A Tour of mode:lina’s New Poznan Office

Michal
Architecture firms
3 years ago

Architecture firm mode:lina recently moved into a new office in Poznan, Polan which they designed themselves.

“Taking into consideration the structure of a new office, designers decided to move all rooms that don’t need daylight to the far end of the office, with no access to the windows. Because of that the conference room, the phone booth, and the bathroom, along with the corridor (with a niche that hides a cupboard and a printer) were encapsulated in a simple and functional cubicle. The kitchen, with a big table, can be found right after entering the workshop, and all workspaces are laid along the glazed facade – in order to provide enough natural light.

The studio was designed with “jezycka” (name of the headquarters district) grandiose, connecting cozy atmosphere with industrial finishing. The functional cubicle was finished from the outside with a spacious mosaic made of clinker brick, which came to be by irregularly placing bricks on top of each other

Apart from the visual impact it also serves as acoustic isolation – chiseled wall of bricks, thanks to its openwork style – boosts the sound reflection inside of the workshop. The entrance to the cubicle was finished with pine plywood, which completes the feeling of a “brick house” inside of the building.

Just as a house has a long table to fit everybody in, so does the mode:lina™ – it stands right next to its heart – the kitchen, right in the centre of the office. It is here where all the food is consumed, TV series binged and where all the coffee chatter is. This home sweet home feeling is completed by carpets laid out across the entire studio – also serving for better acoustics. The comfort of sound was one of many priorities for this project – that’s why we used acoustic panels to finish the bathroom and the phone booth from within.

Budget and material: apart from the previously mentioned bricks and pine plywood, the remaining elements of the workshop were finished on a budget. The floor across the entire space is a simple concrete screed reaching back to the development phase, cleansed and secured with adequate lacquer, from under which traces of the studio renovation are visible to this day. The ceiling also reflects that – electricians’ schematic drawings still show how the lighting is dispersed throughout.

The cherry on the top of this pie – the collaboration with the exceptional artist – Paweł Swanski – who graced the studio’s ceiling joist, running above the entire office, with a spectacular mural channeling animalistic motives present even in the street’s name: Zwierzyniecka, where our station is located – right next to the Old ZOO in Poznań.

The conference room was designed with the same sentiment. It’s “theatrical” heavy curtains on each wall reduce reverberation that happens during various meetings.”