filip.zaborski

The Directors Guild of Poland (in Polish: Gildia Reżyserów Polskich) joins the group of tenants of Norblin Factory revitalized by the Capital Park Group. The organization associating the greatest and most awarded personalities of Polish film industry, such as Agnieszka Holland, Paweł Pawlikowski, Krzysztof Zanussi, Wojciech Smarzowski, Małgorzata Szumowska and Andrzej Saramonowicz, will move its registered seat here, and will also become one of the most important animators and organizers of cultural life in the former factory.

The Guild will move its headquarters from ul. Chełmska 21 in Warsaw – a location known as a seat of film studios and the Documentary and Feature Film Studios (WFDiF), with over 70 years of tradition. The most important Polish association of film directors decided to continue its mission in the space of the revitalized Factory, and most importantly – its members will co-create the cultural offer of the newly created cinema there.

– This is an important moment for us – in the new place we will create cinematic art not only in the way we have done so far. We want to create space for creative discussion about film and broadly understood art with various social groups. We hope that, as the largest organization of film directors in Poland, we will draw a lot of creative energy from everyday meetings with other artists present in the space of the Factory, and that we will create a place whose activities will have a significant impact on the image of the film community in Poland – says Agnieszka Holland, a film director and the honorary president of the Polish Directors’ Guild.

The author of the idea of moving the seat of the Directors Guild of Poland to the Norblin Factory is its secretary – Andrzej Saramonowicz.

– This idea was born during my cooperation with the Norblin Factory Foundation on the scholarship program for young musicians, Music Masterclass. I am sure that the Norblin Factory will be a destination where modern, artistic bohemia will begin to form. As the Guild, we want to be present here. We want to provoke discussions about the film, show people the backstage of our work, create important artistic events, meet other creators, but most of all, we want to be able to re-contact with the viewers directly, whenever possible. The creators and the audience are one whole – says Andrzej Saramonowicz, director and screenwriter.

The director’s association will provide their mentoring support to an boutique cinema, which will be located in the revitalized complex. Thanks to the cooperation that has just begun, it will become a thriving cultural center, full of various film and artistic events, and for the film directors – a new place for everyday work and meetings with viewers. Among planned activities are, for example, master lectures with directors and outstanding Cinema figures, movie premieres with discussion panels, retransmissions of important events and festive industry galas.

– There are many examples all over the world where cinemas co-created by director’s guilds became vibrant event and film centers of cities. We believe that the same will happen in our case. Our ambition is to be a patron of the arts and, together with the Foundation we established, to animate the space of the Norblin Factory, inviting various artists to co-create it. We want Polish directors and filmmakers to feel at home in our cinema, spending here as much time as they want at meetings and creative work. We are honored that we will be able to build a strong position of the Norblin Factory on the cultural map of Warsaw together with such renowned personalities of Polish cinema. I would like to thank Mr. Andrzej Saramonowicz for the idea of our cooperation – says Kinga Nowakowska, member of the management board and operational director of Capital Park, responsible for the revitalization project of Norblin Factory.

The Directors Guild of Poland is a trade union that associates over 200 award-winning filmmakers. It has been operating since 2013. It was founded on the initiative of the most famous and respected Polish directors of feature films, including Wojciech Smarzowski, Krzysztof Krauze and Agnieszka Holland. Cooperation with this organization is the next stage in building the strategy of the revitalized Norblin Factory, where culture and art will play one of the key roles.

The Norblin Factory will comprise 65 thousand sq.m. of usable area, 41,000 sq.m. of which are offices, and the remaining 24,000 sq.m. will be filled with entertainment, food, service, retail, culture and wellness concepts. Among the tenants of the revitalized Norblin Factory, there will be Biobazar – the first marketplace in Poland selling only eco products, a foodhall with 26 restaurant concepts (3,200 sq.m.), as well as numerous restaurants. The office part of the complex will be a seat of such tenants as Allegro.pl (16,200 sq.m.) and the Global Business Services Center Japan Tobacco International (8,500 sq.m.). The revitalized factory will also become a destination for cultural experiences. Apart from the abovementioned boutique cinema with seven screens (3,300 sq.m.), there will be Piano Bar with live music (408 sq.m.) and a music and concert venue in one of the historical buildings. The first fully interactive and digital art gallery in Poland, ART BOX Experience, will occupy the space of nearly 800 sq.m. The planned completion date of the investment is the second half of 2021.

Capital Park Group is the investor and originator of the revitalization of the Norblin Factory. PRC Architekci studio is responsible for the architectural design. The main contractor is Warbud SA, in cooperation with Soletanche Polska, Maat4 and TKT Engineering. Monument Service is responsible for activities related to the conservation of monuments.

The museum, being created as an integral part of the Norblin Factory project revitalized by the Capital Park Group, registered its activity and agreed its rules and regulations with the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage. From now on, the ministry will provide the museum with substantive care and supervision. The official museum will open its exhibition in the second half of this year, and it will engage future visitors into four thematic sightseeing routes, numerous creative solutions in the field of new technologies, as well as a unique, open formula.

The museum will be one of the most important functions of the complex being revitalized by the Capital Park Group. After many years, an almost 2-hectare area in the heart of Warsaw’s Wola district, between Prosta, Łucka, and Żelazna streets, will be full of stories from its past centuries, presenting the Warsaw inhabitants and tourists visiting the city with interactive exhibitions regarding its history. Due to its specific nature – an open area with a preserved historic layout of 10 post-factory buildings and 50 machines and devices (42 of them registered as monuments), the Museum of the Norblin Factory will have a unique open character and will be available to all visitors of the complex, regardless of the purpose of their visit.

The exhibition will have a diversified character, where the museum and commercial zones will intertwine. Four sightseeing routes will be available there: Buildings and Architecture, Machines and Devices, People and Products. Visitors will begin their journey through the history of this area from the 18^th century, when the factory still belonged to the property of Franciszek Ryx – King Stanisław August’s butler, through the heyday of the Norblin, Buch Brothers and T. Werner factory, to its post-war activity as a metal mill named Walcownia Metali Warszawa. The museum will also show the history of this place after 1982, when factory production ended. Visitors will learn about the lives of the Werner and Norblin families, as well as about significant figures in the history of the factory – such as Franciszek Ryx or Julia Keilowa – an outstanding designer from the interwar period, who worked for the most important Polish plating factories, including the Norblin Factory. She is the author of such pieces of art as the famous ball-shaped art deco sugar bowl, which went back to production after more than 85 years, as a limited series of reproductions made by the Museum of Norblin Factory. As part of one of the tour routes, the visitors will see a collection of over 600 plated goods – the products that made the factory famous at the turn of the 19^th and 20^th centuries not only in Poland but also in Europe and the Transcaucasia region.

The museum will be full of the latest technological solutions in the area of ​​multimedia and virtual reality, offering an almost tangible experience of moving back in time to the era when the factory was teeming with work.

– Virtually all the sightseeing paths intertwine with the communication routes of planned retail, leisure or office facilities. Each person entering the complex will encounter the history of this unique place at almost every step – thanks to the unique, open formula of the museum and to applied visual technologies – says Artur Setniewski, director of the Museum of Norblin Factory. – The visitors will be able to enjoy many interestingly arranged and engaging exhibitions. In one of them, for example, they will play the role of a factory furnace operator. The observation deck will be equipped with telescopes to admire the panorama. The telescopes, however, will not work as the typical ones, but with the use of a special knob, they will change the real and current view of a part of the factory area to its historical counterpart. Nevertheless, the most important thing for the museum visitors will be the possibility of real, tangible contact with original objects: post-factory buildings, machines recreating the full technological line of the factory and its products, preserved and restored with respect to their historical traces and accretions. We believe that this formula will be the best to tell the unique history of the Norblin Factory, which is an icon of the Warsaw industry. This is our tribute to such a long and significant tradition of this place, which will finally be duly presented and will reach not only the inhabitants of the city, but will also be a new attractive destination for tourists – adds A. Setniewski.

The visitors of the museum will be guided by a mobile application, which will include two models of sightseeing: a free route, containing the most important and comprehensive information about the factory, as well as additional content, aimed ad deepening knowledge about the place, available to visitors who purchase tickets. The paid version will also allow to use the additional multimedia functions of the exhibition. Due to the open nature of the museum, this space will be focused on independent sightseeing and exploring the history of Norblin, according to one’s own interests or to a given subject (it is possible to choose only one route, e.g. focused only on plated goods). Sightseeing options for school groups and voice guide systems for visitors unable to download the app are also planned. Various types of printed maps, catalogs and brochures will be also provided for people visiting the museum without the app. The content and scope of these materials will vary depending on the chosen option of visiting – a free tour or the one with tickets. There will also be a souvenir shop at the museum (available also online), offering such gifts and souvenirs as limited collection of reproductions of sugar bowls designed by Julia Keilowa.

– The Museum of the Norblin Factory is a modern and unique concept that we are particularly proud of. As an investor focusing on projects based on the idea of ​​placemaking, we want to build communities around our destinations and shape their policy in such a way that they grow into the urban tissue and build its added value. We have great respect for the history of this place, but at the same time, we want to speak about this history in an attractive, vibrant, and interactive way. We encourage everyone to explore it on their own, and we present the story in such a way that it is interesting for everyone, regardless of age or knowledge about the Norblin Factory. We hope that the multitude of possible threads of learning about the history of the factory and the attractive formula of the exhibition will make the viewers come back to us many times, each time wanting to learn something new from the vast base of accessible knowledge that we prepared – sums up Kinga Nowakowska, member of the management board and operational director of Capital Park, in charge of the revitalization project of the Norblin Factory.

The Norblin factory will comprise 65 thousand sq.m. of usable area, 41,000 sq.m. of which are offices, and the remaining 24,000 sq.m. will be filled with entertainment, food, service, retail, culture and wellness concepts. The tenants of the revitalized Norblin Factory, in addition to BioBazar, will include a foodhall with over 30 food concepts (3,200 sq.m.), a boutique cinema with seven screens (3,300 sq.m.), Piano Bar with live music (408 sq.m.), as well as numerous restaurants. The office part of the complex will be a seat of such tenants as Allegro.pl (16,200 sq.m.) and the Global Business Services Center Japan Tobacco International (8,500 sq.m.). The first fully interactive and digital art gallery in Poland, ART BOX Experience, will occupy the space of nearly 800 sq.m. The planned completion date of the investment is the second half of 2021.

Capital Park Group is the investor and originator of the revitalization of the Norblin Factory. PRC Architekci studio is responsible for the architectural design. The main contractor is Warbud SA, in cooperation with Soletanche Polska, Maat4 and TKT Engineering. Monument Service is responsible for activities related to the conservation of monuments.

In the historic complex of Norblin Factory, revitalized by Capital Park Group, construction works on the above-ground part of the investment have been completed. The moment of reaching the target height of 44 meters, stretching over eight floors, was celebrated with a traditional topping out ceremony. WARBUD is the project’s general contractor. All works are set to be completed in Q2 2021.

According to a traditional rite, placing a symbolic topping out on the Norblin Factory marked the achievement of the project’s highest construction point. Currently, at the construction site at Żelazna Street, installation and finishing works are underway inside the buildings, where, among others, walls separating individual rooms are construed. Moreover, intensive works are carried out on the building façades. WARBUD has also completed the construction of partition walls in all four underground floors of the project, where the final finishing works are carried out now. The load-bearing structures have been construed at the newly designed Norblin Factory building, located on the side of Prosta Street, where the façade assembly will soon begin. This building will be the place housing the historic machines which are part of the technological line of the former metal mill Walcownia Metali Warszawa and which have been restored and transported to the Norblin Factory. Currently, 9 out of 50 historic machines have returned to the complex, including the largest 1000-ton press weighing approx. 50 tons with two hydraulic pumps.

Conservation works in the historic buildings of the complex are advanced. In some of them located under the modern structure, roof girders have been installed, on which the roofing will appear in the coming months. And in two buildings located on the side of Żelazna Street, works on the target roofs are nearing completion. In brick buildings, necessary structural repairs, brickwork, and most of the replacements and fillings of the joints were carried out. Works are underway to give the buildings their final aesthetic appearance, and their goal is to bring the brick walls to the condition as close as possible to their original state with numerous traces of their history in the form of minor losses and resulting damage from the operation of the factory or visible shooting traces from World War II. Conservation works are also underway on the plastered buildings, including the reconstruction of their stucco details.

Norblin Factory will offer over 65,000 sq m of usable area, out of which 41,000 sq m will be office area. The remaining 24,000 sq m will be a compilation of several functions: entertainment, restaurants, services, shopping, culture and wellness. A 3-level underground car park with 720 parking spaces will be provided for the users of the complex. In addition, the underground part will house the first in Poland automatic parking lot for bikes with 95 spaces, and the users of the office part will have additional 200 parking spaces for their bikes, and changing rooms. The buildings will have a number of eco-friendly solutions – the project was pre-certified with BREEAM “Very Good” rating in the design phase. To commemorate the history of plants at Żelazna Street, the investor has created the Museum of the Former Norblin Factory. The exhibits will be primarily the monuments of the former factory – both post-industrial halls and preserved machinery and equipment of the technological line. The museum tour will be organized in four multimedia paths: People, Architecture and Buildings, Machines and Devices, and Products.

The pool of tenants of the revitalized Norblin Factory will include BioBazar (1,800 sq m), a boutique cinema with seven screening rooms (3,300 sq m), a foodhall with over 30 gastronomic concepts (3,200 sq m), Piano Bar with live music (408 sq m), as well as numerous restaurants. Tenants of the  office part of the complex will be, among others, Allegro.pl (16,200 sq m) and the Global Business Services Center of Japan Tobacco International (8,500 sq m). The first fully interactive and digital art gallery in Poland, ART BOX Experience, will occupy nearly 800 sq m.

Capital Park Group is the investor and initiator of Norblin Factory’s revitalization. PRC Architekci is responsible for the architectural design, Warbud SA is the general contractor, cooperating with such companies, as Soletanche Polska, Maat4 and TKT Engineering. Monument Service supervises all conservation works on monuments.