mail@replusbureau.com
WILLA AJWA
Short info
ABOUT PROJECT
The elegant villa at 10 Piskova Street was built in 1906. According to archival records, the owner was Mrs. Turska. The villa’s original appearance was altered after a reconstruction in 1922 by architect Józef Hornung. It was then that the villa acquired the outlines of modernist style and the look we encountered at the start of the design process. An interesting fact is that in the 1920s the estate was purchased by the grandfather of the renowned Polish poet Adam Zagajewski. It was in this very villa that the future poet, prose writer, and essayist was born. For a long period, the estate was uninhabited and not maintained, which left the villa in a neglected state by the time our bureau was engaged. Thus, we faced a difficult task: to preserve, restore, and renovate the valuable architectural elements while also adapting the space to the needs of the new owners.
HOUSE CONFIGURATION
The existing villa is a one-story rectangular building with a basement of brick “Klein” vaults on metal beams, as well as an attic, whose structural elements were in satisfactory condition. The entrance to the house is located at the porch, accessed by stairs with a decorative balustrade, and at the corner of the porch stands a Doric column. The façade is smoothly plastered and crowned with a profiled cornice. The front façade is decorated with pilasters and an arched detail in the plaster above the window. The planning structure is of the enfilade type, where rooms are connected sequentially through doorways without corridors. Due to the deteriorated roof, many structural elements and interior finishes had been damaged, dampened, and affected by fungus. This was the condition we encountered at the start of the project. The main goal and task of our team was to study and restore the building’s elements while expanding the living space for the owners’ needs. The idea arose to integrate new volumes of simple, laconic form into the existing structure—elements that would remain in the background, appear contemporary, and highlight the villa’s historic architecture. As a result, an additional volume appeared at the first-floor level, housing a living room, and a second floor with a flat roof was added. The windows and doors were finished in an olive color, identified as one of the villa’s original paint layers. The window openings were complemented with Secession-style jardinières filled with cascading floral compositions.
LOCATING AND SITE
The villa is located near “Znesinnia” Park, on the quiet Piskova Street. In 1871, the street was named “Piskova,” derived from the sand quarries on the slopes of the Znesinnia Hills, which were developed until the mid-20th century. Local residents used to distribute the cleaned sand across the city, where it was employed not only for construction and housing repairs but also for scrubbing floors, cleaning dishes, and other household tasks. The plot stretches deep into the block, so the villa itself is not visible from the street. Around the villa, an old orchard with fruit trees has been preserved, cleared of thickets, and complemented with new greenery. One of the preserved trees is a quince, which inspired the new name proposed by the owners. As a result, a volumetric inscription in modern style, “VILLA QUINCE,” appeared on the building’s façade. The garden looks especially picturesque in spring, during the flowering season, giving unique charm to the historic building. The grounds feature a spacious gazebo, a carport, a guardhouse, and recreational areas. In part of the basement, the ground level was lowered, which made it possible to transform this floor into a fully residential one with large window openings. The basement has direct access to the terrace, reached via a smoothly curved ramp with retaining walls built from Austrian brick.
The new layout includes the main, representative rooms on the first floor: a spacious hall-veranda flowing into the kitchen on one side, and into the new extension on the other—a living-dining room closely connected with the garden through panoramic windows. From the kitchen hall, one can enter the study, accessed through authentic three-leaf doors with glass inserts, which were complemented with beveled glass. From the study, there is access to a corridor leading to the house’s staircase, connecting the second and basement levels. The guest bathroom and the owners’ private quarters—with a bedroom, separate bathroom, and walk-in closet—are hidden behind a wall decorated with an aged graphite mirror and stylish, sculptural metal handles by Tom Dixon.
Need a project?
The top floor accommodates three bedrooms, each with a private bathroom, and a shared walk-in closet. One of the bedrooms has access to a terrace. The interior of the house was created with respect for the history of the space. The ceilings in the veranda (hall) were preserved and restored, as well as partially in the kitchen and study. Fragments of the original decorative wall paintings were uncovered and revived in the veranda, kitchen, corridor, and study.
Delicately painted walls serve as a backdrop for the authentic murals, while parquet flooring in a French herringbone pattern, in a refined inky tone, adds depth and warmth. A striking detail is the tall brass skirting board, which visually ties together the representative rooms like a ribbon and accentuates the 1920s–1930s collection furniture in rich reddish veneer. In the bathrooms, Appiani mosaics and alabaster tiles were used. The walls are tiled up to a certain height, with the remaining surfaces finished in moisture-resistant plaster, echoing the Art Nouveau tradition where tiling was applied to only two-thirds of the walls. The second-floor flooring is finished with a medium-pile carpet in a greenish-silver sheen. The bedrooms feature minimalist beds with wooden frames lifted above the carpet by a shadow joint. The storage furniture is understated, while the bathrooms are finished in glossy tiles from Vogue Ceramics, adding a luxurious shine and giving the minimalist design a subtle retro character.
On the basement floor, a guest room with its own bathroom was created. Three enfilade-arranged rooms serve as a single auxiliary space with temperature control for storage, along with flexible use of the other two rooms. There is also a separate utility bathroom with a shower conveniently located near the courtyard.
