LOTTO Kiosk

 

Design: 2011

Client: LOTTO Totalizator Sportowy

Location: Warsaw, Poland

Team: Marcin Mostafa, Natalia Paszkowska , Andrzej Ryniecki, Andrzej Hunzvi, Iwona Borkowska

For many years now, Polish cities’ streets have been suffering from an uncontrolled outburst of all sorts of kiosks, street advertising objects, catering or shopping booths and stands. Low quality workmanship, total ignorance of esthetic values and ill-considered locations of such temporary constructions have long been adversely affecting the quality of city public space. The user of this space not only experiences abundance of trash but also lacks any kind of street furniture fulfilling some basic functions, such as: a bicycle stand, a bench or a convenient meeting spot.


All this considered, it was strongly felt that the project of a lottery ticket outlet should on the one hand radically cut off from to date esthetics of temporary constructions appearing in Polish cities, and on the other introduce into public space some functions dedicated to its future users. Due to a limited space taken by a Lotto pavilion a range of multifunctional city furniture has been designed to be contained within the facade thickness. A simple cubic form, in the midst of a colourful city life, becomes a sort of a litmus paper. A city is literally reflected in four walls of the kiosk, its picture is deformed leaving shapes allowing for free functional interpretation. Some vertical elements, respectively cut out from the pavilion’s facade can function as a seat, a small table or a bicycle stand.

 

The elevation initiates a kind of a city game and constitutes a mysterious object drawing the passers-by inside. The same wooden perches appear in the kiosk’s interior functioning as a counter and as a table with a bench where one can sit and fill in a lottery ticket. A characteristic esthetic language of the pavilion, which may be additionaly enliven by the use of recesses in the facade, creates a highly recognizable symbol which will be associated with Lotto outlets.

The inspiration for the kiosk’s facade was derived from a simple technology of building objects, which find their reflection in its structure. Wooden elements refer to perches of benches frequently met in Polish parks and similarily they can be easily exchanged in case of wear or destruction. Rounded corners of a cubic construction, vertical divisions and a choice of materials may be evocative of Warsaw’s modernism, which provides for a better coordination with some more noble parts of the city’s public space. The kiosk’s wooden blinds can be made both of plywood or solid wood. The usage of a kind of wood characteristic for a given region of Poland will allow for constructing local versions adjusted to the architectural and cultural context of a city. Functional recesses in facade are cut out in wooden panels by means of CNC method. It guarantees that without any additional production costs the elevation of each pavillion can be different and ideally adjusted to its location. Seats should always be placed on the more sheltered side of the facade, bicycle stands on the best accessible one, whereas the south part should be thoroughly shadowed by wooden blinds. In this way each of Lotto pavilions will become a unique and surprising place.

The present project of Lotto outlet sees the interior of the kiosk divided into two functional zones: a widely accessible customer service zone and a lottery outlet’s office zone open only to staff members. In the staff zone some social space with sanitary facilities is sectioned off. The walls of a social room are designated for storage purposes and a place for storing leaflets, advertising materials and loterry tickets is provided under the counter and on the walls of customer service zone. A worker can serve the customers over the counter, inside the pavilion or can contact the customers remaining outside through a small window.

A bench and a small table in the public zone, as well as the counter which seperates both parts of the kiosk, are made of vertical, wooden perches.The place is easily accessible to a disabled customer in a wheelchair, who can drive into the kiosk, turn round and make a comfortable use of the lowered part of the counter. Outside functions introduced into the facade thickness comprise a bench, a meeting spot consisting of two seats and a small table, a bicycle stand, a recess in the wall for planting a tree or some climbing greenery, a leaflet dispenser, a waste-paper container. The entrance into the kiosk is also indicated by a recess in its wall.