kidney apartment

The two storey apartment is located in a postmodern dwelling house in the southern Warsaw and was designed for a couple with two daughters. The bizarre title of our project refers to the customly designed object dividing main area into kitchen and living zone. It is centrally located, covered with very tactile felt tissue and inviting newcomers to stroke and caress it which is an hommage to our clients' hospitality! It consists of cabinets with a mobile cargo - a full height partition separating kitchen from dining room on one side, and staircase with library unit and toilet on the other side.

The other source of our inspiration was a work of Adam Jastrzębski, Adam-X, an artist and privately a friend of the family. His "Winylowiec" consists of vinyl stickers meticulously placed one on top of the other creating a corrugated yet flat surface - true gem in our clients' collection. It reminds us also of a striped flint, a rare stone used to produce prehistoric jewellery which can be found in mines in southern Poland. This is why we imagined our kidney as a block of mossy stone which when carved reveals its striped nature.

The wooden background for the kidney is a wall partition hiding some of the kitchen cabinets, ventilation ducts and a wardrobe. Behind it one can (or cannot:) find a master bedroom and bathroom. The striped flight of stairs revealing a flint structure of the kidney will lead us to second floor where the girls' bedroom, parlour and bathroom are situated. They are connected by a corridor full of cabinets and a small laundry behind white lacquered fronts and also linked with a small glass footbridge above the staircase. One can reach both rooms by a mezzanine above the corridor to which leads a passage hidden in the wardrobe in the bedroom and in the parlour. Parents hate us as their daughters now love playing tag with them. Oh, by the way, kidney is also about kidding, isn't it?

kacper gronkiewicz