New Gate of Łódź

This project is particularly close to our hearts, as we find many similarities to the Silesian cities in Łódź, where we live every day and where our studio has been operating for 20 years.

Just as in Łódź, a discussion is currently taking place in Katowice about a new symbol for the city in the context of our .KTW project.

We consistently emphasise, however, that it is not in our nature to design architecture with the intention of creating a new symbol for the city. We design architecture that is pragmatic, sincere but not deprived of its character and punch. It is with the same sensitivity that we approach the project of the ‘City Gate’ in Łódź, so important to its residents.
For us, this project is an attempt to accurately read the needs of Łódź, a city which is being rediscovered today; a city which, however, is not deprived of its identity and character.

Łódź is a multicultural city, a patchwork city, which, like the Silesian metropolis, needs new, attractive common spaces, meeting places, open passages and squares for inhabitants and visitors. One of such places is to be the new Gate of Łódź, because Łódź does not need – I believe – new glass houses today.

The ‘City Gate’ is to be an example of thinking broadly about the city and its future users and new employees. The architecture of this building is to be simple and timeless, using corten, a modern material whose colour refers to brick, a material which is the architectural origin of Łódź.

Will this place ever become a new symbol of the city for the people of Łódź? This question can only be answered years later. For us, the most important thing is that it becomes a kind of record of the time, the people and their needs.

Przemo Łukasik, Łukasz Zagała

Project page: City Gate (Brama Miasta).