Warsaw
Kulczynski Architekt

Valuing the scars of time, Kulczynski Architects turns a derelict factory into a vibrant cultural center at Fabryka Trzciny in Warsaw

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	Bogdan Kulczynski, Agnieszka Chmielewska & Joanna Kulczynska
	Photo © Jan Smaga
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In transforming a dingy, abandoned meat-processing plant into the now-thriving Fabryka Trzciny art center, the Warsaw firm of Kulczynski Architects had a rather unusual stipulation: The more decay, the better. The team chose to explore the character of a building that comes only from years of grime, wear, and neglect. Industrial grit, of course, is de rigueur in many new arts spaces, bars, and lofts.. But such fashionable grime comes with a clean finish: a sense that everything is orderly and neat underneath the messy facade. Not so at Trzciny, a 19,000-square-foot space built in 1916 in the city’s Praga district, now an increasingly popular manufacturing-turned-artsy area.

The architects had to engage creative problem solving to retain as many of the plant’s original features as possible while simultaneously preventing more deterioration, bringing the building up to code, meeting a modest budget—and appealing to young Poles. The program for the lofty space, with ceiling heights of about 12.5 feet, included a 2,045-square-foot performance area, in the former boiler room; a 2,658-square-foot restaurant/concert space; three bars; a cavernous, white-walled gallery; an exhibition area crowned by a massive wood barrel vault; and a light-infused lobby that doubles (with blinds drawn) as a film screening room.

Few walls were demolished, and most surfaces remain untouched. Large pockmarks and discolorations still mar the facade, while many interior walls, like those in the lobby and boiler room, bear uneven paint and brickwork, exposed old pipes, and deep gashes. Bare light bulbs illuminate most rooms, and many floor surfaces, which the firm left untouched, resemble your grandmother’s linoleum tile, only they’re a shuffled mix of materials, changed and repaired over time, looking in places as if they’d been jackhammered by an angry contractor.

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