In the same year, Dominika Janicka and Anna Jankowska received a distinction in the competition for the landscape plan of the Friends of Sopot Square.
As a resort city, Sopot has always been associated with entertainment. We tried to to reflect this character in our plan – the designers wrote and, following this concept, they devised a system of mobile city furniture. The intention of the seats and divans sliding on rails, but also e.g. waffle booths was to make people smile and encourage mutual interaction.
In 2012, Dominika Janicka and Anna Jankowska founded the architecture studio AD 12 (Anno Domini 2012).
The duo aims to create projects that spur users’ imagination and encourage interaction with the surrounding – the designers stated in their motto.
They implemented their idea to create concepts that are blend into the surroundings and are unconventional, for instance when designing (in collaboration with Michał Idźkowiak) unusual bus stops for a borough in Gdynia.
The architects, with the support from the borough council, decided to transform well known bus stops into places that welcome creativity, thus generating an intriguing and inspiring space – Gazeta Wyborcza wrote about this project.
The authors changed the side walls of the traditional bus stops into game panels with pin boards and labyrinths which one could move around with a wooden handle. These simple and appealing – not only for children – games were supposed to sweeten the time for those waiting for their bus (the Chwarzno-Wiczlino borough in Gdynia, where the bus stops were installed, not only lacks recreational facilities, but is also notorious for traffic jams, which prolong the wait for the bus). The toys met with very positive reception.
Since 2014, Janicka has been co–running the Public Space Studio at the Institute of Design Kielce (an institution focusing on promoting design and innovative initiatives related to it). The Studio had already generated several dozen projects, from workshops for children or international students to activities educating and animating residents in the fields of urban greenery, aesthetics of advertising, and spatial order.
Whether as a designer, curator or organizer, Dominika Janicka continues to incorporate unrecognised themes in public debates – from respect for spatial design to ethical approach towards the under-appreciated participants of the process of raising buildings. At the same time she proves that projects in public space may not only make life easier, but also more pleasant.