Skanska’s Holm House 5 development is underway in Warsaw. The old tree on the plot is an approximately 150-year-old oak. Its grand form has made the tree an integral part of the project and will be the main decoration of the courtyard.
The trees grow for a very long time. The residents of the new development would have to wait more than a century for such a specimen. The developer decided to preserve the oak tree, which was protected for the duration of construction. To do this, he teamed up with a team of expert surveyors and the country’s best scientists – dendrologists with arboricultural expertise – who developed a method to preserve the tree without removing it. The tree was a key reference point for the entire design and construction process of the development and required the developer to create a unique concept that had to fit harmoniously into the existing architecture of the earlier phases of Holm House on the site.
In the design of Holm House 5, we opted for a modern block with clear geometric shapes, which contrasts with the natural, irregular shape of the oak tree growing on the site. The tree is special to us, especially in autumn when its leaves turn a beautiful orange-red colour. We wanted to preserve this original combination between modernity and nature. That is why we decided to use copper imitation materials on the parapets of the building. It has the same orange-red hue as the leaves of our oak trees in autumn. These elements were intended to bring harmony between the irregularity of the tree, with its twisting branches and boughs, and the geometric shapes of the building,” explains the architect, Bogdan Kulczyński.
Preparing the oak tree for the start of construction involved numerous consultations with experts and specialised treatments to strengthen its condition. This work was carried out under the supervision of the expert and long-standing environmental expert witness, Jarema Andrzej Rabinski.
The oak tree on the Holm House 5 plot is unique because of its age-old history. We took intensive care of this tree for nearly two years, carrying out necessary maintenance measures such as securing the root system, constantly monitoring its condition and watering it regularly. We provided it with the right nutrients and monitored its condition in every detail. This is an unprecedented example of active and committed cooperation between architects, the developer and greenery experts to preserve this unique tree as the centrepiece of the Holm House 5 project,” says Jarema Andrzej Rabiński, a long-time expert witness and surveyor.
The process can be seen well in the photographs. The tree with its root system is shielded by a so-called root screen, a protection in the form of a partition which, for construction purposes, protects the face of the foundations from root penetration.
Thanks to this method, every oak root we came across during our manual excavation work was cut off with secateurs by arborists in order to prevent the delicate so-called trichomes located on the roots of this tree from being severed, adds Jarema Andrzej Rabiński.
As part of the final stage of the Holm House development on Zdziechowskiego Street in Warsaw, 78 flats will be built with floor areas ranging from 27 to 110 square metres. Four commercial premises are planned for the ground floor. The design of the estate was created by the Kulczyński Architekt studio.
source: Skanska Residential Development Poland
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