The ‘Koszyki’ Market Hall & Office Facilities

Together with its three neighbouring office buildings, the ‘Koszyki’ Market Hall consists of two functional components developed by JEMS Architekci in Warsaw. Our task was to design the interiors for all these facilities and develop the semi-public spaces between them.

The market hall is at the heart of this concept. It was important for us to give an additional focus to its character – not as much through contrasts but breaking intuitive patterns. In this process, we made a conscious effort to reflect the context of a market hall, as defined by 19th century architecture, in a slightly different way. Our objective was to define the framework for the operating of prospective lessees. In those spaces where authentic elements, preserved from the past were missing, such as sections of floor tiling, we tried to find the right replacements with simple materials – in this case, concrete. Industrial-grade floors together with pre-fabricated elements serve as background for stall frames, made of rolled steel painted black.

We used the same approach for the office spaces. The simple message conveyed via the architectural design itself, encouraged us to apply a wide range of stylizations. The common spaces in the office buildings (entrance and lift areas, as well as corridors on successive levels) have been designed with the ‘basket’ theme in mind. The expanded metal sheets used in the hall spaces (copper-gold in colour) have been developed to resemble a wicker basket, however, in its fully contemporary character. The crude pattern of the walls has been juxtaposed with elegant materials. For one of the halls, we have designed a floor made of aluminium. The idea is that it will keep changing over time, as more and more wear and scratches become visible. For another hall, we used marble.

The passageways have been developed into spaces for which visual identification is inspired by street art. At the same time, the representative halls of the two office buildings surrounding the market hall, with their open-access design, have been conceived as potential art-exhibition venues, with Griffin ArtSpace as patron. For the common spaces of the staircases, we have proposed the artistic inputs from the Kolektyf group in Wrocław.

Taking into account the interdisciplinary character of our studio, we have also invited Oskar Zienta to work with us. His installation will be exhibited in the semi-public spaces of the squares situated between the market hall and the office buildings.

We invite you to visit the project’s page.