Façade decoration at 120 Ogarna Street

Object: The façade covers a residential block constructed as part of Gdańsk’s post-war reconstruction. In 2013, it underwent a complete renovation as part of the ‘Gdańskie Fasady OdNowa’ project, aimed at improving the quality of public spaces in the Main Town by adding architectural decorations to buildings that had been overlooked during Gdańsk’s reconstruction.

Czteroosiowa elewacja budynku przy ul. The four-bay façade of the building at 120 Ogarna Street features a painted decoration based on a fractal, self-similar composition. Its starting point is the stepped gable of the façade, with the portal cornice marking its lower boundary. The ornament takes on an apparently organic pattern reminiscent of neural tissue but is, in fact, grounded in geometry. It spreads across the surface, forming architectural elements that were missing during the post-war reconstruction—such as panels and window frames. The yellow-and-violet composition is set against a plaster background tinted red.

Location: The buildings are in an area designated as a heritage site. They form part of the historic urban layout of the city of Gdańsk. Ogarna Street was destroyed in 1945 during the war. It was rebuilt on the basis of the so-called Zachwatowicz plan that envisaged the reconstruction of historical forms, which was only feasible in the form of a workers’ housing estate. The erected block of flats was covered by a historicist façade screen. The buildings thus created were the result of combining two houses into a complex with a common staircase, an entrance from the courtyard and an even top line of windows emphasising the block-like nature of the premise. The elevations were not completed with architectural decoration.

Information about the author: Krzysztof “Proembrion” Syruć is a graduate of the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning at Gdańsk University of Technology, where he earned his degree in 2011. A graffiti artist since 1996, since 2002 he has been creating his works, including large-scale murals, without preliminary sketches. He is the author of the Blurve and TCNN graphic algorithms, and in 2012, drawing on his experience with algorithm development, he discovered discrete compositions within sequences of natural numbers. Syruć has made numerous murals in Łódź and is a representative of surrealist abstractionism. Currently, his work focuses on the interplay of colour and mathematics.

Condition of the object: good

Owner/guardian: ‘Attyka’ real estate management

Author of the entry: Noemi Etush