Architects: BBGK Architekci, Katarzyna Mach
Year: 2025
Photography: Nate Cook, Yassen Hristov
Lead Architects: Wojciech Kotecki, Katarzyna Mach
Landscape Architecture: Marta Tomasiak
Interior Architecture: Monika Bronikowska, Adam Bronikowski
City: Warsaw
Country: Poland
The Travelers’ House on the Outskirts of Warsaw or the Sadowski House, designed by BBGK Architekci in collaboration with architect Katarzyna Mach, is a single-storey residence situated among the pine forests on the outskirts of Warsaw. Created for a pair of seasoned travelers, the home was envisioned as a refuge, a space to return to, where memories and mementos of journeys could coexist with the calm of everyday life. Beneath a sweeping tent-like roof, the building unfolds around a central atrium that opens to the sky, creating a continuous dialogue between shelter and nature. Large glass walls, movable partitions, and a retractable roof foster natural ventilation and light, merging the interior with its forested setting. Developed in collaboration with landscape architect Marta Tomasiak and interior designers Monika and Adam Bronikowski, the project forms a unified composition of structure, landscape, and materiality, rooted in tactile warmth and emotional resonance.
Conceived as a refuge among the trees, the Travelers’ House translates the travelers’ longing for stillness and belonging into architecture. When the couple approached architect Wojciech Kotecki of BBGK Architekci and architect Katarzyna Mach, they sought not only a home but a vessel for memories, a place that would embody their shared journeys and their return to the familiar landscape of Poland. The resulting design is quietly introverted yet open to the natural world, balancing introspection with connection.
The house rests lightly on a wooded site, organized entirely at ground level beneath a wide-spanning, tent-like roof that recalls the archetype of nomadic dwellings such as tipis and yurts. This reference to temporary, communal structures reflects the clients’ experiences of distant lands and their appreciation for the essential simplicity of shelter. Within this geometry, the architects arranged a fluid plan anchored by an inner courtyard with a retractable glass canopy, allowing the occupants to inhabit an interior space that can open directly to the sky. Two smaller semi-courtyards extend east and west, pulling the surrounding greenery deep into the house and blurring the boundary between interior and exterior.
A 22-meter panoramic sliding window opens the main living area toward the forest, immersing the inhabitants in the sights, scents, and sounds of nature. Movable walls and operable glazing allow for natural airflow and subtle shifts in light throughout the day, giving the house a living rhythm that responds to its environment. This architectural permeability is central to the project’s ethos—creating a place of continuity rather than separation between human life and the landscape.
The coherence of the project results from close collaboration between disciplines. Landscape architect Marta Tomasiak shaped the garden to extend the architecture’s geometry into the forest, while interior architects Monika and Adam Bronikowski curated spaces defined by natural materials and tactile harmony. Wood, stone, ceramics, terracotta, and abundant greenery evoke warmth and familiarity, while exotic plants within the atriums suggest distant climates reminiscent of tropical modernism.
Each element of the interior reflects the travelers’ own story. Vals quartzite, sourced from Switzerland and discovered by the owners on one of their journeys, appears throughout the living spaces. The arrangement centers around the hostess’s grand piano, surrounded by artworks, sculptures, and artifacts collected from around the world. These personal objects, valued for their emotional resonance rather than material worth, transform the dwelling into a living archive, a “home in progress” shaped by the rhythm of travel and return.
In this secluded corner of the Warsaw forest, the Sadowski House stands as both shelter and memoir. It is a space where architecture becomes a reflection of life’s journeys, anchored to the earth yet open to the vastness of the world beyond.
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Project Location
Address: Warsaw, Poland
Location is for general reference and may represent a city or country, not necessarily a precise address.
