Factory to live in

Warsaw University of Technology, (Politechnika Warszawska), Faculty of Architecture, Warszawa

Project idea

Contemporary production space is not a matter of factory space any longer. Nowadays, the questions of production, work and creativity have to be faced from post-fordist perspective. Instead of huge spaces used for monotonuous production processes along the assembly line, a place of scattered, non-material production is designed for cultural, social and technological activities.
The combination of residential and production space is an important element of that matter. The main goal is an attempt to create a space that stimulates social behaviours of the professionals. It is considered as an effect of changes happening in the production methods.

Project description

Warsaw is a metropolis which is aspiring to become a big center with supralocal significance. Unfortunately, in the same way like other metropolises, despite dynamic expansion and its complexity, Warsaw is developing into a ‚modern factory’ with its citizens becoming a new working class - immaterial producers. It is easier to understand bearing in mind the fact that capitalistic production is nothing but the production of services such as communication, education and culture that have evolved from manufacturing.
That is why the post-fordist apprach has to create conditions where public life is no longer strongly separate from the private one. A constant blending process creates a new communal zone where work, social avtivities and intimacy take place in the same time.

The building is designed for the society where telecommuting has created a situation in which employees do not commute to a central place of work and just do not require any workplaces to be made physically. This tendency can be mainly observed in the service sector, especially in its part in which the manipulation of information plays a major role. Nowadays it is possible to work even from one’s own bed. Production is no longer what we traditionally understand as physical activity. It appears in all activities connected with culture, media or education. Production is leaving factories and becoming part of municipal business centers and is connected with such phenomena as outsourcing, freelance, piece work, home working, etc..The production place is undergoing the process of deterritorialization and is becoming a virtual place being the coordinates of communication network. Unlike the former vertical industrial-corporate model, contemporary production is becoming a horizontal enterprise network.’

Accommodation units are divided into minimalistic modules limited by plain walls which still leaves room for the diversity in each module’s adaptation.
The reason for the simplicity and modularity of the apartments is that a contemporary place to live in is no longer defined by separate spaces such as a living room or a kitchen. We live where the attributes of those spaces are for example a computer, tv set or a coffeemaker. Comfortable spaces have been replaced by user-friendly devices. An apartment has to be as easy to use as the latest mobile phone model.

The design follows the simplicity in the field of idea or geometry to be a background for richness of actions that take part in architecture. But looking closer at details a simple wall made of glass could be a very dynamic and changeable element because of the sun, the sky or environmental reflections. The same situation concerns materials. In this way of thinking, graphic representation of my design does not convey the simplicity but covers it with wide range of deepness, textures, gradients, shadows, reflections and also colors.

Technical information

Site location
The spot is located close to a significant transport hub. Additionaly throught the site runs the street which comunicates it with the surrounding districts. The reason to plan a building nearby the important transport node is to meet the needs of inhabitants who are suppoused to be residing in the object. Well developed transport system and a neighborhood of co-working spaces for a creative class is the keystone for the contemporary producers. That means that access to the internet and a sort of transport which is not a burden - like private car could be in a cworded city - is what they need.
This former industrial district exudes an emptiness and a need to restore past importance as a glorious part of a vital city.
The site, in recognition both of its historical industrial landscape and a great potential for social, cultural and production delevopment, is an appriopriate place to host A factory to live in.

Ground floor plan
The increasing number of people change their former way of living and working. Work becomes an integral part of their lives. A consequence of that are changes in the way of thinking about the space they need for every day life. That is why A factory to live in became a structure availble 24/7 for both its users and city dwellers. It offers a wide range of public spaces like squares, outpatient surgery centers, nursery schools, coffeehouses, etc., half-public spaces like common canteens, kitchens and sanitary blocks and private spaces like living units or workshops.
The Main Square in the center is an accessible space for everyone. It is surrounded by two storey townhouses with a workshop at the bottom and a living space upstairs so dwellers could work and live in the same place.