A Bright-Red Tiny Home Blossoms in Warsaw

When Polish singer and illustrator Magda Grabowska-Wacławek, who goes by the stage name Bovska, and her animator husband, Grzegorz Wacławek of Animoon Studios, bought an allotment in Warsaw, they were seeking a refuge from urban life. Like so many others, during the pandemic, they had experienced a need for more greenery but were not keen to venture too far from the city. Magda and Grzegorz bought (or, in fact, leased—more on that later) the allotment in 2020, and by 2023 had designed and built a tiny home on it.

In Poland, family allotment gardens— locally known as rodzinne ogródki działkowe, or RODs, for short—have a long history dating back to the late-19th century, when the working class would use them as recreational spaces to relax and grow their own vegetables. Popular during communist times, they were mostly forgotten until the pandemic. Today, Poland’s allotment gardens are flourishing again, fostering small but close-knit communities. The land cannot be bought since it’s owned by the public, but can be leased for 99 years. The use is also regulated: structures built in the gardens cannot be permanent, nor can they exceed 375 square feet.

The ROD where Magda and Grzegorz have their tiny house is close to central Warsaw, next to a mall and a subway stop. However, as the project’s architects, Karol Pasternak and Piotr Maciaszek of Noke Architects, explain, most locals don’t even know it’s there. Magda and Grzegorz can leave their city center apartment, hop on the subway, walk a few minutes, and find themselves in their second home, a green oasis that feels like another world.

"The paradox is that it takes 20 minutes by metro to get from our apartment to our little house," says Magda. "Teleportation of this kind is not possible if you have a house in the suburbs, but the feeling is exactly the same. Time suddenly slows down, and you can breathe, stop to see what tree is in bloom, and listen to birdsong."

Adds Grzegorz, "Everything rushes around at an alarming pace in Warsaw. There’s a lot of concrete around us. We wanted our own piece of greenery and a place to breathe. The first time we saw this place, we fell in love, and now it’s our little secret garden."