The theme of parallel universes is often explored in B- or perhaps C-grade science fiction films and literature. This concept, which is not strongly supported by modern physics, assumes that there are numerous functioning parallel realities somewhere in the universe, between which one can travel by means of teleporters or space-time tunnels.
The protagonists of these film and book narratives happen to move consciously or accidentally from our reality to an almost identical world somewhere on the edges of the galaxy. This other reality, depending on the plot, is much or slightly worse, and sometimes better, than our world. Nevertheless, the differences are conceivable and hypothetically this is how things could have turned out in our world, as a result of small and minor events in our history. Dealing with this poor literature and shoddy films at first glance makes little sense, as does constructing historical fiction, although perhaps not entirely. Could anyone have predicted the current pandemic and its consequences two years ago, although this theme has been taken up many times precisely in science fiction and horror films, but received with a pinch of salt by the public? Sometimes, walking in the woods on Sunday, I imagine that I accidentally hit a hidden teleporter at the intersection of paths and wake up on Monday in a slightly different parallel reality.
parallel world X
I get off a traditionally late train at the now heavily tarmacked Centralna on a Monday morning in Warsaw. To my left looms the unfinished Zlote Tarasy, which is likely to be converted into a central bazaar. Gray dust carried by gusts of wind obscures the Eastern Wall, making it difficult to breathe, along with the heavy biting fumes of the jostling diesels standing in traffic. At the Roundabout de Gaulle I pass the former building of the Central Committee of the Polish United Workers' Party. After the liquidation of the stock exchange, its representative function was restored and it houses the national authorities of the Polish United Development Party, or PZPR for short. After failed attempts after 1989 to introduce liberal democracy and a market economy, a centralist mono-party political and economic system drifting toward nationalism with small niches of the private sector was restored. The new gold window ironwork, presumably intended to enhance the prestige of the edifice, is irritating. Fortunately, Warsaw's aggressive smog will sew up the new glaze of power rather quickly.
parallel world X
© Piotr Średniawa
On Foksal, the right sidewalk has been closed due to the constant danger caused by the peeling off of parts of the facades of the once beautiful townhouses. This is probably their last months. It is certainly regrettable, but no one has a financial and organizational idea for the sanitation of downtown buildings. In our palace before noon there is the traditional annual opening of the exhibition of the awarded architectural realizations of the last year. There is a lack of any novelties, while it can be said that two dominant trends and styles have become established. In the area of large public buildings, transposed Warsaw Corrazian classicism dominates, also referring to the work of architects Rudolf Swierczynski and Bohdan Pniewski, while in smaller cities, and especially in single-family housing, the romantic manor style with roots based on the early work of architect Romuald Gutt has already taken permanent hold. A somewhat separate creative path is represented by the Wroclaw environment and its realizations, evoking echoes of Expressionism, which, however, raises doubts due to its ambiguous provenance. As usual, multi-family housing was not presented, although as a circle we still design large-panel housing estates, we prefer to continue subjecting them to environmental criticism rather than presenting them as creative achievements.
After the opening of the exhibition and the presentation of awards, we are discussing changes in the new regulation on technical conditions. The new conditions allow an increase in the number of stories in residential buildings without a passenger lift to five stories. Part of the community demands a firm protesting stance, but the prevailing view is that in view of the verbal de facto change from four floors to four floors, it is not worth entering into a conflictual relationship with the ministry that oversees our association. Under free motions, the idea of establishing a Chamber of Architects is taken up for the umpteenth time, in rather ceremonial fashion. The discussion ends as usual with nothing in the face of difficulties in defining the scope and area of the Chamber's activities and doubts about the sense of establishing a second architectural organization.
Since I have two hours to catch the train I browse through the foreign magazines in our library. They are unavailable in newspaper stores; moreover, their price is prohibitive by our standards. I made some photocopies from "Detail". The beautiful photographs and interesting drawings of Western implementations are somewhat exotic and purely informative to me, remaining completely outside our search for a national style and technical possibilities. Tomorrow, due to the approval of four-story buildings, I will have to order the assistants at the studio of the state-owned Miastobudoprojekt, disgusted with their work, to change the program tables on Unit G, a new housing development near Pszczyna. Fortunately for the project itself, this will not make much difference, only one story will have to be added on the elevations. The construction of the large estate complex, piloted as a government program, stems from the need to provide housing for miners in connection with the planned increase in coal production to 200 million tons a year. The location in the vicinity of the palace park, unsuccessfully protested by outlawed environmental organizations, has its cause in the impossibility of implementing housing development in the center of the GOP devastated by mining damage, and the increasing shortage of drinking water. Hence the decision to build this complex as close as possible to the reservoir on the Vistula in Goczałkowice. Tomorrow, too, a decision will have to be made on whether we enter the next announced competition for the development of Pilsudski Square in Warsaw. If so, I would like to do it on a newer version of CAD. I already have a hacker version, I will just have to ask my younger colleagues to crack the code. It's been another day like every other day, so long until the weekend, and soon retirement....
parallel world Y
I get off the train at Warsaw Central on Monday before noon. The new Pendolino trainsets have cut the travel time from Katowice to Warsaw well below two hours, so that I haven't had time to review the materials for today's meeting. The annoying bloobs have disappeared from Central's spacious hall and its spaciousness is once again a joy to behold. To the left, the Golden Terraces, which is being converted into the Museum of Modern Art, is visible almost at completion. The shopping mall, like so many others in the country, did not survive the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns, and the abandoned complex was taken over by the Treasury, and after consultations with resilient urban movements and NGOs, the decision was made to designate Zlote Tarasy for cultural purposes. Anyway, the ennobling name turned out to be eminently appropriate for the new socially important function. Since I have some time, I take an unhurried, strolling step toward the East Wall through Central Park. After many years of discussions on the development of this part of Warsaw, it was decided a few years ago to surround the Palace of Culture with a park, modeling itself (on a smaller scale, of course) on New York's Central Park. The trees are still young, but the low greenery and shrubs pleasantly isolate from the electric car traffic on Jerozolimskie Avenue. The decision to implement the park was made possible by the Polish Green Party, without which it was not and is not possible to form a majority government coalition within the framework of liberal democracy developed in Poland after 1989.
parallel world Y
© Piotr Średniawa
At the de Gaulle Roundabout I pass nearly completed buildings along the frontage of Jerozolimskie Avenue realized according to the competition concept by Bolesław Stelmach, which emerged relatively long ago. It is good that the results of this competition did not end up in the trash, and the new development organizes well this hitherto disorderly fragment of city space.
I'm browsing in our palace "Detail" bought on the way, dedicated to the sanitation of historic buildings. The article about insulating walls from the inside is interesting, especially since it is illustrated with drawings and photographs of carefully renovated tenements on Foksal, today as beautiful as ever. In our palace before noon there is the traditional annual opening of the exhibition of the awarded architectural realizations of the past year. There is a lack of any spectacular iconic buildings, while calm, well-placed in the urban context, restrained yet discreetly refined architecture dominates. The careful integration of new buildings into urban structures is evident, bringing added spatial value. Together with carefully designed public spaces, these realizations set a new quality in the creation of the space of our cities and towns. With satisfaction I observe the reaction of the jury, fellow architects from the Czech Republic and Slovakia, who comment with interest, but also with a visible note of envy, on the directions in which our Polish architecture is heading.
The award was also given to the realization of a comprehensive revitalization of large-panel blocks of flats from the 1970s by a young studio, indicating a definite departure from the Styrofoam pastelosis. Also very pleased is the large number of submitted and awarded single-family houses from smaller towns, with modest but well-proportioned architecture and elegant thoughtful detail, with pro-ecological solutions far ahead of the hitherto standard approach to energy efficiency.
After the opening of the exhibition and the awarding of prizes, we are discussing together within SARP and the Chamber of Architects of the Republic of Poland the draft of the new Law on Spatial Planning and Development. The new law, in addition to the obligation to draw up master plans for cities, introduces the mandatory execution of regulatory plans for new investment fields indicated in the plan, including streets, lines and structure of new development, following the example of German regulations. This provision initially aroused resistance from developers, but the obligation of municipalities to develop these areas, introduced as a result of these protests, was considered favorable by investors on balance. An important novelty in the law is the obligation to designate ecological corridors, by linking existing green complexes within the framework of the Green European Deal demand previously adopted by parliament.
Tomorrow promises to be an interesting day. We begin judging the competition for the urban reconstruction of the Drogowa Trasa Średnicowa in Katowice, cutting through the city center. One of the conditions of the competition was that the concept be part of a green order deisderat. I am curious about the submitted works, as a couple of leading European architectural firms including BIG and Snøhetta have entered. This competition is the first in a series of urban planning competitions for the Drogowa Trasa Średnicowa that runs through the center of the agglomeration. As part of an agreement between the cities and a coordinated urban planning initiative, subsequent competitions will concern the route through Chorzow, Swietochlowice, Ruda Slaska, Zabrze and Gliwice. It's been a day like any other, but I'm happy to see the involvement of my young fellow architects, and I have some selfish satisfaction to share my professional experience with them....
back to our world
I guess the forest teleporter didn't work, or it wasn't the intersection of the right paths. On Monday I wake up in our familiar reality. Glad that not ow worse, although to complete satisfaction somehow very far. The pandemic is not extinct, and the realization that there may be a better world is a little depressing on the one hand, but on the other it mobilizes one to action, as one would like the post-pandemic world not only to be normal as before, but better than the normality known from the past. If it's like in sci-fi movies, that small events like the butterfly effect can contribute to changing reality, then the future depends on my and our partial microscopic actions, or inactions. Although maybe that's just another lame science fiction scenario.
