Vartso Tower. The tallest building in European Union by Foster + Partners
30/10/2022.
[Warsaw] Poland
metalocus, ADELA BONAS
metalocus, ADELA BONAS
Architecture firm Foster + Partners has completed the tallest building in the European Union. At a record-breaking 310 meters, Varso Tower is situated at the corner of Jana Pawla II and Chmielna Street an integral part of HB Reavis' Varso Place in Warsaw, Poland.
The tower is the tallest skyscraper in the European Union, creating a gateway to the new development, and is the new focal point of Warsaw’s skyline. Its connection with Warsaw’s main railway station strengthens the Polish capital’s position as a regional financial and commercial centre.
The tower is the tallest skyscraper in the European Union, creating a gateway to the new development, and is the new focal point of Warsaw’s skyline. Its connection with Warsaw’s main railway station strengthens the Polish capital’s position as a regional financial and commercial centre.
Vartso Tower by Foster + Partners. Photograph by Aaron Hargreaves / Foster + Partners
Vartso Tower by Foster + Partners. Photograph by Aaron Hargreaves / Foster + Partners
Vartso Tower by Foster + Partners. Photograph by Aaron Hargreaves / Foster + Partners
Vartso Tower by Foster + Partners. Photograph by HB Reavis
Vartso Tower by Foster + Partners. Photograph by HB Reavis
Vartso Tower by Foster + Partners. Photograph by HB Reavis
Varso Tower is situated at the corner of Jana Pawła II and Chmielna Streets, in the heart of Warsaw. Vartso Tower by Foster + Partners. Photograph by HB Reavis
Vartso Tower by Foster + Partners. Photograph by HB Reavis
Vartso Tower by Foster + Partners. Photograph by Aaron Hargreaves / Foster + Partners
Vartso Tower by Foster + Partners. Photograph by Aaron Hargreaves / Foster + Partners
Vartso Tower by Foster + Partners. Photograph by Aaron Hargreaves / Foster + Partners
Vartso Tower by Foster + Partners. Photograph by Aaron Hargreaves / Foster + Partners
Vartso Tower by Foster + Partners. Photograph by Aaron Hargreaves / Foster + Partners
The tower’s lobby features a 10-metre-high ceramic artwork by the local artist Krystyna Kaszuba-Wacławek, which animates the space. Vartso Tower by Foster + Partners. Photograph by Aaron Hargreaves / Foster + Partners
Vartso Tower by Foster + Partners. Photograph by Aaron Hargreaves / Foster + Partners
Vartso Tower by Foster + Partners. Photograph by Aaron Hargreaves / Foster + Partners
Vartso Tower by Foster + Partners. Photograph by HB Reavis
Vartso Tower by Foster + Partners. Photograph by HB Reavis
Vartso Tower by Foster + Partners. Photograph by HB Reavis
Vartso Tower by Foster + Partners. Photograph by Aaron Hargreaves / Foster + Partners
Vartso Tower by Foster + Partners. Photograph by HB Reavis
Vartso Tower by Foster + Partners. Photograph by Aaron Hargreaves / Foster + Partners
Vartso Tower by Foster + Partners. Photograph by Aaron Hargreaves / Foster + Partners
Site plan. Vartso Tower by Foster + Partners.
Ground floor plan. Vartso Tower by Foster + Partners.
Ground floor Mezzanine plan. Vartso Tower by Foster + Partners.
6th floor plan, typical floor. Vartso Tower by Foster + Partners.
25th floor plan. Vartso Tower by Foster + Partners.
34th floor plan. Vartso Tower by Foster + Partners.
38th floor plan. Vartso Tower by Foster + Partners.
44th floor plan. Vartso Tower by Foster + Partners.
46th floor plan. Vartso Tower by Foster + Partners.
47th floor plan. Vartso Tower by Foster + Partners.
49th floor plan. Vartso Tower by Foster + Partners.
53th floor plan. Vartso Tower by Foster + Partners.
Terraze floor plan. Vartso Tower by Foster + Partners.
Section. Vartso Tower by Foster + Partners.
Section. Vartso Tower by Foster + Partners.
Elevation. Vartso Tower by Foster + Partners.
Details. Vartso Tower by Foster + Partners.
The tower’s mixed-use programme designed by Foster + Partners has 53-storey and houses 70,000 square metres of space, including offices, a restaurant near the top of the building, two observation decks and a ground-floor cafe venue. An 80-metre spire crowns the tower’s dynamic form.
The offices are served via two banks of high-capacity double-deck lifts, with each car serving two floors at any one time. With 70,000 square meters of office space, the tower has large-span floorplates with three-meter clear height for open-plan offices.
The tower has access directly from the ground to a viewing platform at level 53. This is the highest inhabited floor in Poland with uninterrupted views of the city. Level 49 will soon offer a fully landscaped terrace bar, with sixteen trees, breaking the record for Warsaw’s highest garden.
Buro Happold was responsible for the building services on a complex site in the dense urban context. The energy-efficient strategy integrated into the building’s conception led to Varso Tower’s BREEAM Outstanding and WELL Gold certifications, due in part to its triple-glazed façades.
The offices are served via two banks of high-capacity double-deck lifts, with each car serving two floors at any one time. With 70,000 square meters of office space, the tower has large-span floorplates with three-meter clear height for open-plan offices.
The tower has access directly from the ground to a viewing platform at level 53. This is the highest inhabited floor in Poland with uninterrupted views of the city. Level 49 will soon offer a fully landscaped terrace bar, with sixteen trees, breaking the record for Warsaw’s highest garden.
Buro Happold was responsible for the building services on a complex site in the dense urban context. The energy-efficient strategy integrated into the building’s conception led to Varso Tower’s BREEAM Outstanding and WELL Gold certifications, due in part to its triple-glazed façades.
“We are so proud to be part of this development. Our client HB Reavis has been a fantastic champion of the project throughout and our local collaborators at Epstein and Buro Happold have worked tirelessly alongside us. We believe that the tower, filled with activity and featuring extraordinary rooftop public spaces will make a strong, positive contribution to this wonderful city. We hope that it will become a hub for local and international business and a symbol for contemporary Poland.”
Grant Brooker, Head of Studio and Senior Executive Partner, Foster + Partners.
Vartso Tower by Foster + Partners. Photograph by Aaron Hargreaves / Foster + Partners.
Vartso Tower by Foster + Partners. Photograph by Aaron Hargreaves / Foster + Partners.
Vartso Tower by Foster + Partners. Photograph by Aaron Hargreaves / Foster + Partners.
Project description by Foster + Partners
Foster + Partners has completed Varso Tower, an integral part of HB Reavis' Varso Place in Warsaw. At a record-breaking 310 meters, it is the tallest tower in the European Union.
Situated at the corner of Jana Pawla II and Chmielna Street, the tower forms a gateway to the new development and draws people through the building towards the public plaza on its western end that connects to the neighbouring buildings. The social heart of the project is a plaza enclosed within a glazed screen, animated with full-height trees and benches for people to enjoy the surroundings. This ‘urban room’ forms the point of seamless connection between people who work in the offices – who may use it as a sit-out during breaks – and the public, to access the shops and restaurants in the neighbouring buildings.
The public realm continues at the top of the tower, accessed directly from the ground via two panoramic lifts, with a viewing platform at level 53. This is the highest inhabited floor in Poland with uninterrupted views of the city. Level 49 will soon offer a fully landscaped terrace bar, with sixteen trees, breaking the record for Warsaw’s highest garden.
The offices are served by two banks of high-capacity double-deck lifts, with each car serving two floors at any one time. With 70,000 square meters of premium office space, the tower features large-span floorplates with three-meter clear height for open-plan offices. The building achieves BREEAM Outstanding and WELL Gold certifications, due in part to its triple-glazed façades.
More information
Architects
Project team
Grant Brooker, Andy Bow, Hugh Stewart, Krzysztof Gornicki, Jedrzej Kolesinski.
Collaborators
Structural Engineer.- Buro Happold.
Landscape Architect.- RS Architektura.
Lighting Engineer.- George Sexton.
Landscape Architect.- RS Architektura.
Lighting Engineer.- George Sexton.
Client
HB Reavis.
Area
109,907m². Height.- 310m.
Dates
Appointment.- 2014.
Completion.- 2022.
Completion.- 2022.
Location
Varso Place. Corner of Jana Pawla II and Chmielna Street, Warsaw, Poland.
Photography
Aaron Hargreaves, HB-Reavis.
NORMAN FOSTER
Norman Foster is considered by many to be the most prominent architect in Britain. He won the 1999 Pritzker Architecture Prize and the 2009 Príncipe de Asturias de las Artes Prize.
Lord Foster rebuilt the Reichstag as a new German Parliament in Berlin and designed a contemporary Great Court for the British Museum. He linked St. Paul's Cathedral to the Tate Modern with the Millennium Bridge, a steel footbridge across the Thames. He designed the Hearst Corporation Building in Manhattan, at 57th Street and Eighth Avenue.
He was born in Manchester, England, in 1935. Among his firm’s many other projects are London’s City Hall, the Bilbao Metro in Spain, the Canary Wharf Underground Station in London and the renovated courtyard of the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery in Washington.
In the 1970s, Lord Foster was one of the most visible practitioners of a high-tech architecture that fetishized machine culture. His triumphant 1986 Hong Kong and Shanghai bank building, conceived as a kit-of-parts plugged into a towering steel frame, was capitalism's answer to the populist Pompidou Center in Paris.
Nicolai Ouroussoff, The Times’s architecture critic, has written that although Lord Foster’s work has become sleeker and more predictable in recent years, his forms are always driven by an internal structural logic, and they treat their surroundings with a refreshing bluntness.
Awarded the Prince of Asturias of the Arts 2009.
METALOCUS > 05.2017
Categories
Our selection
