The Integration Foundation awarded Warsaw UNIT with a "Building without Barriers" certificate, which is an acknowledgment that the building is suitable for people with disabilities, limited mobility, as well as the elderly and parents with children.
The certificate is the result of cooperation between the developer and the Integration Foundation since the very beginning of the Warsaw UNIT project. This allowed us to apply solutions that would not have been possible in subsequent stages of construction.
"This is another project on which we worked closely with Ghelamco. We are pleased that the city's landmark buildings are being constructed with people with disabilities in mind. We do not usually notice the architectural obstacles they face. A door that is too narrow or a small threshold can sometimes be an insurmountable barrier. Fortunately, in buildings such as Warsaw UNIT, everyone can get to the top of the building without any problems. Thanks to such places, Warsaw is becoming a friendly city, more and more open to everyone", says Ewa Pawłowska, President of the Integration Foundation, one of the largest organizations in Poland working for the benefit of people with disabilities, which for 27 years has been helping to eliminate architectural, digital and social barriers.
In Warsaw UNIT, the experts of the Integration Foundation singled out, among other things: wide entrances with doors opening automatically for various groups of users, parking spaces for people with disabilities, which account for more than 2 percent of the total number of spaces in the building, access to all floors by means of lifts, and the lift management system equipped with additional solutions for people with disabilities, including precise voice information. Additionally, they paid attention to perfectly designed toilets for people with disabilities, located in common spaces on each office floor, UNIT's good location (near the Daszyńskiego Roundabout), with a multitude of high-quality public transport to choose from: tram, bus, metro and SKM stations, as well as solutions for cyclists, such as bike lanes near the building, closed parking for cyclists, changing rooms with showers and city bike stations at the entrance.
"We want each of our projects to provide maximum comfort and be accessible to all users. Our buildings house, not only offices but also gyms, shops, restaurants and tourist facilities which are used by almost everyone. We are glad that these spaces are accessible to everyone, regardless of their age and health", says Jarosław Zagórski, Commercial and Development Director at Ghelamco Poland.
About Warsaw UNIT
Warsaw UNIT is one of the most technologically advanced skyscrapers in Poland. The architectural design has been developed by the Polish and Belgian Architecture Studio: Projekt. The building is managed by CBRE, an international consulting company, which also has its headquarters in the building. The building's tenants include the insurance company Warta.
The building uses Signal OS, a proprietary operating system for buildings. Thanks to it, the users receive, e.g., access to a mobile application enabling them to access the building or invite guests and reserve parking spaces. The skyscraper has also been equipped with innovative solutions which will allow the building to immediately enter the so-called pandemic mode. The Warsaw UNIT includes equipment such as UV lamps installed in the elevators (they will be activated in cabins in "stand-by" mode) and in air-conditioning systems.
The building received pre-certification from the International WELL Building Institute™ (IWBI) in the latest WELL v2 Core system, which takes into account the user well-being. It is also currently subject to the WELL Health-Safety Rating certification process, which assesses the preparedness of buildings to operate during the pandemic. UNIT sets trends in ecological construction, which is confirmed by certificates such as Green Building Standard and BREEAM, in which the skyscraper received the highest possible rating.