Polish architecture
An overview of projects, products and exclusive articles about polish architecture
Project • By PAWEL LIS ARCHITEKCI • Private Houses
GAIJIN house
The Japanese word "gaijin" (外人) translates to "outsider" or "foreigner." It can also be interpreted as a figure from another world—almost like an alien. In many ways, this perfectly describes the house.
Driving down Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński Street in Józefów, it is hard to miss. It does not try to be overly familiar, nor does it attempt to mimic the traditional, local Świdermajer architectural style. It is genuinely different, somewhat like a foreigner standing out among the locals, curiously observing an exotic land. Its street-facing facade is highly distinctive, giving the impression that the house is looking out at the world through a massive, square window on the upper floor.
Radek Gałczyński
This semi-detac... More
News • News • 8 May 2025
25 best architecture firms in Poland 2025
Located in the heart of Europe, Poland has been a point of convergence for geo-cultural ideas and views, but also for political shifts. Polish architecture tells a long story of social economies, history, and change. Its ever-changing boundaries, the devastation caused by the war, and the communist regime played a catalytic role in shaping its architecture.
Today, its architecture has taken a more experimental turn, with contemporary structures defined by memory, function, and a strong sense of place. Polish firms work across scales, from restoring historical buildings to designing new museums, offices, and public spaces that reflect universal values. The 25 architecture firms listed below represent present-day Polish architecture... More
Project • By STOPROCENT Architekci • Individual Buildings
House by the River
The building was designed on a very long and relatively narrow plot of land. The terrain gently slopes from the local road towards the riverbank. However, this picturesque location had its limitations. Due to the risk of flooding, the regulations only allow construction to take place along the road, raised above the so-called hundred-year flood level. The possibility of building underground floors was also excluded.
Piotr Krajewski
Piotr Krajewski
Piotr Krajewski
Piotr Krajewski
Piotr Krajewski
Piotr Krajewski
The investors' intention was to create a home for a multi-generational family—a house that would be full of light and provide residents with a sense of space. A home where each member could find a... More
News • News • 25 Apr 2024
FAAB proposes “green up” solution for Łukasiewicz Research Network Headquarters in Warsaw
Warsaw-based FAAB has developed a “green-up” solution for the construction of Łukasiewicz Research Network Headquarters in the center of Warsaw, Poland, that includes both a vertical garden and the installation of a water distribution management system. FAAB is an architectural studio that seeks to create innovative architecture and modern-day urban environments using sustainable design. The proposal is part of an objective to transform densely populated areas of cities with the help of technology and biotechnology.
FAAB, Unique Vision Studio
FAAB
The Łukasiewicz Research Network’s primary aim is to assist scientists in implementing research for use in industry — areas include automation, biomedici... More
News • News • 5 Mar 2024
Metropolitan station in Lublin designed as one of the most sustainable projects of its kind in Poland
Warsaw-based architecture studio Tremend has completed Dworzec Lublin, a new metropolitan station in Lublin, Poland, with distinctive openwork pillars holding aloft a decorative canopy roof. The station is at the core of the multidimensional Integrated Transportation Center infrastructure project in Lublin, the capital city of Lublin Voivodeship (a province in south-eastern Poland). A main transport hub in the center of the city, it is designed to be one of the most sustainable projects of its kind in the country.
Rafal Chojnacki
Rafal Chojnacki
Dworzec Lublin connects urban, regional, and national transport networks. Its canopied platforms include terminals for road transportation; underground parking is available for ca... More
News • News • 3 Aug 2023
Beech Valley complex by ArchMondo is distinguished by a simple yet striking architecture and approach to common space
Located in Poland's scenic Kashubian Valley, Beech Valley by ArchMondo (Piotr Kowalczyk) is a small-scale complex of four vacation houses distinguished by a simple yet striking architecture and an approach to common space that is conducive to neighborly interactions and relations.
Katarzyna Seliga-Wróblewska / Marcin Wróblewsk
The site, surrounded by picturesque beech forests and close to Grabówko Lake, offers direct proximity to those looking to be in nature and undertake activities ranging from fishing, swimming, and kayaking to hiking in the forests and hills.
Modestly scaled and positioned in harmony with the landscape, the vacation homes are grouped in a composition resembling a small village... More
News • News • 31 Oct 2022
Layer Cake House by Superhelix Pracownia Projektowa responds to site constraints with a creative distribution of programme and materials
At the outset of the design process for a new home on a site in Krakow, the client and property owner desired a California-inspired house, complete with largely horizontal planes, large expanses of glazing, and a flat roof. Given the small developable area of the site, however, the reality afforded something much different, making it necessary to build upwards rather than outwards. Further to this, local building laws required a pitched roof.
Superhelix Pracownia Projektowa
With a programme that required a full three floors in height given the restricted footprint, the response by architects Superhelix Pracownia Projektowa to the site constraints was to break the structure into layers: corten, plaster, then corten again with the i... More
News • News • 12 May 2022
BXB studio spreads Farmhouse program over five barns with each their own function and distinct wood texture
Taking five farm buildings due for demolition, the concept for this Polish farmhouse by BXB studio sees five interconnected barns that create a highly dynamic space. Future development could include creative reconstruction of the historic house due for demolition per the client’s wishes.
Piotr Krajewski
The seemingly scattered arrangement of the barns is informed by the surrounding landscape, sun angles, and building function. Driven by principles of sustainable development, the architecture ensures the preservation of a valuable tree stand and large expanses of sunlit glazing are shaded by terrace roofs or dense greenery to ensure that the house does not receive excessive sun exposure.
Piotr Krajewski
And to better... More
Project • By Piotr Hardecki Architekt • Primary Schools
Educational complex in Gdynia
A senior primary and secondary school for approximately 650 students attending 26 classes and an eight-room kindergarten for approximately 200 children.
Photo: Bartek Makowski
Photo: Bartek Makowski
The concept of the building was selected in a nationwide architectural competition.The school was designed in the form of two separate wings with separate entrance halls and cloakroom complexes. An irregular "street" connects the two entrance halls on the ground floor and the common functions, i.e. library, assembly hall, administration, teachers' room and sports area. The kitchen facilities serve both the school and the kindergarten. The sports section includes a gymnasium with a 20x40m pitch (which can be divided into three sma... More
News • News • 8 Dec 2021
Brick and concrete Mlawa House maximizes the potential of a small site
In the small town of Mlawa, Poland, this budget-conscious one-storey house by James & Mau was constructed mainly of brick and concrete.
Jakub Certowicz
Locating the house to the west of the site frees up as much of the existing garden to the east as possible. With substantial 4m side setbacks, perimeter brick walls - which by law can only reach a height of 2.2 m - divide the long green setbacks into a series of small garden patios. The walls further function as thermo-clay loading-bearing walls, supporting a concrete shell that supports the upper height of the house at 3.3 m.
Jakub Certowicz
To the east and west ends of the south façade, two towers at 5.5 meters in height give an ur... More
News • News • 4 Aug 2021
Pilecki Family Museum balances a historic house, new pavilion, and garden with a compelling museum design narrative
Balancing three elements – a historic house, a new pavilion, and a garden – the Pilecki Family Museum by BDR Architekci is dedicated to famous World War II hero Witold Pilecki and his family. It is one of the last places to commemorate him, as the family home near Lida was demolished after the war.
Konrad Basan
The house component of the museum is the former family home of Pilecki’s wife. A central element of the museum, the house was thoroughly restored and reconstructed from archival photos. Cellars were deepened and the attic rebuilt while original details, cornices and window frames were reconstructed. So as not to interfere with the external structure, wall insulation was added from the inside. The house i... More
News • News • 26 Jul 2021
Mausoleum of the Martyrdom of Polish Village offers a power architectural experience in remembrance of the country’s WWII pacification
Commissioned by the Museum of Kielce Region Countryside, the ‘Mausoleum of the Martyrdom of Polish Villages’ in Michniów is a remembrance of the casualties in rural Polish communities during the German occupation of WWII. The segmented structure of the Mausoleum, designed by Nizio Design International, reflects the process of destruction and annihilation through the structural form. The concrete structure, which resembles the ruins of traditional wooden huts in the region, is marked with fractures, cuts, and tears which generate emotions and tension and form both open and closed parts.
Courtesy of Nizio Design International
The total area of the Museum is 16,200 m2 with core exhibition functions taking up appr... More
News • News • 1 Apr 2021
Villa Reden: A unified apartment concept within an irregular form
Appearing as one coherent apartment building with impressively expansive terraces and views, Villa Reden by Franta Group is divided into four independently functioning parts, in which there are a total of eight apartments on the upper level and a mostly open ground floor that serves as common space for social interaction. Each of the four divisions part has an independent entrance on the ground floor in the form of a staircase leading to two apartments.
TOMASZ ZAKRZEWSKI ARCHIFOLIO
With a limited budget, yet high developer expectations, the concept and shape of the building results directly from the irregular polygonal shape of the site with the goal of leaving the largest possible number of trees standing on the plot.
TOMAS... More
Kindergarten in Opole / Malina
We aimed to create inspiring and stimulating kindergarten’s space, to foster kids growth and development. Building acts as a „vassel” for young human beings, where its form casts user’s behavior, sense of security and self-esteem. It offers incentives for joy and exploration. To be a window into their future, to understand the world and build their own identity.
While working on the project we focused on maintaining existing buildings layout with a yard in between. That is to expose different building’s proportions and historical changes with its specific details. We introduce new functions that connect all, while keeping them autonomous.
Following program requirements, the main existing block has been extend... More
Project • By TOYA DESIGN • Cultural Centres
Grand Hall Complex at The ZAMEK
In 2007, when we set out with the competition for a design to modernise the castle we had one goal: to create a space where its recipient becomes its subject. So that those who find themselves within that space may feel it has been made bespoke for them. Functional and open. Thus far, the castle had been different – it intimidated people with the labyrinth of rooms and the vastness of dark halls. With its immense programme and the appetite for even more activity, the Culture Centre suffocated in the heavy body of the neo-Romanesque edifice. Hence the need for a change – uncompromising, bold and comprehensive.
obefore the Grand Hall to the rank of central ATRIUM, where all the functions are focused and where the pa... More