Krakow's Wesoła, a centrally located neighborhood on the verge of transformation, has been a space of debate for more than a year. Residents, architects and urban planners have been invited to talks, but at the same time, as if next door, a local development plan is in the process of being passed, which contradicts the idea of working out visions and principles in partnership. Where in Wesola to start? Open the gates, pave the hill, make a market and observe," lists my interlocutor, Artur Celinski.
Katarzyna Jagodzinska: Please share your reflections from your visit to Wesola.
Artur Celinski: The key thing is not what I see, but how the area is perceived by residents. Our goal is to restore the area to the city and its residents - both physically and mentally. Until now, however, residents have had limited access to the site. They often appeared here due to their own or their loved ones' illness - after all, it was a hospital. Their first associations, therefore, do not necessarily define Merry as a good place to spend leisure time. They may never see it that way - and not because of bad memories, but because of the lack of decisiveness of the city government. As I prepared for the workshop, I saw different versions of visions for the future of Wesoła - from another "living room" of Krakow, to a "resident-friendly place," to a new neighborhood responding to the challenges of the future. In the background, we still have consultations on the site's zoning plan, which could give it yet another role. And an owner in the form of a municipal company, which at any time can say that companies - even those owned by the residents of Krakow - operate for financial gain, not social gain.
Catherine: Well, that's right, the thinking about the area started with an elegant neighborhood, which the consultation later verified.
Artur Celiński: I'm not from Krakow and I don't know if the residents need another salon. Perhaps there is indeed such a need in the city and it needs to be realized. However, if the result of the consultation is different, then surely the city community has something to discuss. I accepted the invitation to the workshop, believing that the desired result is a completely fresh perspective that would take advantage of the potentials of the place and combine them with concern for the future of the planet. In turn, this would mean that we adopt certain values and principles, such as not building new buildings, but making the most of existing ones. We focus on biodiversity, accessibility and multifunctionality. We are not afraid of disorder. And if we invite business, it's first and foremost local - connected to the community and sharing its profits with it.
Catherine: And does it seem to you that modern cities are ready for such thinking? That is, that an area comes up that can be developed and we decide not to develop it in the traditional way?
Artur Celinski: What do you mean by traditional way? The challenges of the future may paradoxically turn out to be a return to the past. Besides, it is not about the solutions themselves, but the values behind them. Believe me - I often hear in conversations with officials and decision-makers the desire to realize such concepts as the fifteen-minute city or to implement elements of circular economics or the economy of the bagel. However, we are all aware that for many reasons this really "can't be done" in Poland. This doesn't mean, however, that we can't embrace the values behind such concepts. We are working on how to then define these values and how to make sure that we build on them with consistency. In this variant, we don't have to do everything at once. We can start by inviting residents to the place - let's open the gates, which are closed today, and host something simple and nice there - a concert, a flea market, a community garden. Let' s let the residents experience the place and make them feel like hosts there. Let them have the opportunity to get to know the place themselves, tame its peculiarities and add something from themselves there. This is no revolution. These are good traditions that we have abandoned and are slowly returning to them. One of my ideas, for example, is to postulate a hill here. A simple hill, which in winter will become a sledding paradise, and in summer a great place for a picnic or evening gatherings. The hill is a sensational, simple and inexpensive tool. If anyone wants to tell me that such a hill would be a revolutionary undertaking that residents are not ready for, go ahead. I would be happy to take that person for a short walk on my favorite hill. I guarantee a big smile on your face upon your return.
Katherine: The argument raised by the city is that this neighborhood must also earn its own money. Does this go hand in hand with what you are saying?
Artur Celinski: On itself, meaning on whom or what? Can't local entrepreneurs, cooperatives and cooperatives make money and share their profits by paying, for example, rent or contributing to the process of creating Wesola? I understand that this is about the need to raise a large sum of money in a short period of time, because the city company - the owner of this place - has to balance somehow. This, too, can be done wisely. It is potentially possible to create rental housing here, or to use the existing buildings for medical facilities, day hospitals or private senior citizen homes. Even if some of it is luxury, there is still an opportunity to maintain an appropriate level of diversity and affordability. The city and the municipal corporation can adopt a long-term model of making money and generating profit for the entire community. You don't have to look far for examples - in Bratislava there is Stará Tržnica, a former market hall in the heart of the city. It could probably have been sold and someone would have turned it into a more or less luxurious hotel or mini-mall. Meanwhile, nearly a decade ago it was decided that the place would be rented to a local cooperative. The rent was symbolic, but the lease involved the necessity of investing really a lot of money every year in renovating the building. Today we have here not only a beautiful building, but above all a number of good businesses - a cafe, a courier company, a florist, a creative agency, a beverage manufacturer. It is they - together with the socialists - who create the character of the place, give jobs and entertainment to the city's residents. There are many empty buildings in Wesola today that could repeat this story. They may not be elegant, but they could still be useful. Temporary stores, workshops and manufactories could operate here and make money. Of course, you would have to invest a little here to start with. But it could be a really good business - of course, if we add values to Excel, in addition to numbers.
Catherine: The demand to make this space come alive comes up constantly. The issue on which there is no consensus is the introduction of a residential function here. Now no one lives there, the residents are on the outskirts. What is your opinion, to introduce a residential function or not?
Artur Celinski: The residential function, that is also apartments for rent. And the more expensive ones of a higher standard and the cheaper ones - still great to live in, but with a lower rent thanks to giving up the owner's margin. This, in turn, should be a municipal company or the city itself. On the other hand, I would not recommend selling buildings or land to outside investors. It would very quickly turn out that in such a location it is a lucrative business to build apartments for purely investment purposes. So instead of residents, we would have investors and temporary users. Then the emptiness, chased out of the city company's coffers, would move to the spaces of Wesola. I don't think that's the kind of life we're talking about here.
Catherine: The workshop was supposed to show possible directions that could be taken.
Artur Celinski: Only the city forgot to set up a signpost that would help participants get the maximum useful results. I was very impressed by the ease with which the people in my workshop group worked. I managed to infect them with the concept of a spa - that is, thinking of Wesola as a place to breathe and experience a completely different city. I enjoyed the exchange of ideas there - I propose making the largest community garden here, and someone quickly adds that, after all, the students of the nearby school could become its caretakers, and the staff of the neighborhood botanical garden would advise anyone willing to grow. This was very invigorating, and it would certainly have been even more interesting, had it not been for the fact that we were working without concrete knowledge of the expectations of the company and city authorities. Hence, we often jumped into completely different areas of thinking about the area. I think we wanted too much to reconcile it all. To make the area wild and orderly at the same time. Some people croaked when they heard about the vision of public housing, others tried to hide their lack of enthusiasm when they saw the orchestrated gimmicks and their conservative nature. In a word - it was a great experience. My only regret is that we didn't have the opportunity to go back to work after the confrontation with the decision-makers.
Catherine: How should this transformation process continue, in your opinion? What would be best for the city?
Artur Celinski: For the city, that is, for whom? The decision-makers? The residents? Which residents? It is the city authorities - the Mayor and the City Council - who must first say for themselves what the residents they represent think Krakow needs. If there is no clarity here, how then to interpret the draft zoning plan for the area? Who is its author? What goals of urban policy defined as concern for the common good does this plan fulfill. If we don't know how to answer these questions, it means we have to go backwards. And in the meantime, I recommend that we open the gates of Wesola, pave the hill there, move the market and rent the vacant spaces to those who have the desire to operate here. And observe. And only then decide on the future of the place.
You will find extensive material on Wesola and the workshops in the December issue of A&B Monthly.
