Monka Apartments, located in Toruń, Poland, are a great example of a successful adaptive reuse projects. This heritage, baroque building is a former granary. Its ornamental window frames, resembling grain bags, remind us of its original purpose. The apartments, together with, famous for regional food, ground floor Monka Restaurant, are situated in a very heart of an UNESCO World Heritage area.
The remarkable history of the city was a self-explaining inspiration to put emphasis on gothic architectural detail in the project. Each of nine apartments is different, which is partially caused by irregularities of the old building, but mostly due to their individual, unique details. There are two-storey apartments with mezzanines and one-storey apartments with high ceilings which allow a lot of sunlight. Each apartment has its own leading symbol, which can be found in the historical buildings of Toruń.
The stylistic element which skilfully combines all apartments is a coloured, steel “cube”. The cube is located in the central spot of each apartment and has a function of a bathroom. For each apartment its own cube of unique colour and detail has been designed. Stained glass windows, which indirectly illuminate showers, are custom made accordingly to the concept of graphical interpretation of the unique details. The contemporary design and vivid colours of these cubes are refreshingly contrastive to interiors. In Monka modern design balances historic features of the building