Off-piste thinking

As long as I can keep going down as fast as possible, keeping the situation and the skiing style under control, without thinking too much or rather being one hundred per cent focused on the physical activity. The euphoria only lasted a few hours until I heard the word ‘double-decker’ going up the gondola lift – that was the end of my psychological detachment from work. As it happened, my friends were talking about the new–fangled double-decker skis that were being tried out on the piste. And what did they make me think of? Double-decker elevators in buildings. These have been installed in the two newest skyscrapers in Warsaw: Warsaw Spire and Q22 – the flagship project of Kielce-based developer Echo Investment. In this magazine, representatives of the latter tell us how to create (that’s probably the right word) the ideal environment for the creative class. What is the creative class? The answer can be found in the article entitled ‘Space to Create’. Coming back to skiing and the double-decker technology devised by a leading ski manufacturer – and the contrast when we entered our hotel and saw the old wooden skis some of our friends were using to practise snow sports. These days technology reigns supreme, making many things easier – and the articles ‘Making Concrete Plans’ and ‘Droning On and On’ examine some rather good examples of this. Technology can also complicate many things too, but that’s a subject for another day.