“Revitalisation of tenement house - coworking space” by Piotr Matuszek is an attempt to fulfill the needs of a developing creative class in the city. It aims find the common ground for past, present and future thoughts in architecture. Coworking is a concept of work which involves shared environment. Creatives who work at home can come to such place and do their job with others. They can benefit for example from increasing social circles, expanding business network or sharing knowledge and experiences. Most of them feel also more productive and creative and enjoys better private life.

During the last year of my studies I was also working as a co-manager of coworking office in Białystok. At that time coworking was a totally new concept in the city and our mission and desire was to create a common plaftorm and space for creatives from the region. My observation was that the use of our space was varying like the sinusoide - and at one month we had way to much free space to pay for, and during another we were crowded in the same space. That pushed me to the formulation of core concept - solution which would allow to change the amount of closed office space accordingly to the current needs.

-Piotr Matuszek

 

Existing State: Deteriorated Building + functionally and aesthetically chaotic surroundings.

The location was also an important aspect - the plot was situated in one of the most vivid streets in the past, being the link between train and bus station, universities,  cultural area and city center. Nowadays the buildings in the area are deteriorating or demolished for developer purposes. I wanted to show that there is much bigger potential on this place reflecting the potential of growing creative class in the city.

-Piotr Matuszek

 

Visually the project is referring to the works of metabolism and structuralism in architecture - but this is more the effect, than the intention. Ideologically is set in the evolution of office work concepts. That was the experiment of what will happen when I combine the freedom and flexibility with structural consistency.

-Piotr Matuszek

During the design process, I try not to compare my work to others. In every project regardless the creative area, there are so many factors affecting the concept, that I don't think there are the need and purpose of comparison. Comparisons are quite dangerous for me - it consists of evaluating that something is better or worse than another. When I was a young student comparison were the basic approach to design - I wanted to do something "not worse than..." of "alike...". This is a safe path, but in my opinion it builds a fear of experimenting, making mistakes, it pushes to mimetism. Of course in professional work, there are compromises and you have to be aware of the limits - but still look for the uniqueness of your design compared to others can be a trap.

-Piotr Matuszek

 

 

 

I don't really know what is my style :) I think that I don't want to have any. My project are built on external factors which shape the design - the more factors I am taking into consideration, the more confident I am that I'm doing a proper job. That is why I completely don't know how the project will end up like - but it is fantastic because every design task is a rebus to solve with clues spread all around. That is why I can't describe my style really. But I love to watch projects of others from photographs of natural style Laurent Nivalle through bold graphic designs of Ars Thanea, 3D works of Platige Image, interior styling of Aneta Arclin or Lorenzo Pennati ending with architecture simplicity of Mies Van der Roche or Sanaa.

-Piotr Matuszek

 

I think that creativity comes from curiosity. So I would advice to talk a lot to other people to feel their needs, be aware of what is happening in other creative areas and look for inspirations outside your craft. To be empathetic to others and demanding to yourself.

-Piotr Matuszek

See the whole project here.

 

About Piotr Matuszek

Piotr Matuszek studied architecture in Białystok Technical University and Sint Lucas Brussels. He won a Special Prize winner in international competition “Venice City Vision Competition” (group work) and Third Prize winner in the international competition “Australian Modular House Competition” (group work). His creative works are focused around such areas as graphic design, branding, architectural photography, architecture and interior design and architectural visualizations. See more of his work on Behance.