Central Warsaw set for cutting-edge archiectural addition

Architecture firm BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group has announced its latest development project, Towarowa 22, which will be built in the heart of the Polish capital Warsaw and represents BIG’s first major project in Central and Eastern Europ.

BIG, an architectural studio founded by Bjarke Ingels, is known for designing and building spectacular, cutting-edge projects all over the world, including the Lego House in Billund, Denmark, VIA 57 West and the 2 World Trade Centre in New York and the Google HQ in California.

“Towarowa 22 is a plot of about 6.5 hectares located in the Wola district in Warsaw. The urban planning concept of its development assumes that a multifunctional complex will be built here, the buildings of which will have a total of approximately 230,000 square metres of usable area,” said the owners of Towarowa 22, EPP and Echo Investment.

“In order to accommodate the area required and honour the historic Dom Słowa Polskiego building, the neighbourhood will be elevated to become an archipelago of interconnected gardens and public spaces,” added EPP and Echo.

“When designing Towarowa 22, we drew from the rich cultural history of Warsaw to create a contemporary neighbourhood with lasting value for the future. The sandwich of publicly oriented programmes and open parks embraced by workplaces and residences form a future city that takes the best of aspects of a lively and activated urban density and a spacious landscape,” said Mr Ingels.

The central part of the new project will be Kazimierza Wielkiego Square.

“Its decoration will be a renovated pavilion of Dom Słowa Polskiego featured by characteristic skylights and spiral staircases, which are an example of splendid, modernist architecture of the 1950s. The square will be surrounded by buildings of various heights and functions.”

Part of the concept is to create a network of pedestrian streets, to connect the project with the rest of the city.

“Our ambition is to build a multifunctional, well-designed urban neighbourhood that will attract people and encourage them to live, work and spend their free time there. I am sure that Towarowa 22 will be recognised as a model-designed and built part of the metropolis,” said Mikael Andersson, project director of Towarowa 22.