would like to stress here that a “masterpiece” in my view also means a project developed
on the basis of a thorough reflection over traditions, culture and local identity. One that reads
the genius loci and builds on it by adding new values.
How are your relations – as an architect – with developers? Do they push for the largest pos-
sible “leasable” area, like just a few years ago, or can they be persuaded now that this area
is not everything?
Yes, they know now that large leasable area is not everything, but – completely understanda-
bly – it remains a very important factor when designing an office building. After all, developers
need to keep up with the competition, which is very fierce. Today tenants have excellent expert
advisers, who can take advantage of any single parameter of a building or a contract provision
to negotiate a rental rate redution. But today’s developers increasingly think about embedding
their buildings in the micro-social landscape, connecting them with the existing urban fabric
by creating new public spaces. An excellent asset to win new tenants for an office building is,
for example, a surrounding area with lots of greenery, trees, which forms a fragment of the
valuable urban fabric. If an office block or a tower is alienated from the urban context, for
example because of its location in an industrial or untransformed postindustrial area, it will
be likely to fail – in both cultural and commercial terms.
What is the strangest investor requirement you have come across when designing office buildings?
I have had various odd requests and requirements, but I have always tried to understand their
source. You have to be also “wise with the wisdom of others”. If someone asks for something,
and we don’t understand their request, don’t call it an extravagance, but rather try to under-
stand them and contribute your knowledge, analysis and expertise to the task, so that an added
value is created. There are no stupid questions – only stupid answers.
What is the biggest challenge for an architect designing office buildings in Polish conditions?
To make sure that the designed buildings are not automatic projections – objects descending
on our country straight from a different cultural sphere, whether Middle Eastern, American,
Asian or any other. That they are well aligned with the cultural context of a place, and do not
appear there in an ill-considered way, antinomic to the historical continuum and the local iden-
tity, which of course does not exclude the possibility of local, creative inspiration with diverse
cultures of the world and their richness.
Kronos Ambasador
