The next phase of the Diasfera development in Łódź, which will offer flats in the city centre, has been launched. The third phase of the project being developed by Duda Development is entering the final stage of construction. Completion of the works is planned for 2025. The building is distinguished by its attractive location and carefully designed architecture. In the building’s lobby, one will be able to see a ceramic mosaic, the concept for which was worked on by architects from the DRAFT Authorial Design Studio, authors of the concept for the entire establishment. What else makes the building stand out?
For years, the investment implemented by Duda Development has been a part of the landscape of downtown Łódź, combining urban history with modernity. The third phase of the project is just entering the final stage of construction, which will be completed later this year. The new phase of the Łódź Diasfera is being built on the corner of Piłsudskiego Avenue and Kilińskiego Street. An eight-storey building with 115 residential units is being built here. The available square metres vary, starting from a compact 26 square metres and reaching up to 148 square metres for penthouses equipped with two terraces and a balcony. In this way, the developer will offer a place to live for both singles and families with children.
Design reminiscent of urban traditions
In designing the building, the architects at DRAFT faced the difficult task of fitting the building into a neighbourhood whose appearance has been changing uncontrollably for decades. The Diasfera building is intended to bring order to this space.
The basic task, and at the same time the greatest challenge, was to complete, or create, two street frontages at an intersection where these do not exist. On the one hand, Kilińskiego Street, with missing buildings and degraded urban planning along virtually its entire length. On the other, Piłsudskiego Street, probably the most important artery in Łódź, with an urban layout that, following the complete demolition of the opposite frontage (the creation of Mickiewicza – Piłsudskiego avenues in the 1970s), is in the process of being created anew. For the image of the city it is a surprisingly important corner, visible from distant perspectives, e.g. from the “Stable of the Unicorns”. The correct proportions and divisions had to be created in the place of the virtual image, so that they began to create the missing piece of the city and present the correct scale of the contemporary tenement, built against the backdrop of the perspective of the office buildings of the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and those under construction today. The most inspiring thing for us was precisely this sentiment of the seventies and the combination of thinking about the city of great thoroughfares, characteristic of that time, with the context of the ‘Łódź of tenement houses’ currently being reclaimed in the revitalisation process – explains architect Michał Karpiński of the Authorial Design Studio DRAFT.
As a result, they designed an elegant building with a cascading form, which gives an impression of lightness to the whole mass. The complex is enriched with a green patio and a covered roof garden, which bring nature into the urbanised space. In addition, the flats are distinguished by enclosed loggias and spacious terraces on the top floors. These are elements that have been designed with future residents in mind, for whom Diasfera will offer places to relax.
Modern flats in the centre of Łódź
When designing the building, the architects opted for elegant and timeless solutions. Residents will have a two-level garage hall with a section for bicycles and separate storerooms on each floor. The entrance area will have a porter’s lodge with 24-hour monitoring, which increases the feeling of security. Doors to the flats will meet high anti-burglary standards and an anti-smog system will be installed in each unit.
The architects have paid a lot of attention to the common areas. Forget stark white. The building’s interiors will be distinguished by a modern but cosy colour palette kept in shades of brown. An advantage is the use of various materials, which will introduce a wealth of textures into the interior. A distinctive feature of the development will be the entrance hall, the wall of which will be decorated with a mosaic of glazed tiles.
When working on the concept for the mosaic, the architects decided to draw on the legacy of Łódź’s historical buildings. The designed mosaic refers to the use of brick as a finishing layer and refers to factory buildings and residential buildings designed in the Neo-Gothic or Neo-Renaissance style. Ceramic mosaics were also placed on modernist residential buildings in Łódź.
The basic pattern of the mosaic in the form of gradient vertical stripes, bringing to mind tall urban buildings, was generated using AI tools on the basis of about 50 graphics that we searched for inspiration. We then made a selection of the materials we received and chose a piece of interest. We adjusted its resolution and format so that the number of pixels in each direction matched the number of rows and columns of bricks in the mosaic. We manually established a colour threshold to reduce the gradient to the palette of interest. We then manually described each brick by eight colours. The process combined the action of artificial intelligence with image processing with simple scripts from a graphic editor and, finally, the manual application of our own evaluation and assignment algorithm,” says architect Michal Karpinski.
In this way, the residents of Diasfera will have a unique decoration to greet those entering the entrance hall.
The city at hand
From the Diasfera housing estate in Łódź, it takes just four minutes to reach Park Źródliska and a ten-minute walk to the Palm House. In half an hour, residents will find themselves in Księży Młyn – one of the most interesting urban fragments of Łódź. The proximity of public transport, shops and educational facilities means that living in the third stage of Diasfera is expected to be comfortable and allow residents to easily take advantage of the city’s cultural offer.
The third phase of Diasfera Łódzka combines classic elegance with modern finishes, offering residents space and convenience in close proximity to the vibrant city centre. The architecture of the building does not shout, it is elegant and subdued. This is precisely the effect the architects working on the project wanted to achieve.
A lot of architecture tries to become iconic at all costs. The lex-developer formula continues to produce projects that dominate their surroundings. There are currently few buildings which try to be an added value, a safe, elegant background for the residents’ lives,” sums up architect Michał Karpiński.
For more information visit: www.diasfera.pl
design team: arch. Monika Wojnarowska – architect, chief designer, arch. Michał Karpiński – architect, chief designer
dRAFT design studio team: arch. Monika Barbachowska – architect, arch. Maja Janaszczyk-Mielnicka – architect, arch. Joanna Ignaczak – architect
source: Duda Development, own study
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