- Interior
In the shadow of the towering glass buildings of Warsaw's bustling Wola district, where post-industrial buildings blend beautifully with the ultra-modern skyscrapers, Mennica Residence is situated. On the eighth floor of this apartment building, Dawid Konieczny, a promising young Polish architect, found a challenging project that lit up his creative soul: a corner apartment with stunning city views and an unnatural layout that screamed for his magic hands. And magical, that is exactly what the end design became. Walk with us through the monochrome splendour he wants to share with us.
Rich with the various influences Konieczny got in contact with throughout his life-from Chinese beauty to Turkish luxury-the innovative architect also went beyond the conforming for his latest project. For him, boundaries between genres are light dotted lines that can, or rather should, be crossed without any problem. With this mindset, he creates artpieces that are above all not obvious: serene colours could be perfectly combined with contrasting patterns. Yet, he always finds the right balance between different textures, materials and visual effects. In this residential unit too, he drew the spectacle of the clash between the modern and the traditional taking place outside the building into his home. The modern character of the skyscrapers became the inspiration for the interior while the older, austere structure would continue to embrace that interesting interior. 
Iconic curve typifying the wall was immediately carried through as the character feature of the house
An eye for detail, unity and simplicity is something Konieczny has like no other, and you can't miss that when you admire his new project. Also before designing this concept, he first analysed all circumstances and factors. The apartment originally consisted of two small separate bedrooms, a bathroom, a living room and a separate kitchen. The way the different zones were initially arranged gnawed fiercely at the architect; he wanted to change this, because every project he takes under his wing has to exude functionality above all, besides sophistication. He therefore decided to merge the two bedrooms into one large space that offers plenty room to breathe. He enriched this bedroom with a sober built-in wardrobe. Furthermore, he transformed the living room and the kitchen into a beautiful whole where cosiness is central. In the living room, you can also admire the eye-catcher of the apartment: a monochrome, sand-coloured curved wall subtly separating the living space from the bedroom. In the curved heart of the living room, a recess was made in a flowing wave motion, providing immediate access to the bedroom. Konieczny took his inspiration for this very present round wall from a desert landscape where the sand takes on unusual organic shapes, like waves in the sea. 
The monochrome character of the waves lies not only in the beige sand colour, but also in the rhythm the wall symbolises. Sometimes, in nature, that rhythm is interrupted by rocks or plants, and that interruption is represented here by the elegant recess. The iconic curve that typifies the wall was also immediately extended as the character trait of the house. In the other rooms, curved contours were used in every possible way: ‘I wanted to transfer this unique environment to the apartment. You can find the inspiration of the sand shapes on the bedroom entrance, on the wall, the kitchen bar or even on the pattern on the bed frame,’ Konieczny told us. 
Want to read more about this project of Dawid Konieczny? You can read about it in the October 2023 edition of Imagicasa Magazine.
Photography by Oni Studio
Text by Emma Verstappen