Softbox

We outfitted this small apartment in warsaw with a unique single piece unit called the 'hardbox'.
The room is then surrounded by a curtained wall that contrasts with the 'hardbox' in the center. The 'hardbox' is
clad in recycled wood from furniture that belonged to the owner's grandmother. it features a kitchen, bathroom
and an extra sleeping space for two people.

Dwell 09.2009 / ISSN 1530-5309 / Finishing touch / Handle With Care :

Before moving with his parents form Warsaw to Paris at age 16, Krzysztof often visited his grandmother in her 800-square-foot apartment. Shortly after her death in 2005, then 25-year-old Krzysztof returned to Poland and moved into her home, which was filled with a hodgepodge of wooden furniture accumulated since the late 1940s, when his great-grandparents moved into the apartment. Though Krzysztof wanted to modernize the space, he "didn't want the old life of the apartment to disappear completely."

With Warsaw architecture firm Centrala, Krzysztof arrived at a compromise. Together, they dismantled the apartment’s old doors, tables, bookshelves, and chairs, and used them to build a 12-by-10-foot "free standing unit—dubbed the Hardbox that contains a kitchen, toilet shower, bathtub, and fold-out guest bed. The rules: No panel could be the same color or shape, nor could they alter design details like moldings or keyholes. Even the doorpost lined with faded pencil marks tracking Krzysztof’s height as a growing boy was incorporated into the piece.

In a world where things that should be saved are all too often lost and those that should be replaced aren’t, the Hardbox strikes an admirable balance of sentiment and modernity.

cabinet-maker: Leszek Nowosielski

Małgorzata Kuciewicz,
Jakub Szczęsny