Façade decoration at 95 Ogarna Street

Object: The façades cover a residential block constructed as part of Gdańsk’s post-war reconstruction. In 2013, they 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.

The building at 95 Ogarna Street, once the family home of the Gdańsk-born physicist Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit, now consists of two separate façades. The three-bay eastern façade, featuring a historic portal and commemorative plaque, was decorated with a painted design extending from the second to the fifth storey. The decoration references the face of a barometer, with its interior filled with inscriptions in Schwabacher script, including ‘Gdańsk, Gabriel’. The space between the first and second storeys bears a calligraphic signature: ‘D.G. Fahrenheit’. The top of the façade is adorned with a wind rose surrounded by an inscription and flanked by the letters AT and AK, beneath which is a medallion featuring the calligraphed letter F. The western façade, due to its structural completeness, has only been embellished with the physicist’s initials on the bases of the pilasters.

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: Adam Romuald ‘Theosone’ Kłodecki graduated from the Faculty of Design and Interior Design at the Academy of Fine Arts in Gdańsk. He is the co-founder of the ATAK group and holder of numerous awards, who took part in several exhibitions. Theosone represents the calligraffiti style.

Condition of the object: good

Owner/guardian: ‘Attyka’ real estate management

Author of the entry: Noemi Etush