Searching for information about the site's past, we came across a reference that Shoal was a multipath village. The very definition of a village made us know what to do," says Szymon Januszewski, head of the Insomia studio, which designed the intimate estate of terraced houses - Młodnik - in Poznań.
bird's eye view
© Insomia
Ewa Karendys: Terraced housing does not get good press today. On the outskirts of our cities, the housing estates are spilling over and deforming the space. Why is this the case?
Szymon Januszewski: To a large extent it's a matter of geodetic divisions, which are imposed in a geometrically simple way without the development of an architectural concept. We architects get a ready-made land division. It rarely happens that we first create a concept, on the basis of which plots are separated. Complicated divisions mean trouble, and trouble means costs. It is obvious that the Mlodnik estate would not have been drawn this way by any surveyor if he had not received our concept beforehand
Ewa Karendys: The sin of modern terraced housing is undifferentiated development. It is enough to mention the latest high-profile case - JW Construction's Villa Campina development, hailed as a "copy-paste" development.
Szymon Januszewski: This is also a matter of cost. For designing one house, let's say a two-unit house, the architect is paid a certain amount. For subsequent modules of this house, architects already take some percentage of this amount, I hope it doesn't happen that they take nothing. On the one hand, it can be said that such a doe estate is ecological, because fewer materials are used. Complicated geometry, faults are all additional wall lengths. On the other hand, the social consequences can be quite serious. There will be problems with neighborly relations, besides, I bet that people may mistakenly end up in other people's houses. It happened to me once. I lived in a building that, admittedly, was not terraced, but stood in a string of identical buildings. I was returning from a walk with my dog, I entered the stairwell, opened the door, the dog ran into the room. It turned out, however, that it was not into mine. In the living room a gentleman was watching TV, and he was very surprised by our visit.
Ewa Karendys: Did you want things to be differentin the Mlodnik estate, which is being built on the site of the defunct Ławica farm?
Szymon Januszewski: We always try to take into account the social aspect and remember the important role played by architecture. The space influences us, the residents. While looking for information about the place's past, we came across a reference that Shoal was a multipath village. The very definition of a village, caused us to know what to do.
The common space was designed by the architects in the central part of the estate; it is also here that the unusual chimney, which is the ventilation of the garage hall, will be located
© Insomia
Ewa Karendys: A multipath village is a type of village with compact development along several, usually winding, streets. What else do we know about Shoal?
Szymon Januszewski: We know that a manor house was located there. Around the manor house stood farm buildings - and it is on a fragment of this area that the proposed project is located. Unfortunately, apart from the historical map, which we have reached, little material has survived. But the geodetic division is not only due to the inspiration of the multipath. We wanted to make the houses affordable in an era of price increases. That is, not 200-square-meter ones on large plots of land, but rather small ones in dense development, using existing utilities.
Ewa Karendys: Was the local plan conducive to the construction of a multipath village?
Szymon Januszewski: It was clear from the plan that the development would be built along the street. We created another transportation system - inside. We dreamed of designing a pedestrian enclave, without cars. A space that will be an excuse to build relationships between people. We give them the opportunity to meet neighbors in this place: we designed the common space in a central place, put there, for example, mailboxes, a meeting table, small architecture. There is also no shortage of passages and links that tie the area together.
The architects dreamed of designing a pedestrian enclave, without cars
© Insomia
Ewa Karendys: For this you have cleverly packed cars underground.
Szymon Januszewski: Indeed, we hid parking spaces under the main thoroughfare. As a result, we have cars on the outskirts, the heart of the estate is a space for pedestrians, and I hope children will enjoy playing there. The garages of individual houses can be accessed through an underground tunnel. If all cars were to be introduced into the area at this density, a truly car-oriented project would result. What's more, multiple passageways are being introduced throughout the layout so that residents can freely access the center of the development. In addition, the local plan stipulates that the roof cornice is to be limited to a height of four meters, which gives the effect of an intimate, human-scale development. What else is important: except for the private zone, the estate is not fenced.
The housing development will not lack passageways and links that tie the area together
© Insomia
Ewa Karendys: Will the new buildings be located in the footprint of the former farm buildings?
Szymon Januszewski: Some of the houses lie in this line. All the buildings that are within the contour of the former buildings will be made of ceramic materials from which the former farm buildings were made. The same will appear in the development - the outlines will be legible, and we will also try to use fragments of bricks that were found during the earthworks.
Ewa Karendys: What about ecological solutions?
Szymon Januszewski: We are planning rainwater retention, which will be used to water the plants. There is a photovoltaic system and a heat pump on the roof of each house. So the ecological solutions will be very clear in the space.
The estate will ultimately consist of 58 intimate houses
© Insomia
Ewa Karendys: Is there anything that could have been done better?
Szymon Januszewski: I try to have as few such thoughts as possible, it's frustrating. And although we are still learning, after the New Strzeszyn neighborhood we know more how to design a space that works. Neighborhood social life thrives there, and I hope it will be the same on the Mlodnik estate. Would I change anything? If I could, I would make it less complicated for us by design. I don't know if that's possible. We have fifty-eight houses on the estate, so the same number of lots. Writing a deed for this area is a huge challenge. There are a lot of interdependencies, connections here - passages, connectors run through private plots. In the deed you need to write an easement so that neighbors can pass through there. In this respect, it is much easier to make a doe estate, with simple divisions: "this is mine, this is yours." I hope that the estate we have designed will be a better place to live.
At the heart of the estate will be mailboxes, a meeting table, small architecture
© Insomia
Ewa Karendys: Will there be?
Szymon Januszewski: In the past we didn't think about it, because everything was a result of function. No one planned a winding road, for example: natural terrain obstacles forced its irregular course. Today we see that this type of disorder, as in the case of a multipath village, works well. The space arouses curiosity. I think the biggest problem of modern settlements are fences, automatic gates. Often we don't know the neighbor next door, because we simply have no way to meet him. When we return from work, we open the gate, drive in, enter the house. This is what it looks like in a typical doe development. In the morning it's the same thing, only in reverse order. We put on a space that will, to some extent, force these contacts. We did the same thing in the New Strzeszyn housing development, and I think it worked out well for the residents - it works.
Ewa Karendys: Thank you for the interview.
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Read more: A&B 7-8/2024 - SINGLE-FAMILY HOUSES,
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