This project has won more than once - first in an architectural competition, then in last year's edition of the most prestigious listing in Polish architecture - the SARP 2024 Award of the Year. Today, this victory, in addition to the architects from the PB / STUDIO, Studiomania and IPA ipreferanalog studios, is enjoyed primarily by the residents of Gdynia Witomin, who have gained a place to deepen neighborhood relations, expand their knowledge and spend time actively. So can Widna 2a Marina be a model for a community center in the 21st century?
Community centers were one of the most important features of architecture and urban planning in the previous system. They animated the life of large housing estates, where millions of Polish women and men lived (and still live today). After the change of the political system, they ceased to arise - in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the number of community centers fell dramatically from 16,000 to 6,000, today there are just over 4,000. This state of affairs, however, is slowly changing, and the community centers themselves are also changing, acquiring new names or models of operation, with which they embrace ever wider groups.
Neighborhood Center Przystań Widna 2A in Gdynia - proj.: PB / Studio, Studiomania, IPA ipreferanalog
Photo: Nate Cook © PB / STUDIO
This change is also reflected in architecture - more and more infrastructure is being built for facilities designed to activate local communities. The most recent good examples certainly include the Center for Intergenerational Activity in Warsaw or the Center for Social Integration in Polo. The creation of such buildings depends primarily on the resources and initiative of the local government. Gdynia in this regard is one of the examples worth following - already as part of the municipal revitalization program implemented since 2016, a decision was made there to create a network of Neighborhood Centers.
Neighborhood Center Przystań Widna 2A in Gdynia - proj.: PB / Studio, Studiomania, IPA ipreferanalog
Photo: Nate Cook © PB / STUDIO
neighborhood marina
Using nautical nomenclature, Gdynia named its Neighborhood Centers as Harbors. As intended, they were to perform a number of functions for the benefit of communities living in Gdynia's housing estates. An important feature of the Pomeranian initiative is its flexibility - while working out the concept of the Harbors, from the very beginning there was no question of a single, predetermined model of operation. Each of the establishments was to be adapted to the specific needs of the community it was to serve - that's why, for example, in the Chylońska 237 Marina, in addition to the mediatheque, there was a clinic and a nursery, which were lacking in that part of Chylonia. The first Harbors were built using already existing structures. Two educational facilities - the Ecological School Complex and the Craft and Trade School Complex - and the municipal library at 33 Opata Hackiego Street - were adapted for neighborhood centers.
Neighborhood Center Przystań Widna 2A in Gdynia - proj.: PB / Studio, Studiomania, IPA ipreferanalog
Photo: Nate Cook © PB / STUDIO
However, not all neighborhoods have adequate infrastructure or structures that could potentially begin to serve as a Marina. Such was the case with Witomin, which is why the Municipality of Gdynia decided to organize an architectural competition that allowed the selection of a design that would meet the needs of the local community.
Neighborhood Center Przystań Widna 2A in Gdynia - proj.: PB / Studio, Studiomania, IPA ipreferanalog
photo: Nate Cook © PB / STUDIO
coherent, consistent and carefully considered
The design of the Widna 2a Marina was selected from among 8 works submitted for an architectural competition that the Municipality of Gdynia in cooperation with the Laboratory for Social Innovation organized in 2017. Bianka Witowka, chairwoman of the jury, commented on the selected work in this way:
The winning concept flawlessly solves the issues of functionality, combining and dividing interiors and outdoor area. A flexible, capacious space was obtained, and at the same time not devoid of places conducive to integration in smaller groups. The architects skillfully used the terrain to create a friendly, inviting place. The concept is coherent, consistent and carefully thought out, while the form of the building is adequate to its function, meeting the expectations of openness and transparency without resorting to forms characteristic of commercial or office buildings.
Has the implementation of the project met the hopes placed in the winning concept?
Neighborhood Center Przystań Widna 2A in Gdynia - proj.: PB / Studio, Studiomania, IPA ipreferanalog
photo: Nate Cook © PB / STUDIO
a secluded neighborhood center
Widna 2a Marina was built in a difficult location, which has as many disadvantages as advantages. This is because the new neighborhood center was built near the intersection of Chwarznieńska, Wielkokacka, Małokacka and Rolnicza streets, the largest intersection in the district. Witomino has so far failed to get a ring road, so every day thousands of cars pass through, generating a lot of noise.
Neighborhood Center Przystań Widna 2A in Gdynia - proj.: PB / Studio, Studiomania, IPA ipreferanalog
Photo: Nate Cook © PB / STUDIO
What's more, Widna 2a, which is actually in the middle of Witomin, was built at the meeting point of two architectural realities - behind it are settlements of four-story high tower blocks from the late 1960s and early 1970s, while in front, on the other side of Chwarznieńska Street, rise the gargantuan blocks of the Witaw Family Center, buildings erected after the regime change.
Neighborhood Center Przystań Widna 2A in Gdynia - proj.: PB / Studio, Studiomania, IPA ipreferanalog
Photo: Nate Cook © PB / STUDIO
The location in the very center is certainly advantageous - finding the place is not a problem, and it is also easy to get there using public transportation. However, the location also has an extremely significant disadvantage, which is noise. Its reduction became one of the primary determinants of how architects from PB / STUDIO, Studiomania and IPA spatially shaped the new neighborhood center in Gdynia.
One of the most important goals was to design an intimate, internal square, which will be formed by the appropriate location of the new development on the plot and will enable the developer to carry out the planned tasks in a difficult location at the main intersection of the neighborhood. We proposed that the building act as an acoustic barrier - closing off from the busy streets and opening up to the inner square. The form of the building was shaped by adjusting the mass to the terrain and squatting to the building line, and using faults that act as a diffusion barrier to break up the sound coming from the street.
- write the architects on their realization.
The architects' assumptions were realized in the form of two buildings, located in the northwestern part of the intersection, along Rolnicza and Chwarznieńska streets. The blocks on the south side, facing the busy streets , have been dismembered, shaped in a cascade. Their most important task is to break up the wall of sound reaching Widna 2a Marina from the whirring engines of vehicles driving through the busy streets.
Neighborhood Center Przystań Widna 2A in Gdynia - proj.: PB / Studio, Studiomania, IPA ipreferanalog
Photo: Nate Cook © PB / STUDIO
When designing the southern walls, the use of street-facing glazing was almost completely abandoned. Also, the way the facades were finished was subordinated to the fight against noise - they were covered with wooden slats, uninterrupted from the ground floor to the very tops of the buildings. In the future they will be overgrown with vines, but they already have a positive effect on the acoustics of the building.
Neighborhood Center Przystań Widna 2A in Gdynia - proj.: PB / Studio, Studiomania, IPA ipreferanalog
Photo: Nate Cook © PB / STUDIO
transition to the side of culture
The Widna 2a Marina turns its back on the street - but for such a location, that's not a disadvantage. This doesn't mean, however, that the neighborhood center in Witomin doesn't invite you in. The blocks, set back a dozen meters or so from each other, form a wide entrance, acting as a gateway, inviting visitors to discover what lies on the other side of the wooden "entanglements."
Neighborhood Center Przystań Widna 2A in Gdynia - proj.: PB / Studio, Studiomania, IPA ipreferanalog
Photo: Nate Cook © PB / STUDIO
Once you get to the other side, the expression of the buildings changes dramatically. In front of those who "venture" to walk to this place, a small square will appear , wrapped on all sides by buildings - on the north by blocks of flats from the 1970s, and on the south by two volumes of the Widna 2a Marina. The first thing that strikes the eye is the way the facade was developed. In Gdynia, it could not have fallen on a different color - the finish is dominated by broken white, in accordance with the guidelines of the city's visual artist, the project's authors assure. Both the plastered facades and the terrazzo, which was used as the surface of the square, are bright.
The buildings form a compositional and material unity with the square and elements of small architecture. The plaza's light terrazzo flooring blends with the flooring of the buildings' interiors and transitions seamlessly to the terraced seating around the plaza, resulting in an optical and physical fusion of architecture and surroundings.
- write the architects on their realization.
Neighborhood Center Przystań Widna 2A in Gdynia - proj.: PB / Studio, Studiomania, IPA ipreferanalog
Photo: Nate Cook © PB / STUDIO
It seems that it is the square that plays a key role here. It is a democratic space, accessible from everywhere and to everyone (the entire establishment has been adjusted to high accessibility standards), with its shape it promotes both integration and solitary forms of recreation. The most important thing is its shape - the team took advantage of the slope of the terrain, designing the ends of the square in the form of high steps, forming an amphitheater-like arrangement. As they themselves point out:
The amphitheater-like form of the seating makes it possible to hold classes, meetings or open-air movie screenings, and promotes the integration of residents.
Neighborhood Center Przystań Widna 2A in Gdynia - proj.: PB / Studio, Studiomania, IPA ipreferanalog
Photo: Nate Cook © PB / STUDIO
Small architecture, especially benches and chess tables, which with their wooden finish break the dominance of white terrazzo in some places, as well as numerous, mainly low plantings, are also conducive to spending time in this place. The square's space also relies on solutions to minimize the inconvenience generated by nearby roadways:
There is a floor fountain in the central part of the square, which additionally masks the sounds of the street with the sound of water.
Neighborhood Center Przystań Widna 2A in Gdynia - proj.: PB / Studio, Studiomania, IPA ipreferanalog
Photo: Nate Cook © PB / STUDIO
two solids for a neighborhood
The spatial division was also followed by the division of functions located in two buildings of the Gdynia neighborhood center. The block located on the side of Rolnicza Street is home to a branch of the Gdynia City Library. In this case, the interior layout is simple and intuitive - the main entrance is located on the side of the "passage" leading between the two buildings of the Marina. Already behind the first door a view of the shelves with collections and the library counter opens up. In the depth of the building, work desks and sanitary and administrative rooms were located. The first floor repeats this layout, with one difference - on the north side , part of the space is open-air, serving as a spacious terrace, accessible from both inside and outside the library.
Neighborhood Center Przystań Widna 2A in Gdynia - proj.: PB / Studio, Studiomania, IPA ipreferanalog
Photo: Nate Cook © PB / STUDIO
The functional program of the part intended for the operation of the Widna 2a Marina is much more elaborate. Here, the entrance is located on the side of the square - immediately after crossing the threshold, the view opens to a spacious lobby. Around it (and above it, on the first floor) numerous workshop and lecture rooms have been distributed, as well as other rooms used by the Neighborhood House and the OVUM Association, which provides free legal advice. As in the case of the neighboring library, part of the second floor has been allocated for a wood-lined terrace, accessible to all residents.
Neighborhood Center Przystań Widna 2A in Gdynia - proj.: PB / Studio, Studiomania, IPA ipreferanalog
photo: Jakub Piórkowski © PB / STUDIO
hopes fulfilled
The main idea of the project was to create a contemporary public space, combining the functions of a place for meeting, relaxation and interaction for local residents from different age and social groups.
- reads the author's description.
It seems that the assumptions have been realized - observing the social media of the facility, one can easily find a schedule filled to the brim with workshops, meetings and other activities, integrating the Witomin community. Although the Gdynia revitalization program, within the framework of which Widna 2a Marina was created, is slowly coming to an end, the mission of the neighborhood center itself is just beginning. One hopes that this kind of initiative will radiate beyond the immediate neighborhood, however, offering a good example for local governments across the country.
