Work submitted for the competition
"Best Diploma Architecture".
The Polish urban landscape suffered significantly as a result of World War II and the domination of the USSR until 1989. This situation laid the groundwork for visions of healthy modernist cities. They were able to develop in the landscape of the socialist system of the People's Republic of Poland, which had ambitions to design the lives of its fellow citizens.
context, a continuation of the ideas of Kazimierz Wejchert and Hanna Adamczewska-Wejchert
© Inez Wawszczyk
The imminent death of Stalin ended the brief period of dominance of Socialist Realist architecture, and by the late 1950s the assumptions of the Athens Charter had already been revisited. Just as quickly there was an economic regression and a decade later the idea of the "house factory" was born. Subsequent years brought further development of typification, prefabrication, domination of monotonous simplified forms that permanently crippled the landscape of Polish cities.
Tychy is a unique case of a city designed and built on raw roots. The idea of building a satellite city feeding into the Upper Silesian Industrial District was born in 1949 and was mostly implemented according to the innovative master plan of Kazimierz Wejchert and Hanna Adamczewska-Wejchert. The backbone of the city are two axes - the Railway Axis seated in a trench, connecting Tychy with GOP cities, and the Green Axis, stretching across the city from Park Północny to Paprocany. Urban Tissue became a vividly written history of the changes and trends of realities in the People's Republic of Poland. It reflected both the positive aspects of urban space planning and the multitude of problems resulting from poor management, poor workmanship or the failure to realize the city center together with cultural and entertainment facilities.
comparison of the project with the existing state
© Inez Wawszczyk
The project was preceded by an analysis of the history of the city's development, the implementation of Kazimierz Wejchert's theory and the observation of the space in its present state, in order to formulate guidelines for the project both on a macro and micro scale.
design guidelines
© Inez Wawszczyk
The design at the city scale is based on three pillars. The development of the city is a process stretched over time, so the first pillar is to fill in the missing elements of Wejchert's project by densifying the Green Axis and creating a cultural and commercial center.
The second postulate is to integrate the scattered green areas into one coherent system. The last postulate focuses on strengthening the identity of individual neighborhoods by introducing local centers within neighborhood units. Design support is the author's system of planning tools based on Kazimierz Wejchert's study of the elements of urban composition in the context of the contemporary needs of the city's residents.
tale of tectonics
© Inez Wawszczyk
The architectural manifesto in the form of a megastructure is a summary of the design considerations for the city. At the intersection of the Green Axis and Kolejowa Street is a large, empty green plot, with arbitrarily formed paths, called the Meadow.
How does the Meadow manifest the guidelines put in place?
© Inez Wawszczyk
This unique phenomenon became the impetus for subsequent design decisions. The Meadow has been elevated and separates what is commercial, retail (mundane) from what is on top of it, which is the intimate spaces created by the symbiosis of low and small buildings submerged in greenery. The orthogonality alluding to its modernist pedigree is contrasted with the softness of the undulating green platform, which seamlessly transitions into a footbridge-museum overhanging the railroad trench, ultimately welding the Green Axis into a whole.
duality of space
© Inez Wawszczyk
The variety of functions and spaces on offer fulfills the ambition for a city center that, thanks to its proximity to the Railway Axis, can also become an interurban attraction.
The junction between the Meadow and the street level
© Inez Wawszczyk
Inez WAWSZCZYK
Illustrations: © Author
