Balancing between two countries. The architect Wojtek Grabianowski

Originally, Wojtek Grabianowski, who comes from a well-known, wealthy Poznań family, never had any intention of emigrating. As a great lover of art, he wanted to create something himself, and decided to study architecture. At that time, architecture was taught at the State University of Fine Arts (Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Sztuk Plastycznych), and not at a technical college (Politechnika). There, he met his wife, a fellow student who was studying for a diploma in graphic design. In 1971, during the height of the communist period, the young couple decided to spend their honeymoon making their dream come true of seeing the art treasures of Italy and Spain that they knew from books and photos at first hand. Fascinated by what they were able to experience in the west, they spontaneously decided to spend more time there than originally planned. When “a short time” later they reported to the Polish military mission in West Berlin (there was no Polish embassy there during that time) in order to extend their passports, they were told that they would have to reckon with serious consequences on their return… Gripped by fear and uncertainty, they took the difficult, momentous decision not to go back home to Poland…

At that time, Wojtek Grabianowski did not yet speak German. At his first meeting with Helmut Rhode, head of the RKW architecture bureau in Düsseldorf, which had already been in operation since 1950, he was accompanied by an interpreter, and he knew that his drawings were his only hope of being taken on. Evidently, however, art really doesn’t require translation: he was told to his astonishment that he had been made the first foreign employee of “RKW Rhode Kellermann Wawrowsky” in Düsseldorf. Over the first few months, he worked for the company without a residence permit, a work permit or a secure legal standing. However, these problems were quickly resolved. Initially, Grabianowski worked as a simple architect. He rarely talks about this period, but it is evident from what he says that this wasn’t an easy time for him.

He had already gained his first practical experience in his hometown of Poznań. After completing his studies, he worked as an assistant at the university, and was involved in projects such as the completion of the interior of the international exhibition centre halls in Poznań (Międzynarodowe Targi Poznańskie). As well as a large number of practical skills, he also learned what it meant to take on responsibility for his work. In this respect, he likes to quote his first mentor, Professor Stanisław Zamecznik: “I only do exhibitions. They have one clear advantage: if I do a bad job of building a house, it remains standing there for the rest of my life. But if I do a bad job of curating an exhibition, the worst-case scenario is that I simply don’t photograph it.” 

Wojtek Grabianowski spent his entire career in the offices of RKW in Düsseldorf, during which time he had to overcome all kinds of obstacles. One important breakthrough came with the end of communism and the opening of the borders. It began with a project in the former GDR, the conversion of the former abattoir in Leipzig and its historical buildings into the headquarters of the Mitteldeutsche Rundfunk (MDR) state radio broadcasting company. The design offered by RKW won the tender, but ultimately, the contract was awarded to a competitor from Munich. Nevertheless, the first step in the east had been taken. Despite the disappointment, it was a positive development. Helmut Rhode delegated to Wojtek Grabianowski the task of establishing an RKW branch office in Leipzig, saying: “You’re from the east, so you’ll understand the people there.” Grabianowski is still surprised by his attitude today. “How can I, born a Pole, understand a German from the east better than a fellow German from the west?” 

After the Leipzig office had been set up, the first project was to convert the Specks Hof commercial and exhibition building in Leipzig into a high-class office building with a modern shopping mall. It wasn’t an easy task, since the building complex was among the landmarks of the city, and the investor, the listed building authority and the local population all had their own ideas about how it should look. However, in the end, it was during this challenge that Grabianowski developed his excellent mediation skills. He worked with visual artists for the first time, and with them created solutions typical of the RKW and Grabianowski style, and which to a certain degree became his architectural trademarks. Not only that: in 1996, the project won an Oscar at the MIPIM, the world’s largest real estate trade fair in Cannes, for “Best Refurbished Office Building”. This opened up opportunities for refurbishing other important historical buildings, including the Mannesmann Tower, the Behrensbau and ARAG-Haus in Düsseldorf, a property owned by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Schuch Avenue (Aleja Szucha) in Warsaw, a building in Senatorska Street, the Smyk department store, and the “Round Building” (Okrąglak) and the “Square House” (Kwadraciak) office building in Poznań. However, RKW and Grabianowski didn’t just specialise in refurbishing old buildings. 

They also designed new ones. One important example is the Haus der Ärzteschaft centre in Düsseldorf, the headquarters of four professional medical associations, which was constructed as four L-shaped buildings interconnected by a glass roof. Thanks to the transparency of the roof structure, the individual nature of the buildings has been retained, although formally speaking, they are a single unit. At the same time, the ensemble is easily adaptable to different uses, since it can also be divided up into individual floors or other smaller units. The covered atrium in the centre of the complex serves as a place for meeting and talking, as well as offering space for exhibitions and concerts. The glass roof is supported on slim pillars that are freely arranged like trees in a forest. Thanks to this successful combination of high-quality architecture and the high efficiency of the building, an individual address for each of the institutions based here was created in an unconventional communal environment. 

The next major order for RKW and its managing director Wojtek Grabianowski was the Centro Oberhausen, a top-class shopping and leisure centre with a complex infrastructure covering an area of 80 hectares, including one of the largest European concert halls, the Arena Oberhausen. Since its completion, the Centro has become the largest shopping centre in Europe, with around 23 million visitors annually. When it came to this project, which attracted attention even beyond the federal state borders of North Rhine Westphalia, Grabianowski took the motto of Helmut Rhode, his mentor and first boss in Germany, to heart: “There is neither exterior nor interior architecture; there is only good or bad architecture.” Through his work, Grabianowski certainly proved that he was a master of good architecture.

Other steps along the road to perfecting his architectural skills included high-profile buildings that Grabianowski designed for global German car manufacturers such as Porsche, Audi, Volkswagen and Mann, as well as for other leading industrial companies such as Eurocopter. The first in this series of buildings was the electronics centre on the Audi factory site in Ingolstadt. Common to all of these projects was the requirement that a working environment should be created that facilitated interactions at all hierarchical levels. For this purpose, various different architectural solutions were found, from a thoroughfare that acted as the main axis of a building, such as Hall 90 at the VW plant in Wolfsburg, through to figures-of-eight that intertwine with each other at the Porsche site, which offer employees a meandering path through the entire building and all departments – and which are constructed at a 3.5-degree angle of inclination. 

However, Wojtek Grabianowski’s flagship project later became the Stadion Energa in Gdańsk [now called “Polsat Plus Arena Gdańsk – translator’s note], known affectionately by the local population as “our amber”. It was the architect’s first stadium, and won him many prizes. It also marked the beginning of the stadium era in his career. Since the Euro 2012 football tournament, which was held in Poland and Ukraine, was such a highly prestigious sporting event, the city of Gdańsk took the project very seriously. The idea for the building, which looks like a rough piece of amber washed up on a Baltic Sea beach, came from Grabianowski and his wife Grażyna, and immediately caused a furore. As a result, the “German” architect and the RKW bureau in Düsseldorf that he represented were entrusted with this enormously important building for the city of Gdańsk and for Poland as a whole. The delicate support structure of the stadium, together with its outer shell, is reminiscent of the hull of an old ship. The six types of differently coloured polycarbonate panels used for the façade make the stadium shimmer like amber. In this way, it combines two motifs typically associated with Gdańsk: the city’s maritime history and “Baltic Sea gold”. In the interim, this unique football arena has become one of the best-known buildings in Poland, and is often shown in promotional films about the country. For Grabianowski and his team, building the arena was a new experience, not least since the Polish “everyday construction site life” differed from the German standards. However, the knowledge he gained about the UEFA regulations, which determined even how high the grass on the playing field should be, would serve him in good stead when he later began to specialise in the construction of sports arenas of this type. 

The next order came from Kaliningrad, where a similar stadium was also being planned. Since there was no question of simply repeating the same design, a new concept had to be found. Finally, a darker amber shape framed in silver was chosen, which looks like an exquisite ring. By contrast, the design for the arena for the Winter Olympics in Sochi was inspired by snowflakes. In Algiers, the desert rose was used as a motif. With this approach, Grabianowski takes key elements from the natural environment around his buildings and translates them into the language of architecture.

However, he also created smaller formats that fill him with nostalgic pride. For example, he particularly enjoys trips back to his home city of Poznań, where he designed several buildings, including the Murawa Office complex. However, even with more mundane projects such as this, he remains true to his motto that the local conditions and environment should be respected and taken into account. In the master’s opinion, good architecture should retain the historical context, but in a modern form, so that a new concept, created with the architectural tools of the 21st century, blends in as smoothly as possible with the characteristic features of its surroundings. He already recognised the value of this principle as a young architect, when he spent a long time looking for the right location with an investor who wanted to build a commercial centre in Germany. To him, it was always important to gain a comprehensive understanding of the location in question, not just with regard to its suitability as a construction site, but also in terms of the people who lived there and what they wanted. Also, he wanted to obtain a feel for the place by getting to know its “smell and taste”. It was only after these factors had been carefully considered that the investor decided to go ahead with building the complex. The centres built by Grabianowski in “places he understands” always operate smoothly. That’s why the aura of a location is so important for every project that he designs.

His latest projects include the “Warehouse Island” (Wyspa Spichrzów) in Gdańsk. Here, too, he combines historical and contemporary elements; here, too, the features characteristic of Grabianowski’s work and the RKW Architektur + style immediately stand out. The warehouse island is situated directly next to the historically important Main City area, and once symbolised the Hanseatic city’s wealth. After the Second World War, only the ruins of the warehouses and red brick buildings remained. The architectural concept for the northern section of the island, which won against the competition, is designed to breathe new life into the former silhouette and the adjacent roads and courtyards. A luxury hotel is also planned, with a terrace offering views across Gdańsk Bay and the old city. A draft design has also been completed for the “Polish Sail” (Polski Żagiel), a conference and office space next to the stadium, with a connection to the Gdańsk trade fair centre (Targi Gdańskie), which is reminiscent of the famous Burj Al Arab in Dubai, albeit with a typical Polish touch.

The past and present also merge in Wojtek Grabianowski’s personal life. That’s why he loves returning to Poland – and coming back to Düsseldorf, where he has lived for the last 47 years. He admits that he has got used to being in both worlds, and he doesn’t mind being called a German in Poland, while forever remaining a Pole in Germany. The architecture bureau where he was once taken on as the company’s first foreign employee, and where he later became managing director, now employs nearly 400 architects, 160 of whom come from 35 countries. In this respect, he and his Polish team of architects are no longer an exception. He now jokes that the RKW office is rather like the Tower of Babel, in which architectural dreams from the Bible are meant to come true. After all, so many different countries and languages come together, and every so often, towers are built. For Grabianowski, one thing is especially important here: he is not interested in generating so-called “national projects”. If, for example, a building design for Italy is required, it is important that the team of architects consists of people from Spain, Germany, France, Poland, and one Italian. This diversity also opens up opportunities to work worldwide.

In his 47 years of working, Wojtek Grabianowski has won over 150 national and international awards with the RKW bureau, including the Oscar mentioned above, the “Special MIPIM Jury Award”, in Cannes in 1996. However, just one trophy takes pride of place in Grabianowski’s office: the one he was given for his favourite award. It is a statuette of the Italian architect Giovanni Battista di Quadro, who was responsible among other things for rebuilding the famous City Hall in Poznań. This honorary award was presented by the city of Poznań to Grabianowski for his design for the Murawa Office complex. When asked why he loves this rather unattractive figure so much, he says: “As a boy, I passed the City Hall hundreds of times, and I thought about the Italian who lived in a foreign country for which he designed buildings. I was met with the same fate, and that’s why I understand that so well.”

Grabianowski is convinced that despite the considerable technical progress of recent years, it is humans who play the most important role, even in the large-scale projects: their instinct and sensitivity, as well as their attitude towards life, people and work. It is commonly thought that people change with time. This is not true of Wojtek Grabianowski. His team stresses that he is a good listener and someone who never raises his voice. His colleagues appreciate his way of dealing with people, his creativity and his management skills. As a manager, he has never once forced his will onto others. Quite the contrary: it is said that he is able to inspire others, increasing their confidence and giving people the creative space they need. When asked what is most important to him in life, he immediately says “being human”, adding: “Anyone can become an architect, but not everyone becomes a good person.”

 

Roma Stacherska-Jung, September 2018