Slaska Street Building

The Slaska Street project is the documented phase of a larger building conversion in Bydgoszcz’s Okole district — a neighbourhood with a particularly rich historical layering. During the Prussian period between 1772 and 1920, the area was known as Kanal Werder and developed rapidly through the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; the street itself, historically called Bonia Street and later Werderstrasse under Prussian administration, is lined with kamienice constructed between approximately 1895 and 1910, many featuring Art Nouveau secesja decorative elements. The district survived both Second World War destruction and Soviet-era estate demolition largely intact, and since the 2010s municipal authorities have been carrying out restoration works to recover original Art Nouveau architectural features across the neighbourhood — giving the Slaska Street building an unusual continuity of heritage fabric from original construction to the present day.

The design philosophy centres on a principle of radical honesty toward the existing structure. Rather than concealing the attic geometry behind smooth drywall ceilings or standardising each unit into an identical format, Rise.Design opted to expose the original timber roof structure — the aged rough-sawn beams with their natural patina, knots, and weathering — as the principal design character across all eight apartments. This single decision introduces texture, scale, and historical continuity into otherwise compact, contemporary interiors. The white-and-wood material palette — matte white walls and light oak laminate flooring — was chosen deliberately for its ability to expand perceived volume in constrained attic rooms while creating a Scandinavian-minimalist clarity that would appeal to the student and young professional rental demographic.

The full scope converted 20 existing apartments into 40 micro-apartments across the building, including cellar-to-residential conversion on the lower floors. The attic phase documented here transforms approximately 220 square metres beneath the original heavy timber gable roof into eight self-contained micro-studios of roughly 25 square metres each. Rise.Design acted as both designer and co-investor in this project, a building flip model that would subsequently attract international investment clients to the studio.

The timber roof structure — preserved in its entirety — becomes the defining spatial feature of every unit rather than an obstacle to be concealed. Ridge beam, purlins, collar beams, and cross-braces are exposed and finished, transforming the constructional logic of an agricultural-grade carpentry system into an inhabited ceiling canopy. The most dramatic element is a Y-shaped timber beam that appears in one of the units as a sculptural centrepiece, its forking geometry impossible to replicate in contemporary construction and capable of making a 25 square metre room feel architecturally significant. Built-in storage is positioned within the knee-wall zones where ceiling height is insufficient for habitation, converting the roof geometry’s least usable spaces into the apartments’ most efficient storage volumes.

Skylights are positioned with deliberate spatial intent rather than as default rooflights: each unit receives a skylight placed directly above the sleeping zone, delivering daylight onto the bed and creating a direct sky connection in the space where residents spend the most private hours. Secondary skylights illuminate the kitchen work surface and living zone where the gable geometry places them deepest within the building plan. This skylight-driven daylighting strategy transforms what might otherwise be dim, awkward attic spaces into light-filled interiors with an unexpectedly generous sense of connection to the sky.

The material palette is deliberately cost-conscious and investor-focused. Standardised off-the-shelf furniture throughout each unit provides a replaceable specification — when tenants damage or wear out furnishings, replacements are available without bespoke procurement. Light oak laminate flooring, ceramic bathroom tiles, and standardised appliances maintain the same logic: quality sufficient for the rental market, specified for durability and ease of replacement. White-painted walls and the honey-toned timber structure do the spatial work of making each 25 square metre apartment feel considered and inhabitable rather than merely functional.

Each open-plan layout places the kitchenette along one wall, the living and dining area at centre beneath the roof ridge, and the sleeping zone receding into the deepest point of the gable where the ceiling is lowest but the skylight maintains luminosity. Dormer alcoves in several units create natural dining nooks or reading areas — spatial gifts from the existing roof geometry that required no additional construction to deliver intimate, purposeful enclosure within the open plan. All eight units were sold after conversion, and the project’s success in translating the building-flip model into a recognised Rise.Design capability subsequently brought international investors to the studio seeking similar investment-driven residential conversions.