Faculty of Psychology, University of Warsaw, Poland

The new teaching and research building of the Faculty of Psychology is one of the most modern facilities at the University of Warsaw. The starting point for the design concept was the campus’s spatial organization: strengthening the relationship with the city, connecting to the nearby park, and consciously shaping the surrounding public spaces.

The slogan of openness accompanies elements of the concept at different scales and meanings, as an idea that aligns with the nature of contemporary academic education, grounded in dialogue, knowledge exchange, interaction, and collaboration. The public ground floor and rooftop garden are open to the campus, while the upper floors open inward toward the atrium.

The lighting design was created in parallel with the building’s architecture, achieving complete coherence between the two. The architecture made room for the luminaires, allowing many to be subtly hidden, while the light brought out the building’s subtle proportions and muted colors from the gloom. A key aspect of the lighting design is the consistent and deliberate use of appropriate color temperatures (2700-6500K) in individual spaces.

The main functional space — the building’s ground floor, whose ceiling extends far beyond the contours of the façade – required the most attention. Hidden in the coffered ceiling, the luminaires give the building an unusual levitating effect, achieved also by maintaining a continuity of lighting solutions on both sides of the glazed façade. The luminaires used in this area, with their varied optics (symmetrical, asymmetrical, elliptical), enabled illumination not only of the ground floor but also of the raw concrete walls and the surrounding greenery.

In the ascetic interior, the straightforward wall layout is broken up by circular elements – the reception counters and the spiral staircase. It is on these elements that the user’s attention is focused, not least through the expressive use of light.

The coffered ceiling above the ground floor flows seamlessly into all its rooms, including the great auditorium, and the consistently applied lighting solutions make the luminaires completely invisible – only the light itself is perceived.

The heart of the building is the central atrium. It covers all the floors of the building, and its characteristic elements are the meeting rooms suspended in space – each with its own character, while still being part of the same space. The lighting in these small rooms has been precisely matched to the main lighting, emphasizing the scale of this unique space. Color appears on the raw concrete walls; it is provided by light reflected from the colored floors in all the galleries. This effect was made possible by using the highest-quality light sources with a very high color rendering index (CRI > 95).

The new building of the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Warsaw is a modern “machine”, well-designed and well-adapted to the needs of its users. Light throughout the building reinforces its functionality and enhances the beauty of the simple yet sophisticated architecture.