City Rooftop Residential

The main principle was to create a luxury rooftop residence that blends contemporary living with panoramic urban experiences. Inspiration came from Warsaw’s cityscape, where rooftops offer unique perspectives of the skyline, sunlight, and historical urban layers. The concept integrates architecture, interior design, and art to transform the space into a multi-dimensional urban retreat.

The focus was on maximizing natural light, open spatial flow, and views of the city, while maintaining functional intimacy for private living. I aimed to achieve a sense of openness without losing warmth, balancing minimalism with luxurious textures, and harmonizing furniture, lighting, and artwork to create a coherent aesthetic.

I intend to document the project as a case study in urban rooftop design and explore applying similar principles to other residential rooftops. The project will serve as inspiration for clients and architects interested in vertical urban living with high design standards.

I treat the dialogue between old and new as the project’s primary voice: rather than pastiche, I pursued a restrained translation of Polish interwar ornament geometry, stylised foliate friezes and elegant cornice rhythms into contemporary proportions and materials. The trick was to extract the grammar of ornament (scale, rhythm, negative space) and recompose it as modern intervals: recessed panels become acoustic-lined niches, a decorative frieze becomes a thin metal inlay, and geometric motifs are suggested in brass insets rather than carved plaster. This keeps the emotional memory of Warsaw’s interiors while avoiding sentimental replication; the result is a living interior that reads as both familiar and new, respectful of context but calibrated for 21st-century use.

The apartment’s location framed by the city’s layered riverside and its mixture of nineteenth-century façades and newer geometry demanded a design that could hold both civic gravity and domestic intimacy. I studied local cornice heights, window rhythms and the muted palette of riverside masonry, then translated those cues into an interior scale that feels of-a-place: tall sightlines, generous window reveals and a palette that references river-stone, oxidised metals and old varnish. The apartment thus becomes a compact urban belvedere: it paraphrases the river’s muted light and the city’s stratified history while remaining a contemporary retreat for cultural evenings and quiet mornings.

Preserving the interior’s historical temperament required technical discretion. We concealed mechanical systems within bespoke joinery, used slim linear diffusers in vaulted profiles and built service corridors into panelled walls to avoid surface clutter. Early coordination with MEP specialists allowed us to route ductwork behind stone cladding and drop bespoke ceiling soffits only where proportionally necessary. Where active systems had to be visible, their finishes were carefully chosen — matte black grilles, hand-finished brass registers — so they read as crafted details rather than aftermarket additions. This is how I safeguarded authenticity while delivering modern comfort.