Outdoor Connection

The residence is transformed by a relocated mezzanine where a sunken interior court with a retractable glass roof connects to the planted green roof garden above. This gesture of subtracting volume from the interior brings the outdoors into the primary living zones. The roof, peeled back, showers the spaces with natural light. When open, ample air flow enters what was once a poorly ventilated and dark loft. By night, the court acts as an internal lantern illuminating the loft below.

Historic Dialogue

Embracing the building’s industrial past, a visual discourse between new and old is devised through insertions of modern materials along with restored or reclaimed materials from the loft. A custom steel stair repurposes timbers from the old roof joists as treads and landings. The multiple level residence is unified by a walnut fascia that serves as a conceptual datum.

Embracing the building’s industrial past, a visual discourse between new and old is devised through insertions of modern materials along with restored or reclaimed materials from the loft. A custom steel stair repurposes timbers from the old roof joists as treads and landings. The multiple level residence is unified by a walnut fascia that serves as a conceptual datum.

Designed by Przemo Lukasik of the architectural office Medusa Group architects, this loft is an example of – still rare in Silesia – adaptation of industrial architecture. After extraction was discontinued at Zaklady Gorniczo – Hutnicze “Orzel Bialy” (a mining and steelworks complex) in Bytom, the lamp room and time clock room were scheduled for demolition. Suspended on eight reinforced-concrete pillars, derelict and half-disintegrated. Its unique location, interesting form and adequate area made the architect think about it as a future home.

Mr Lukasik decided to sand and paint the existing steel structure, juxtaposing it with the ceiling where the concrete was exposed after other layers were removed. The colour scheme of the interior and of the elevation was intended to fit well into the typical spectrum of grayish tones used in heavy industry, with deliberate avoidance of the popular silver. It is only the new-built parts – the toilette and dressing room – that has been accentuated with some red.

Interventions are minimal inside and out, but the project is notable for reusing something so atypical and unique in and of itself. The architect’s ability to see the inherent qualities in something not immediately appealing helped save an industrial artifact and create a unique home for the architect and his family.

The two sides, along the lower loft rooms – open with sliding doors. There are numbers and graphics depicting the role of the room. In the eyes immediately throws one thing.

For many people, the concept to live in an unusual, almost abandoned place is strange. Where is the house with a garden? Where is the red tile on a sloping roof of a terraced house? Unthinkable. And I like it. A lot.