At first glance, the four-storey building constructed at the intersection of Burakowska and Krasińskiego Streets in the district of Żoliborz in Warsaw does not differ from modern apartment buildings in its vicinity. Designed by the Galicki Sypniewski Architekci studio, it too has an elegant shape, spacious balconies and a place for flower beds. Yet it is this building that won the competition for the showcase Multi-dwelling Urban Building 2030 project carried out by the Mostostal Warszawa company and the Building Research Institute, the Faculty of Architecture at the Warsaw University of Technology and the Faculty of Civil Engineering at the Silesian University of Technology, with the support of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. And it has become a guinea pig on which the most modern ‘Three E's’ – ergonomics, economics and ecology – solutions will be tested. The investment project at 41 Krasińskiego Street is to set the standards of smart and energy-efficient construction, which will be binding in the European Union in 16 years.

Since the beginning of construction works in December 2012, the site has been frequently visited by scientists and engineers, who strive to ensure that the building is quiet, warm and inexpensive. ‘Owing to them, the inhabitants will not have to pay for hot water, which will be heated partially by solar panels on the roof, and partially – with the use of secondary heat – by refrigerating units and power generators from the supermarket on the ground floor of the building,’ Tomasz Jankowski, the President of Fort Krasińskiego, explains in the interview with Polska.pl. ‘Before the rainwater, retained in a special container, flows down to the Vistula River, it will supply toilets and water the lawn in the common area,’ adds the President. He also praises the heating measures – graphite polystyrene foam used to insulate walls, windows with glass panels adjusted to cardinal directions (thicker in the part facing south to avoid overheating, thinner in the part facing north to ensure maximum sun exposure and heat) and acoustic measures. ‘Shell walls and those separating flats are made of silicate blocks, owing to which we have better acoustic performance than airport buildings. The inhabitants will definitely not complain about noise from neighbouring apartments,’ notices Tomasz Jankowski.

Although the investment project has considerable competition because in southern Żoliborz ca. one thousand flats will soon be commissioned, Fort Krasińskiego has already sold 65 percent of apartments. Better still, it achieved it in spite of the price of PLN 7–9,000 per sq. m for a flat with a balcony and a storage area, and of the fact that the building will not be commissioned until the third quarter of 2014. ‘Clients are increasingly interested in green and energy-efficient solutions because they know these will help them to save a lot of money in the future,’ says Tomasz Jankowski.

Polish scientists from the Warsaw University of Technology (PW) have foreseen the interest of Poles in green and energy-efficient construction many years ago. Therefore, they were not surprised with the popularity of the Smart Building Systems post-graduate programme for the graduates of Electrical Engineering and Electronics Faculties launched several years ago. Nor were they surprised with the fact that although universities of technology in other cities and private institutions of higher education opened similar courses, none of them complain about lack of candidates.

PW graduates now work for the world's largest companies and design houses for the entire Europe. In western Poland, there are several architectural studios specialising in designing low-energy houses (with annual energy demand of 30–60 kWh in comparison to the standard energy demand of 90–120 kWh per sq. m) and passive houses (under 15 kWh a year per sq. m), which receive orders from the most distant parts of the EU.
Associate Professor Dr Krzysztof Duszczyk from the Electricity Faculty at the Warsaw University of Technology, lecturer at the Smart Building Systems course, believes that smart building systems will soon become a standard. Owing to them houses and flats will be able to correct the errors of their owners, e.g. switch off light in empty rooms, close doors and windows as appropriate, decrease heating when the inhabitants are absent and switch it on an hour before they come back, or even order missing food products if a box in the fridge is almost empty or the expiry date is drawing closer.