A Globetrotting Architect Takes Her Tiny Warsaw Flat to the Next Level

Warsaw-born Karolina Howorko, director and founder of the design firm Studio Hoka, is based in Amsterdam—but with a slate of new Polish projects in the pipeline, she spends ample time in her homeland, too. When she does, it’s at Studio H, a compact flat in Warsaw’s Old Town that she transformed to feel light and spacious.

"My mother bought it around 20 years ago because our family travels a lot," says Karolina, noting how someone always seems to be passing through Warsaw in place of a need to stay. From the outside of the building—an old warehouse that was carved into apartments after World War II—Karolina observed that the apartment looked much higher than the interior’s low ceiling suggested. 

So, putting her expertise to use, Howorko explored, and subsequently discovered, that this ceiling was indeed fake—a metal structure and a thin layer of concrete obscured the real one, and left the studio with an overall cramped feel. "I’m an architect, and I love to get into mathematical and logical matters," she says with a laugh.