'Architecture should represent a city and its people'

Złota 44 is a 192-meter-high skyscraper in the Polish capital Warsaw and the tallest residential building in the EU. "When building a tall building, an architect must take into account its relationship to other buildings," it sounds at Studio Libeskind. In this article, Director of Architecture Mark Kubaczka and architect Kamil Bubel tell how they did this.

The Złota 44 skyscraper has 52 floors and contains 287 apartments. The building's name comes from its address on Złota ("Golden") Street. Daniel Libeskind returned to his homeland to build this residential tower in the center of Warsaw. The tower offers residents an unparalleled living experience, with world-class amenities and services that create a community and lifestyle unprecedented in the Polish real estate market. Apartments are located between the 9th and 52nd floors and are offered in nine interior designs. The leisure floor features a 25-meter swimming pool, hot tub, massage rooms, Finnish sauna, steam room and terrace. This floor also features its own movie theater, golf simulator, children's playroom and conference rooms.

A unique curved shape

To preserve precious daylight in a dense and historic urban environment, Studio Libeskind's team carefully adjusted the shape of the building to the arc of the sun, maximizing daylight to reach the surrounding buildings. The wing-shaped facade was inspired by the wings of the Polish eagle, as a counterpart to the directly opposite Palace of Culture from the Communist era and as a celebration of a new era of democracy in Poland. Złota 44 has become the symbol of a new Warsaw and an optimistic future for the country.

"Architecture should represent a city and its people," say Kubaczka and Bubel. "When building a tall building, an architect has to consider its relationship to other buildings. So we worked on the designs for a very long time to limit the impact of shadows on surrounding buildings. This is how we decided to create the curvature of the building. This serves not only for appearance, but is also very practical."

Interior design by Woods Bagot

The interiors of the apartments were designed by award-winning London design studio Woods Bagot. All apartments feature spacious living rooms with floor-to-ceiling glass, creating a light and airy atmosphere. "The client wanted picturesque views from each apartment and stunning scenery to show from the first moment the doors to each apartment were opened," Kubaczka says. "To present the view from each floor, we used a balloon and took a panoramic photo from the height of each floor. Working on this kind of non-standard design is a challenge. Each floor is unique. There are no repetitive units; each apartment was completely redesigned from scratch."

Designed with Vectorworks

The building was modeled in 3D and the sections and views were generated in Vectorworks. "It was the first time I used Vectorworks," Bubel says. "We used to have trouble using software to create full-size drawings. But now it's possible to do that using just one program, without any effort."