Benches, trees, gazebos and a friendly entrance area. The Globis office building in Poznań has been enriched by such attractive and refined surroundings, thanks to the design of Insomia studio by Szymon Januszewski. The interiors also underwent a consistent metamorphosis.
The Globis office building (design: Pentagram) has been standing for two decades in the very center of Poznań, on Roosevelta Street, next to the Kaponiera traffic circle and the Mercure hotel. The simple and rather massive block is strongly exposed in the space of the wide busy street and the neighboring trench with railroad tracks. The entrance zone in front of the office building is small in size - limited by the hotel driveway and parking lot to the east and Słowackiego Street to the north.
View of Roosevelt Street, across the railroad tracks from the Theater Bridge; from the right: Globis, Mercure Hotel and Baltyk Tower
photo: Jakub Glaz
Designers from the Insomia studio managed to adapt these small spaces in such a way that they now provide an intimate intermediate zone between the interior and the building's rather noisy and incongruous surroundings. Szymon Januszewski of Insomia takes a closer look at the details:
The owners of the building wanted to match the building to the expectations of today's users - mostly from the younger generation. We were therefore asked to transform all the common spaces inside, but also to revitalize the entrance area. So on the outside, we proposed a kind of street parallel to the facade - running within a new openwork structure with platforms, flower pots, bike racks and canopies. The idea was to create a friendly point of contact between the zone in front of the entrance and the main lobby - also transformed by us.
The space by the Globis office building in Poznan, designed by Insomia, a fragment of an openwork structure in front of the main entrance
photo: Jakub Głaz
harmless marmots
The arrangement of the space around the building is dominated by several materials: steel, wood, bent-pulled mesh. The form of the openwork extension was consulted by Insomia with the authors of the original project. It is, by the way, independent of the structure of the office building - it is a separate structure, a kind of second skin of the building. Januszewski points out the attention to the context: the added structure has the same height as the arcade of the neighboring modernist Mercure Hotel (formerly Merkury, design: J. Cieslinski, J. Wêclawski 1964, reconstruction: W. Kolesinski studio 2001). On the other hand, the width of the "alley" is large enough to accommodate the tables of the food and beverage establishment that is to start operating in the exposed corner unit on the first floor. Januszewski reports that the casual character of the whole is also to be ensured by the greenery that did not exist here before.
We planted marmots - not tall multi-stemmed trees- in pots. We had planned birch trees, but had to compromise with the investor, who feared the finality of larger trees, although we prepared pots and for sizable specimens.
The whole project is intended not only to make the office building more pleasant for the employees working here (optimistic inscriptions on the sidewalks around the building also serve this purpose), but also , as Januszewski says , todraw passersby into the thus enlivened space. The first floor of the office building is henceforth to be associated more with an archetypal shopping street, rather than a typical office building.
The space next to the Globis office building in Poznan - designed by Insomia, 1st and 2nd space on the south side of the building: swedes and gazebos, in the background a residential project also by Insomia
photo: Jakub Glaz
gazebos connect
At the same time, three gazebos on a circular plan were created in a secluded spot on the south side - publicly accessible, but intended primarily for employees. Set on the grass and next to pots of hollyhocks, they are also a friendly addition to the rather lifeless rear courtyard of the hotel. Meanwhile, a residential development is under construction next door, also by Insomia (we wrote about it here).
The space by the Globis office building in Poznan - designed by Insomia, 1. gazebos on the south side, 2. a bench incorporated into the front structure
photo: Jakub Glaz
Januszewski is keen to ensure that the outdoor spaces: urban, hotel, Globis and at the Insomia-designed buildings create a relatively coherent whole, which, however, depends not only on the good will of the designer, but also on the willingness of individual owners. Globis has done its homework well. Now it is worth going even further: giving a friendly character to the space occupied today by the uninterestingly landscaped driveway and parking lot on the Roosevelt side. The new surroundings of the office building harmonize very well with the new interiors of the building, which are maintained in the same character. It's time, then, for a similar reassurance of what's outside.
PS We don't show the interiors because , as the designer told us , the owner of the building makes his permission for the presentation conditional on the PR department's prior approval of our text.
