Savor a Patisserie With a Headquarters Crafted to Perfection

After making a fortune with a major fish-processing company, Polish businessman Sławomir Gojdź decided to start a second food company of an altogether different sort. He had trained to be a professional pastry chef earlier in life and his love of high-end gastronomy had deepened through travels to France. So in 2020, Gojdź started a chain of cafés selling French-style pastries, beginning with one in his hometown of Słupsk, an industrial city in northern Poland. Today, Omni Kaiser Patisserie has 12 shops throughout the country, plus its first international location, in Berlin, all of them serving up impeccable tarts, cakes, meringues, and macaroons, thanks in part to a hardworking production plant on the outskirts of Słupsk. And now the company devoted to precision-crafted pastries has a precision-crafted headquarters to match, thanks to a pair of Polish firms, ACOS and Studio Widoki.

ACOS founders and lead designers Anna Stojčev-Młyńska and Stanisław Młyński received their architecture degrees in their home country before going to London for additional schooling and work experience. The architects, who are married, opened an office in Gdańsk, about 2 hours from Słupsk, a few years before Gojdź approached them about adding administrative offices to his production hub. Seeking to complete the project in a timely way, they recruited another architect, Mateusz Domaszk, who Młyński knew from their days playing soccer together as kids. Domaszk, whose Studio Widoki is also in Gdańsk, had worked on projects in Słupsk and knew his way around the local rules and regulations. Together, the three would collaborate on the architecture portion of the commission.

Precision Meets Design in Omni Kaiser Patisserie’s HQ

They decided to leave the production hub largely undisturbed—it was relatively new and essential to the company’s day-to-day functioning—and attach to it a two-story addition that also serves as the new public-facing front of the building. The 4,600-square-foot volume is enclosed in expanses of glass divided by slender, vertical steel blades. Fiber-cement panels colored a warm ochre are suggestive of wood but won’t fade with age and help the building blend in with its natural surroundings.

Inside, Stojčev-Młyńska and Młyński, who designed the interiors, maintained the natural theme and color scheme, choosing a material palette that leans on wood, stone, unpainted metal, and solid textiles. The double-height lobby is paneled in oak to which a touch of red tint has been added so that the wood, which can yellow over time, maintains its lustrous hue. “Five to 10 years from now the timber will remain the color we want it to be,” Młyński says. Off the lobby, a conference room provides space where managers of all the Kaiser shops might assemble for training or visiting pastry chefs could meet before heading to the production side of the building for hands-on demonstrations. Folding screens open the room to the lobby so that the entire ground level can function as one big event space. A spiral staircase, with treads in the same Viscont white granite as the floor, coils upward, its balustrades crafted of more oak.

Omni Kaiser Patisserie Blends Culinary Art With Architectural Craft

On the second floor, where reception and workplaces for such functions as marketing are located, the granite floor continues. The same stone also covers a structural pylon that was a hulking presence until ACOS, which stands for a collection of stories, cleverly turned it into a visual asset. The team had holes drilled through the stone, capped the openings with custom glass lenses, and had electrical wiring threaded inside. During the day, light filters through the glass and provides glimpses of what’s on the other side of the pylon. At night, with the lights on, it’s a luminous feature.

Flooring switches to soft carpeting in some areas. Works by Polish artists Jerzy Cepiński, Eva Jablonsky, and Oskar Zięta add interest. Furnishings include a mix of the custom and the high end. And then there are the IKEA table lamps in some of the workspaces. “It’s not always about price or status on the market,” Stojčev-Młyńska says of the steel-finished lamps with curved posts. “Even though they weren’t expensive, they’re a beautifully designed form that fits perfectly.”

The Material Palette Leans on Wood + Stone

In Gojdź’s suite, the table lamps are upscale, one in Italian marble, the other in matte steel, as is the streamlined upholstered seating by Jonas Wagell. His oak desk however is a custom piece by Stojčev-Młyńska and Młyński, as is a large, mostly white artwork. They had admired the embossed recycled paper product that the Swedish company Baux uses to make acoustical panels and conceived a grid of them to add textural interest. A steel disc—another artwork the architects dreamed up—reflects natural light coming in through the glass windows.

Gojdź refers to Kaiser’s new addition as pracownia—the Polish word for studio or workshop, often associated with artists or craftsmen. That says something about his aspirations for his young company and his pride in its new headquarters, which Kaiser will no doubt put to use cooking up new delicacies—and expansion plans.

ACOS + Studio Widoki Serve Up a Sleek HQ for Omni Kaiser Patisserie

Omni Kaiser Patisserie’s HQ Is a Feast for the Eyes

HUBERT STENZEL: ARCHITECT OF RECORD. KINGA MADEJ ARCHITEKT KRAJOBRAZU: LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT. SCALA STUDIO KAMIENIA: STONEWORK. PRACOWNIA MEBLI STYLOWYCH IRENEUSZ ZWARA: MILLWORK, CUSTOM FURNITURE WORKSHOP. PYRAMID: STRUCTURAL ENGINEER.

FROM FRONT
HAY: CHAIRS (LOBBY). A-N-D LIGHT: PENDANT FIXTURE (RECEPTION). KARIMOKU CASE: CHAIRS. VIPP: SWIVEL CHAIRS (MEETING AREA, FOUNDER OFFICE, CONFERENCE ROOM). &TRADITION: CHAIRS (NORTH OFFICE, OFFICE AREA). FLÜGGER: PAINT (OFFICE AREA). TACCHINI: UPHOLSTERED SEATING (FOUNDER OFFICE). NORMANN COPENHAGEN: DESK LAMP. HÜBSCH: SIDE TABLE LAMP. NORDLUX: LAMPS (CONFERENCE ROOM). HÄFELE: SCREEN FOLDING SYSTEM.
THROUGHOUT
EQUITONE: FACADE PANELING. XAL: LIGHTING.