Agnieszka Śmiarowska

Faculty of Interior Design

Adaptation of the tanks of the Old Gas Works located in the Warsaw district of Wola for the needs of a hotel and business centre

degree piece

Graphic 3D visualisation of the functional layout of a multi-level building

minor degree

The design assumes the establishment of a hotel and business centre available to companies and their employees/business partners as well as Warsaw inhabitants and tourists in tanks of the Old Gas Works located in the Warsaw district of Wola. The (duplex) buildings will contain three types of fully furnished (kitchenette, living room, dining room, bedroom and bathroom(s)) apartments for long-term rent. Companies can rent apartments so that persons arriving in Warsaw on a business trip, for other business purposes or under a limited contract would have a convenient accommodation place (for at least a few days or, for example, for one year). The leading idea of the designed buildings is their self-sufficiency (in the form of a restaurant, café, shop/newsstand, gym) so that their inhabitants would have easy access to necessary facilities, but at the same time the buildings should also be a tourist attraction showing the post-industrial heritage of Warsaw.

Born 1995. Studies: Faculty of Interior Design of the Polish-Japanese Academy of Information Technology in Warsaw (2014–2015) and of the Academy of Fine Arts of Warsaw (bachelor’s level 2015–2018, master’s level 2018–2020). Scholarships: Baxter International Foundation Scholarship Program (2015–2017), Scholarship of the Rector of the Academy of Fine Arts (2018–2019). She works in architecture design and furniture design. She co-operates as an interior designer with Dorota Szelągowska’s Studio (2018). She won 2nd place in the 1st stage of the Vision of Rest competition held by Kler S.A. and 1st place in the 2nd stage (2018); she won the 1st award in Euforma’s interior design competition (2020).

Adaptation of the tanks of the Old Gas Works located in the Warsaw district of Wola for the needs of a hotel and business centre

supervisor: Dr Piotr Kwasieborski, Assoc. Prof.

As early as the level of bachelor’s studies, Ms Agnieszka Śmiarowska proved to be an ambitious designer, consistently accomplishing her goals. Since the beginning of our co-operation, her designs have been characterised by discipline, the skilful use of artistic techniques and thoughtful restraint of means of expression in use. For these reasons her choice of the subject matter of the degree piece, which required a large volume of work, commitment and tact towards the existing space, did not raise the slightest doubt in me.

Each interference in the historic architectural tissue requires the designer to make competent decisions. In this case the scale of the object was an additional challenge. In order to start design work on the interior level, it was first necessary to make urban, architectural and structural decisions. A task suitable for a multi-industry design team. The author carried out the entire process independently and consciously, arriving at interesting results on all scales: urban planning, architectural and structural, interior design and graphics. All complementary parts of the work make up a coherent whole, being skilfully fitted into the existing tissue. On the one hand, the design draws upon prompts suggested by the architecture of the gasworks; on the other hand, it aptly highlights the advantages of this place.

Currently, in the middle of the pandemic, we can doubt whether a business & hotel centre is the most desirable object in the capital. However, we must keep in mind that this topic was chosen a few months before the outbreak of the pandemic. The author deserves recognition for her intense effort during this difficult period when she could only rely on revisions by e-mail. Thus, the final result is even more admirable.

Graphic 3D visualisation of the functional layout of a multi-level building

supervisor: Prof. Piotr Jaworowski

The presented minor degree piece is an integral part of Agnieszka Śmiarowska’s degree piece. It is an example of a brilliantly conceived and designed infographic. The method of performance is synthetic, e.g. the deliberate differentiation of the scale of rooms for the sake of their visual transparency. The colour of the entire work has been carefully thought out.

‘The building looks as if divided into segments “stretched out” in the vertical dimension, and the mattglass structure of the walls and dome is an attempt to “X-ray the building” to make it easier to see what is inside. It is a 3D layout of all rooms. It is to be associated with Lego blocks in a glass dish’ (on the basis of the author’s statements in emails to the supervisor of the minor degree).

The floors of the building presented in this manner are complemented by a park with a gym under the glass dome and a two-level underground car park.