Name: Construction of a synagogue with a hotel building with Jewish Educational Centre
Client: Linat Orchim sp. z o. o.
Location: Łódź, ul. Pomorska 18
Area: 3245 m2
Design Team:
Architecture: Maciej Taczalski, Karolina Taczalska, Paulina Jaklewicz, Bartosz Kaciupski, Marta Szafnicka, Alyona Shpakova
Structural Engineering: Hit Projekt S.C
Sanitary Engineering: Grosan Paweł Groberek
Electrical Engineering: Arles Michał Armacki
Visualisations: We’re Architects
The proposal is located at 18 Pomorska Street in Łódź. The whole area is covered by an area entry in the communal register of monuments under the name of the “New Town Sukiennice Gardens 1843 - a handicraft settlement”. The hotel with a synagogue will be located at the back of the site, behind the Karol Gerbhardt Palace, entered in the register of monuments of the Łódź Voievoidship.
The project consists of creating a three-star hotel with Jewish Educational Centre and a kosher cuisine restaurant. The hotel features 65 rooms designed for the total of 128 guests. A synagogue for about 120 people will be adjacent to the hotel, being the first facility of this type to be built in Poland after World War II.
The facility was designed to meet the requirements of the Judaic religion. Practicing Jews on the Sabbath (that is, from Friday dusk to Saturday evening) are not allowed to do any work, including turning on the electricity. Therefore, Sabbath solutions have been designed, e.g. the automatic entrance door will be open all day on the Sabbath, the lights will be permanently on, and the Shabbat specific lighting will be provided in the rooms – constantly on, yet dimmed during the Sabbath. The Shabbat elevator will be automatically operated - on Saturday it will stop on each floor.
Since the restaurant will be serving kosher cuisine, its interior is strictly divided between meat and meat-free zones.
The ground floor of the building features Dheli Red sandstone finish, corresponding with the palace located in the front of the site.
A synagogue has been located on the axis of the main entrance gate at the back of the plot, the facade of which will be distinguished by using a different method of stone processing. The upper part of the building, housing hotel rooms, breaks off the line of the palace buildings, thanks to which the hotel does not tower over the historic buildings and remains invisible from the street level.
The scope of the proposal also includes organising the area behind the palace: replacing the paving, landscaping, and area lighting. Moreover, it will features parking spots with charging ports for the electric vehicles. The facility will be adapted to feature accessibility amenities to assist the disabled.
