M. Kowalski Torun
Architecture, Interiors
Marcin Kowalski was Rise.Design's fire protection consultant and technical subcontractor on several projects before he became a client. So when he commissioned the fit-out of his own building on the corner of Rynek Nowomiejski and Szpitalna in the historic centre of Torun, he already knew exactly how the studio works. Being hired by someone who has watched you work is worth more than any referral.
Two programmes had to share one historic building: a 96.25 square metre headquarters for A3F Ochrona Przeciwpozarowa, Kowalski's fire safety company, and two small apartments coming to roughly 76 square metres. The building itself was the asset. Exposed brick, deep timber posts, heavy masonry window reveals. None of it was there to be covered up. The January 2023 survey found the previous finishes already stripped out, which left the raw stock the design wanted anyway.
Three things drove the design. Clarity, from glazed partitions that borrow light across the whole floor. Warmth, from walnut veneer on the doors, the storage and the corridor panels, without which a monochrome palette turns clinical. And longevity, which is a question of what you specify: brick sealed instead of plastered over, black metal that sharpens with age rather than dating, wood that deepens. The site photographs from January and July 2023 record the scope. New metal stud partitions, suspended ceilings, brick impregnation, full sanitary and electrical installations. A stripped shell fitted out completely.
The office is transparent and industrially plain. Black steel and glass partitions divide the conference room and two private offices from the open workspace. Dark suspended ceilings mark out the zones, and the A3F brand arrives as a backlit lightbox. The colours are held tight. A maritime blue runs at bathroom tile level, deep against the white above it, and it comes from the A3F brand rather than from a mood board. All the steel profiles are powder-coated jet black. In the open office the blue sits at dado height with cream above. Three layouts were drawn, UO1 to UO3, before the final one. A 10-page technical drawing set and 27 pages of visualisation record what was built.
The two apartments use the same brick and the same timber beams and end up warmer. Here the exposed brick is an accent wall rather than raw structure. Laminate panels and warm oak flooring take the edge off. The bathrooms are terrazzo tile with matte black fittings, which keeps the industrial line without making anyone live inside a workshop. The units are 28 and roughly 47 square metres, and a 24-page brochure presented them as small rental flats in the historic core of Torun.
Six joinery detail sheets, M1 to M6, cover the pieces that appear in both halves of the building: built-in wardrobes, headboard walls, kitchen cabinetry. They are what hold 172 square metres of office and apartment together as one project.
Design ran from January to April 2023, and construction was photographed on site in July 2023. It is built. From an apartment window you look out at the medieval church tower on Rynek Nowomiejski, and the brick and timber inside the room belong to the same town. The design does not try to get away from where it is.
