All Eyes Up: An Apartment in Poznan by Paradowski Studio.

A high ceiling can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on which way you look at it. Just ask Zuza and Piotr Paradowski of Krakow-based design office Paradowski Studio, whose latest project, a 250-square-metre apartment in Poznan (a former Prussian medieval city situated on the banks of the Warta River), and more specifically, its five-metre ceiling, was a little bit of both. It was good, because it was, after all, a nice little hat-tip to the country’s postmodern past. It was bad because, let’s face it, what in the world do you do with a ceiling so high?

The answer, as it turned out, was many things, including taming it to look lower than it was, with clever interventions including adding artwork, bringing in dividers, and installing a full-height shelving unit opposite the kitchen, complete with knobs and pulls in hand-blown amber glass.

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Look around, and you’ll notice there’s no single overarching aesthetic. The interior isn’t just modern or postmodern (or post-postmodern, if there were ever such a thing). True to the couple’s aesthetic lexicon, it is a potpourri of modernism, Eastern Bloc Brutalism, Memphis Group, and international postmodernism, with considered glimmers of postwar avant-garde artists like Wladyslaw Strzeminski and Maria Jarema peeping through here and there.

Mind you, not everything is historic. Some things, like the blocks that rise halfway up the wall dividing certain rooms, are chez Paradowski, though as Zuza points out, not all are made equal.

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The one in the primary bedroom, for example, is carved out in Calacatta marble and outfitted with an inbuilt shower, a far cry from the mirror-clad version that demarcates the sleeping area from the sumptuous ablution zone next door. As Piotr tells it, there’s more to the latter than meets the eye. It was a considered addition to multiply light and space, yes, but also to serve as a muse for the clients’ dance-loving daughter (they specified a mirror big enough for her to practice against).

For a project that started out somewhat precariously, it’s safe to say that the end result has exceeded expectations, and how. Thank goodness for that five-metre ceiling. No doubt, in this case, it was the best blessing in disguise.

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[Images courtesy of Paradowski Studio. Photography by Pion Studio.]