Dwell 2015 11

focus
Under Communism in Poland, the
government owned and leased most
apartments in the city of Warsaw.
Everything was upended when the system
fell in 1989. As in many Eastern
European cities, patches of real estate
were apportioned to previous tenants
or sublet. Empty places drew residents or
communal tenants who would improve
the property; prewar owners sometimes
claimed restitution. If residents stayed
long enough, they could claim rights or
purchase the property from the city
below market rate. Marszałkowska 87,
one in a set of large box-shaped residential
buildings fronting the newly rebuilt,
proud boulevards of 1950s postwar
Warsaw, was no different. Parzyszek’s
flat has a recent history of long-term
subletting and at one point a connection
to a local mobster. When the former
tenants left, the place needed a lot of
work. Parzyszek heard about it and
was able to secure a deal.
It came with some costs. “There was
a painting of a tropical beach,” he says,
waving at the length of the flat’s open
wall. The apartment was subdivided.
Behind two closed doors lies
a custom fold-down desk with
cabinets that store Bartek’s
toys when he’s not at the apartment
(above). To make the
space feel larger, Janiszewska
decided to cover the hallway
outside the bathroom with
mirrors (right).
130 NOVEMBER 2015 DWELL