Although the Mieszkanie Plus program is a thing of the past, its remnants can be found in many Polish cities. One of them is a housing estate that was to become a model for thousands of buildings where Polish women and men would find cheap apartments for rent. It's been almost 10 years since the first mentions of a social housing development on Korczaka Street in Katowice, and an early concept was created back in 2017. Today, most of the buildings are finished, and the spaces between the blocks have been filled with greenery. What proposal for affordable housing does Kuryłowicz + Architekci have?
The Housing Sector Fund for Development is a company of the Polish Development Fund, which was building low-cost housing under the Housing Plus program before the program's closure in 2023. Initially, the announcements were hype, and 100,000 or even 350,000 low-cost rental apartments were to be built in the course of the project. As is usually the case, the grand predictions fell short of reality, because in the end, according to the data from the NIK report, in October 2021 there were only less than 36,000 apartments completed and under construction in total.
Estate of apartments for rent on Korczaka Street in Katowice
design: Kurylowicz + Architects photo: PFR Real Estate
Among the many mediocre buildings, there have been a few developments at which it is worth stopping for a little longer. These include Nowy Nikiszowiec in Katowice, designed by 22architekci, or two multi-family buildings in Lowicz, whose concept was developed by the team of GDA Lukasz Gaj and Pracownia Architektury Rafał Mazur.
An estate of apartments for rent on Korczaka Street in Katowice
design: Kuryłowicz + Architekci photo: PFR Nieruchomości
A model housing development in Katowice
The flagship project , however, was to be a model estate, built according to the concept selected in an architectural competition. Four studios won the 2017 competition, including Kurylowicz + Architects, which presented an adaptable concept that could be implemented in different locations and scales. It was this project that was handed over for implementation, and the place where it was to materialize was Katowice's Szopienice-Burowiec neighborhood. How does the model housing estate for rent look after completion?
An estate of apartments for rent on Korczaka Street in Katowice
proj.: Kuryłowicz + Architekci photo: PFR Real Estate
industry and five ponds in silesia
The new housing development was built on Korczaka Street in a post-industrial area that became part of Katowice not so long ago - only in 2006, becoming part of a larger district, Szopienice-Burowiec. Located in the northeast of the city, the area is filled primarily with brick architecture from the second half of the 19th and early 20th centuries, but you'll find slightly older tenement houses as well as communist-era large-panel estates. Korczaka Street, where the new housing development designed by Prof. Ewa Kuryłowicz's studio was built, is located on the border of Szopienice and the Burowiec district. This is a relatively far-from-center neighborhood, which is still dominated by single-family housing with a small admixture of multifamily and industrial buildings.
There is also no shortage of greenery - not counting the one resulting from the low level of urbanization in the area, there are two sizable complexes of green areas not far from the new accessible housing development. To the north is the Millennium Park, while to the east is Katowice's Valley of Five Ponds, a post-mining area intensively revitalized by the city since 2023.
An estate of apartments for rent on Korczaka Street in Katowice
proj.: Kuryłowicz + Architekci photo: PFR Real Estate
Mieszkanie Plus in Katowice
The new Szopienica housing development features 26 non-basement buildings with heights ranging from four to five stories. The minimalist, rectangular blocks were grouped in 9 development quarters - some of them consist of four and others of two point buildings. The estate is located between two Szopienicka streets - Korczaka Street and Mroźna Street, which is one of the streets of the nearby single-family housing estate. In order to improve communication within the "model estate", another road was routed between them - Kazimierz Kutz Street, a famous director, running east-west.
A housing estate of apartments for rent on Korczaka Street in Katowice
design: Kurylowicz + Architects photo: PFR Real Estate
It has become the main axis of the estate, along which the individual quarters have been distributed. The street accommodates all modes of movement - on four wheels, as well as on foot and by bicycle. About halfway along the street, on its south side, an elongated neighborhood square measuring 25 by 95 meters has been designated. A few larger birch trees grow there, and there are also flattened sections, overgrown with low greenery, and quite a bit of small architecture. The first floors of the buildings clustered around the public square are preceded by an arcade and glass; they contain commercial premises with a total area of about 500 sqm.
An estate of apartments for rent on Korczaka Street in Katowice
proj.: Kuryłowicz + Architekci photo: PFR Nieruchomości
By the wall in the courtyard
Common spaces have also been designed within the quarters themselves. Each set of blocks has a small enclave with plantings (mainly trees, which still need some time to realistically provide shade on the estate) and small architecture, which includes not only benches, but also partially covered sheds. The courtyards are varied by differences in terrain; in addition to small hills, retaining walls also appear, giving the neighborhood a certain scenographic quality.
An estate of apartments for rent on Korczaka Street in Katowice
design: Kurylowicz + Architects photo: PFR Real Estate
color code
In the name of maximum economy, the exterior elevations of all 26 buildings were developed in an almost identical manner. Detail is present residually here - primarily in the form of black balcony railings and dark window woodwork. The predominant surfaces of the wall slopes were finished with coarse plaster.
The color scheme of the buildings in each quarter was varied from light ash through beiges, browns, cold grays to dark graphite. The choice of colors based on an analysis of the buildings and landscape of Szopienice allows the quarters to be distinguished and the new buildings to be better embedded in the local context.
There is also a bit of room for brick finishes, which can be found primarily at the entrances to the stairwells and in the ground floors of the buildings surrounding the public square.
An estate of apartments for rent on Korczaka Street in Katowice
proj.: Kuryłowicz + Architekci fot PFR Nieruchomości
cheap apartments for rent according to Kurylowicz + Architects
And what's it like inside? The buildings of the model development on Korczaka Street offer a total of 524 apartments for rent. They are available in several variants, categorized according to two characteristics - area, ranging from 30 to 90 square meters, and one of three degrees of finish. A significant portion have access to a balcony or garden, sometimes as large as nearly 10 acres.
An estate of apartments for rent on Korczaka Street in Katowice
proj.: Kuryłowicz + Architekci photo: PFR Nieruchomości
A pan under your block
Not everything is colorful, however, and it's by no means about the plaster used to cover the facades of the buildings. Within the development, 534 parking spaces have been created. Only 118 of them are in underground garages, all the rest are above-ground spaces, distributed in the estate's space. Such a solution has some advantages - for example, the benefits to vegetation of preserving native soil, but it seems that the disadvantages outweigh the disadvantages - the space occupied by parking lots can be used for additional green areas, the presence of surface parking lots also means more car traffic inside the estate - and thus a lower level of security. The biologically active and water-permeable area is also reduced, and in summer the concrete planes of parking lots heat up a lot.
An estate of apartments for rent on Korczaka Street in Katowice
proj.: Kuryłowicz + Architekci photo: PFR Nieruchomości
This is not an indictment of the housing estate project per se, as the design team moved within the competition guidelines - the problem is rather about the implementation budget. Was it too low, or are the expectations for social housing too high?
An estate of apartments for rent on Korczaka Street in Katowice
design: Kurylowicz + Architects photo: PFR Real Estate
Apartment for plus or minus?
And are the apartments in Szopienice really accessible? In terms of accessibility for people with disabilities - probably yes. All developments have elevators, and the designs of the buildings and landscaping were consulted by the Integration Foundation. In the case of this housing development, however, accessibility in the economic sense was key. What does it look like in practice? Rents for apartments on Korczaka Street in Katowice depend on the square footage and the level of finish. The bills consist of rent and service charge, as well as utility charges, which depend on the actual consumption of the apartment.
An estate of apartments for rent on Korczaka Street in Katowice
proj.: Kuryłowicz + Architekci photo: PFR Nieruchomości
For example - an unfurnished one-room apartment costs about PLN 1,700 per month (excluding utilities), while a furnished, four-room unit of 77 square meters is an expense of about PLN 3,600. These are prices within market limits. It gets more attractive only when subsidies are obtained, which, depending on the size of the household, can be up to 900 zlotys.
