House of Cotton

At 26 Derdowskiego Street, at the corner of Żeromskiego Street, there is an impressive building of the Cotton Arbitration Chamber.

It was designed in 1938 by the Warsaw architect Wacław Tomaszewski in the style of moderate modernism, also called modernist monumentalism. This style, according to Maria Jolanta Sołtysik, PhD, derived from the protest against the aesthetics of bare wall, combining classicising tendencies with modern simplicity and functionality. The vertical composition of the building and its skeletal structure are emphasised by rows of lesenes and pillars. The building is heavily glazed, its bright façade is decorated with the inscription "Dom Bawełny" ("House of Cotton"), and the smoothly plastered walls are divided by horizontal and vertical grooves imitating the texture of stone cladding. House of Cotton suffered damage during the war, but already in June 1948, after a six-year break, it performed its function again – and it continues to do so to this day.