"We shape our buildings, and afterwards our buildings shape us."
Winston Churchill
Augustów Będzin Białystok Buk Bytom Chorzów Czeladź Częstochowa Dąbrowa Górnicza Ełk Gdańsk Gdynia Gliwice Głogów Iława Jastrzębie-Zdrój Jaworzno Katowice Kielce Kłodzko Konin Kraków Krotoszyn Legnica Lędziny Lubin Lublin Łódź Mikołów Mysłowice Nysa Olsztynek Opole Ostróda Piotrków Trybunalski Piekary Śląskie Polkowice Poznań Prudnik Pruszków Przemyśl Pułtusk Radom Rawicz Ruda Śląska Rybnik Rzeszów Sandomierz Siemianowice Śląskie Sosnowiec Stalowa Wola Stargard Staszów Suwałki Szczecin Szydłowiec Śrem Świebodzin Świętochłowice Świnoujście Tarnobrzeg Tarnów Tychy Wałbrzych Warszawa Wodzisław Śląski Wrocław Zamość Zielona Góra Żyrardów
- What are you photographing? - Blocks. - Take a photo of this one. They did it so nicely, not those dirty ones. I live in it. - Those dirty ones are more interesting.
The distraught older man, after hearing such an answer, walked away towards the entrance to his newly
renovated building, painted in papal colours in one of the Sosnowiec housing estates. With a deep disgust he looked at the neighboring building covered with asbestos-cement panels in a dirty, mustard color. No one is in sight. The old man has already entered "his" block, an eleven-storey tapeworm that forms a barrier between the huge lawn, bisected by the oblique path and the expressway between Katowice and Warsaw. On the faรงade of the building you can see a hanging cable, at the end of the cable entangled in it is a dead pigeon. On the balcony next to it hangs a clothesline of panties, bras and towels absorbing the last rays of the October sun. The dead pigeon dangling in the rhythm of wind is the most alive element in this landscape.
Estates of this nature are not so common in Poland anymore. The national thermo-modernization
programs supported by a palette of pastel-colored paints have been so succesful that more than one First Secretary would be impressed by the pace of change. Metamorphoses that attempt to give a new character and change the image of Polish settlements of the socialist modernism period do not bring new quality into the public space, but they are quite radical in their clarity. Buildings undergo extreme changes, from ubiquitous gray to rainbow revolution. The aesthetic thread is, like in the times of (almost) absolute equality, more or less consciously and with some exceptions omitted. Monstrous rainbows, which the gods of Polish estate spaces regularly embroider, do not change the spatial disorder of the world around us. It can be concluded that not many of the decision makers, at all levels of influence, realize that the spaces in which we live have an impact on our personalities. Residing in the cramped, sad reality of the blocks of flats from the communist period, we are turning gray ourselves and becoming stagnant. The approach to life and work, profession and pleasure, also becomes slapdash. Carelessness takes the form of our time - "let me design this block, if only in some colorful way." Many architects doing similar projects have surely heard such a request. Perpendicular paintings, monstrous grasses and infantile butterflies or grasshoppers are for many people now synonymous with the new quality of Polish housing architecture after 1989. Not very beautiful, brutal socmodernist architecture replete with pervasive contstruction errors is now being replaced by postmodern plasters.
Large-panel building systems were the basis of residential construction in Poland during the communist
period. Housing needs were enormous, especially in industrial centers, both those existing, such as the Upper Silesian agglomeration, the Tri-City or the formations of the Central Industrial District, as well as the newly emerging ones: Szczecin shipyard, Krakรณw steelworks and nitrogen plants in Puล awy. In the post-war years, the political structure was centralized, which was reflected in architecture as well. The plan to rebuild Warsaw in the notion of a newly established, socialist unit of the Warsaw Pact resulted in the export of building materials from other Polish cities to the capital city. This occured on such a scale that existing "healthy" buildings were being demolished, as long as the stream of building material continued to flow directly to the Warsaw's western side of the Vistula. It is not possible to criticize this plan, because today it is impossible to
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assess whether the plan to rebuild Warsaw was a good or bad idea. At that time, young and old and new and experienced socialists submitted to plans for the resurrection of the ruins left after the Second World War. In their enthusiasm they were able to reject the historical heritage of the places where they lived and look at the less significant cities (then: all others except the capital) only in the context of perceiving them as a source of building material. For example, the parquet and carpentry of the palace in Kamieniec Ząbkowicki was used by the local population as fuel material, while the Red Army burnt down the palace after the town's liberation and shot at every daredevil who wanted to extinguish a former monument, that nowadays is step by step, laboriously being renewed. In the Lower Silesia region, similar stories can be heard in great numbers. "Comrades" socialists across our northern border went a step further; the Royal Castle in Königsberg (now Kaliningrad) was razed to the ground, and in its place was erected the "House of the Soviets", never finished due to construction problems. Some more trenchant citizens of the former Königsberg call it "the revenge of the Prussians." Returning to our yard, over time we began to fill the resulting "gaps" according to trends defined by the Central Committee, housing norms and the doctrine of Leninism. Early post-war years utilized the flourishing architecture of socialist realism, of which the then Soviet ruler Joseph Stalin was a great believer. This period has left a unique stamp on Poland, as seen by the "Nowa Huta" district in Kraków, Marszałkowska Residential District, Koszutka District in Katowice, Kosciuszko Residential District and many other neighbohoods scattered from the Baltic Sea to the Tatra Mountains. Stalin's death brought a fairly rapid end to this historicising, monumental style in favor of more efficient and simpler socmodernism. The large-panel systems began to crawl shyly with the PBU system, and over time joined "Domino", WWP, OW-T, WUF-T, "Fadom", "Rataje" and a few others referred to as "closed systems". Huge construction of entire settlements began according to proletarian ideological assumptions, according to which the worker was to have a beautiful place to live, in a new building fully equipped with central heating, water supply, sewage, gas, etc. The construction elements of large-panel systems were created in two ways: they could be made in factories and transported to the construction site, or cast on the spot in so-called "training ground factories." The second method became more popular over time due to high costs and limited transport possibilities.
Large-panel housing development in Poland peaked in the 1970s. The W-70 system was invented at
that time, the first "open system" that more freely allowed the creation of housing developments. During this boom, architects began to deviate from performing repetitive projects, referred to today as "copy-paste", and timid variations on the subject of the large-panel began. One of the most interesting are the tenement houses in Mysłowice, which in a somewhat confusing way are reminescent of the Bedford-Stuyvesant district in Brooklyn or terraces in Czeladź on Konopnicka and Pola streets (pp. 170-171). The W-70 system was really "imported" from the DDR, transformed into Polish realities and used everywhere in the country. The then first secretary of the Central Committee of the PZPR, the most notable residents of Sosnowiec, along with Władysław Szpilman, implemented a national plan to improve living conditions. Over 150 "house factories" were established in which large-panel systems were produced in many regional varieties throughout Poland. The differences between the systems are visually small and usually refer to the size of windows or sometimes the use of an additional external cladding. It is interesting to note that in the 1970s countries on the other side
6
of the iron curtain discontinued this type of construction due to investment unprofitability. However, in Poland there was a completely different opinion on this subject and thanks to this attitude we can see, among many others, the Podzamcze district in Wałbrzych, Nowe Miasto in Poznań, Środula in Sosnowiec and Ustronie in Radom; they can be listed without ending. The most recently introduced large-panel system in Poland was the titled "Leningrad". A license was purchased from the USSR and the Leningrad system was imported in the 1980s as a kind of luxury good intended for the construction of housing mainly for the militaries and their families. This system is a kind of "white wolf" of a large-plate, possible to find in a few places in Poland, primarily in Western Pomerania and Lower Silesia. At the time of this project, all found examples of "Leningrad" buildings had already undergone thermo-modernization.
Contrary to popular opinion, the large slab was not the only way to build residential buildings. Monolithic
constructions (Super Unit in Katowice, pp. 14, 268) and framing (Colorful House in Cracow, pp. 267, center up row) were also frequently erected, and less frequently bricked (Karowa 8 in Warsaw, pp. 32, 264), and relatively often from material designated as a "big block".
An interesting example is the building in Wrocław called "Stemliner" (pp. 16, 265), which was designed
and made as a hanging construction and which has so far been a sensation on a global scale. Regardless of the technique of construction, all buildings of the PRL period have one big disadvantage; they were erected in the time when finding a good contractor in Poland was just as likely as fresh fish in the supermarket nowadays, and about the masonry masters they heard so much that they had existed once. These problems were exacerbated by murderous terms imposed from above, requiring the investment to be completed in about three months. The consequences of such decisions were the making of notoroius mistakes, avoiding some stages of construction or aborting less needed things within the meaning of the authorities, eg artificial acceleration of concrete maturing, assembling every second connection or inaccurate filling of gaps between plates. The results of those last actions are now observable in the form of a rusted reinforcement blinking to us from the missing layers of concrete. Taking into account all these facts, it is difficult to determine the durability of large-panel buildings. The first most apocalyptic theory assumes that their time is slowly coming to an end and in about 10 years they will start to fall apart like houses made of cards. The second more accurate theory, supported by the voices of building experts, says that several generations of young Poles will still be able to change the diapers of their children in blocks made of the large-plates. Paradoxically, this accelerates the process of the disappearance of entire settlements, or more accurately, the character of buildings, massively insulated and painted in flourishes with gigantic addresses. In few cases, such as the Manhattan "Wroclaw" (pp. 24, 265), architects supervising the thermo-modernization process consulted the original author on the planned aesthetics and together they tried to work out a solution to the design issue. In the vast majority, the final decision regarding the appearance of the façade (read: coloring) is made by the president of a housing cooperative or a secretary or accountant (because in the end women are more familiar with colors). After so many years of gray, you can finally let your imagination run wild...
One of the more pathogenic effects of the construction itself was the clearing, cleaning and leveling of the
ground to zero due to the technology of construction. Cranes carrying huge weights of large-plates moved on rails
7
set with a maximum drop of a few per mils and functioned as rigid systems without any possibility of rotation. As a result of this technique, huge areas of flat no-man's land were created, which after completion of the construction waited even several years to be completed with sidewalks, real lawns and small architecture. Currently, these spaces are desperately adapted to parking lots at the expense of green areas, pitches and pedestrian routes. Serious deficiencies in the high greenery, now timidly reborn on the estates erected from the large-plates, make the lightest wind pass by whistling in the tunnels between the buildings. Drawing the patterns from the pre-war quarter buildings, in the middle of the estate very often large space was left for the recreational needs of residents. The urban plan was good, but the areas were left too open, so that users find it difficult to treat them as their own, designed for their needs, especially if those spaces were not defined. Green squares are crossed diagonally by wild paths, creating a ghostly parody of garden parterres and serving as a giant toilet for neighboring dogs. In the worst cases, land owners decide to build new residential buildings in these areas creating an urban palimpsest. Looking for various sophisticated attempts to adapt the no man's land, one of the most intriguing can be found in Sosnowiec Klimontów. The vast grounds between the blocks of flats gained the name of "Pope's Square", with a serious stone podium topped with a figure of Polish Pope, trying to embrace open flats of the estate with outstretched arms. The view is more tragic than reflective, and the complement of this place is a giant banner hung on the wall of one of the buildings, intended to present the profile of John Paul II. This is not the only example of "sanctifying" the space of housing estates. In Radom, in the Gołębiów district, you can find wooden crosses arranged in the urban plan, set in remembrance of the millennium jubilee. In the immediate vicinity of the Christ signs, the walls of the buildings are also marked with celtic crosses supplemented with the following inscriptions: "God, Honor, Motherland." From open windows on one of the lower floors, the sounds of disco-polo music can be heard. Religion of the last few years - junk patriotism along with the sound setting make it hard to get any spiritual experiences.
Residential construction of the PRL period also had its bright sides. More enlightened architects like the
duo Henryk Buszko and Aleksander Franta, married couple Zofia and Oskar Jansen, Halina Skibniewska and Jadwiga Grabowska-Hawrylak tried to create more intriguing projects from the average products of a typical design office. In the context of realities determining the maximum number of square meters per one person, such an attitude was a real feat that testifies to more than average creativity and sensitivity to the needs of residents of future housing estates. I suppose, if the surface normatives were not in force, the efficiency would be as high as the architecture. The famed Polish composer and graphic artist Bogusław Schaeffer said that "where there is some discomfort, art is doing best." In socialist times, skilful designing of housing was undoubtedly a great art.
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9
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"The industrial production and typization of flats is accompanied by the inevitable features of the standard, series, cold reality and monotony, so using all the possibilities to obtain a certain difference in this assembly seemed necessary."
Jadwiga Grabowska-Hawrylak (Architecture, Warsaw, nr 10/311, october 1973)
Katowice, Zawiszy Czarnego Str construction type monolith 12
Warszawa, Świętokrzyska Str construction type framing, reinforced concrete 13
Katowice, avenue Korfantego construction type monolith 14
Katowice, Ułańska Str construction type monolith 15
Wrocław, Kościuszki Str construction type hanging, scapelinear 16
Katowice, avenue Korfantego construction type monolith 17
Wrocław, Kościuszki Str construction type slab, reinforced concrete 18
Warszawa, avenue Jana Pawła II construction type monolith 19
Łódź, Piotrkowska Str construction type framing, reinforced concrete "H-frame" 20
Warszawa, Smolna Str construction type framing 21
Katowice, avenue Korfantego construction type monolith 22
Katowice, Skargi Str construction type monolith 23
Wrocław, Grunwaldzka Str construction type framing, reinforced concrete "H-frame" 24
Wrocław, Grunwaldzki Square construction type framing, reinforced concrete 25
Poznań, avenue Niepodległości construction type system Winogrady 26
Warszawa, Kozia Str construction type bricked 27
Wrocław, Powstańców Śląskich Str construction type monolith 28
Wrocław, Parkowa Str construction type monolith 29
Poznań, Zwierzyniecka Str construction type framing, reinforced concrete 30
Krakรณw, Twardowskiego Str construction type framing, reinforced concrete 31
Warszawa, Karowa Str construction type large-block "Å»" 32
Warszawa, Gornośląska Str construction type monolith 33
Wrocław, Grabiszyńska Str construction type mixed framing, reinforced concrete/ large-block "Ż"
2
"In the last days of July, I had the opportunity to participate in the annual awards ceremony of the Minister of Building and Construction Materials Industry. In the Column Hall of the Office of the Council of Ministers, Minister Marian Olewiński presented awards and diplomas in carmine files in flashes of flashlights. (...) What could be, in our country, in Poland, in 23 years from the establishment of the people's authorities and in 50 years from the events of the Great October, the subject of these most outstanding, especially honored works? (...) The authors of spatial development plans for entire cities, eg. Świnoujście, Elbląg, Bydgoszcz, and at the same time designers of a completely "ordinary" housing estate on Skarpa Puławska in Warsaw were rewarded, with particular emphasis not only on architectural, but also on technological values (WUF technology - Warsaw Universal Form). (...) It is easier to gain fame (...) in international competitions for unique objects (...) than designing a power plant chimney or a typical farm homestead or a typical basic vocational school. However, I think that from the social point of view, the rank of these last projects and objects, ineffective from the names with which we commune daily, forming our everyday life, our culture is incomparably higher. (...) ZThe tasks set before our architects, constructors and builders are more modest and more difficult. To design a normal housing estate, an ordinary house, a flat, a factory, a laboratory, a shop - and it is just a normal housing estate and an ordinary apartment that has to be comfortable, cheap, well finished, has to comply with norms, etc. (...) The Minister of Construction awards could be called guideposts guiding in the direction of - forgive the big word - socialist architecture."
Lech Froelich (Architecture, Warsaw, nr 11/241, november 1967)
37
Tychy, Rolna Str construction type system Wk-70
Dąbrowa Górnicza, avenue Zwycięstwa construction type framing, steel "ZLS"
Wałbrzych, Senatorska Str construction type system Wk-70
Radom, Kotarbińskiego Str construction type system W-70
Sosnowiec, Koszalińska Str construction type system W-70
Rzeszรณw, Ofiar Katynia Str construction type large block system "Rzeszowski"
Wałbrzych, Forteczna Str construction type system Wk-70
Katowice, TysiÄ…clecia Str construction type monolith
3
"In the last years of development, including the increase in investment in all areas of the economy, there were, among others, initiation of the construction of 'house factories' for housing and so-called open typification, which is an important step in the validation of the industrialization of construction. Parts of buildings will be made in factories in large series and assembled on site. The big series does not consider the differences of elements. Therefore, the phenomenon of the type existing throughout the whole history will disappear, it will be replaced by the norm."
Bohdan Lisowski (Architecture, Warsaw, nr 7/260, march 1969)
55
Poznań, Orła Białego estate construction type system Rataje
Poznań, Bobrzańska Str construction type system Szczeciński 58
Świętochłowice, Szkolna Str construction type system W-70 59
Sasnowiec, W. Pola Str construction type system W-70 60
Rybnik, Chabrowa Str construction type system Fadom 61
Świętochłowice, Solidarności Str construction type system W-70 62
Dąbrowa Górnicza, Dąbrowskiego Str construction type system Wk-70 63
Kielce, Jagiełły Str konstrukcja system W-70 64
Łódź, Motorowa Str construction type system Wk-70 65
Gdynia, Podgรณrska Str construction type system Szczeciล ski 66
Żyrardów, Nietrzebki Str construction type system W-70 67
Suwałki, Utrata Str construction type system OWT-67 68
Sosnowiec, Konopnickiej Str construction type system W-70 69
Łódź, Julianowska Str construction type system ŁSM 70
Krakรณw, Wojskowa Str construction type system WUF-T 71
Poznań, Łaskarza Str construction type system Szczeciński 72
Rybnik, Chabrowa Str construction type system Fadom 73
Kraków, Jadźwingów Str construction type system Wk-70 74
Warszawa, Jerozolimskie Avenue construction type mixed reinforced concrete/great block 75
Stalowa Wola, Flisakรณw Str construction type system Wk-70 76
Gdańsk, Chłopska Str construction type framing, reinforced concrete "H-frame" 77
Tarnรณw, Westerplatte Str construction type system OWT-67 78
Pruszkรณw, Platanowa Str construction type system OWT-67/N 79
Białystok, Nowosielska Str construction type system OWT-67 80
Stargard, Pogodna Str construction type system Szczeciński 81
Warszawa, Zgoda Str construction type framing, reinforced concrete 82
Rybnik, Kominka Str construction type system Fadom 83
Poznań, Bolesława Śmiałego Str construction type system Rataje 84
Rybnik, Dฤ brรณwki Str construction type system W-70 85
Tychy, Bielska Str construction type framing, reinforced concrete 86
Świnoujście, Matejki Str construction type system Leningrad 87
Katowice, Wajdy Str construction type system W-70 88
Krakรณw, Kleeberga Str construction type system WUF-T 89
Zamość, Lwowska Str construction type system Wk-70 90
Krakรณw, Kupaล y Str construction type system Wk-70 91
Świnoujście, Kołłątaja Str construction type system Szczeciński 92
Sosnowiec, Jagiellońska Str construction type framing, reinforced concrete "H-frame" 93
Suwałki, Paca Str construction type system Wk-70 94
Świnoujście, 11 listopada Str construction type system Szczeciński 95
Warszawa, Tamka Str construction type szieletowa, żelbetowa 96
Krakรณw, Armii Krajowej Str construction type mixed reinforced concrete/steel 97
Mysłowice, Chopina Str construction type system W-70 98
Łódź, Łagiewnicka Str construction type system ŁSM 99
Kielce, Na Stoku estate construction type system W-70
Dฤ browa Gรณrnicza, Idzikowskiego Str construction type system Wk-70 102
Rybnik, Floriańska Str construction type system W-70 103
Tychy, Harcerska Str construction type system Serie 540 104
Częstochowa, Witosa Str construction type system Częstochowska Wielka Płyta 105
Zielona Gรณra, Pomorskie estate construction type system Szczeciล ski 106
Będzin, XXXV-lecia PRL Str construction type system W-70 107
Sosnowiec, Radomska Str construction type system W-70 108
Radom, 11 Listopada Str construction type system W-70 109
Przemyśl, Narutowicza Str construction type system OWT-67 110
Wrocław, Żelazna Str construction type system Wrocławska Wielka Płyta 111
Piotrkรณw Trybunalski, Targowa Str construction type system Szczeciล ski 112
Zielona Gรณra, Pomorskie estate construction type system Szczeciล ski 113
Lublin, Pogodna Str construction type system OWT-67 114
Opole, Batalionu "Parasol" Str construction type system Wk-70 115
Kielce, Kowalczewskiego Str construction type system W-70 116
Przemyśl, Lelewela Str construction type system Wk-70 117
Piotrkรณw Trybunalski, Targowa Str construction type system Szczeciล ski 118
Gdańsk, Obrońców Wybrzeża Str construction type large-block system 119
Sosnowiec, Staropogońska Str construction type system W-70 120
Nysa, Korczaka Str construction type system OWT-67 121
Tychy, Edukacji Str construction type framing, reinforced concrete 122
Suwałki, Chopina Str construction type system Wk-70 123
Stalowa Wola, Jana Pawła II avenue construction type system Wk-70 124
Kielce, Nowaka-Jeziorańskiego Str construction type system W-70 125
Stalowa Wola, Staszica Str construction type system OWT-75/Wk-70 126
Piekary Śląskie, Skargi Str construction type system W-70 127
Kłodzko, Spółdzielcza Str construction type system OWT-75/Wk-70 128
Opole, Zawiszakรณw Str construction type system Wk-70 129
Rybnik, Orzepowicka Str construction type system Fadom 130
Gliwice, Kozielska Str construction type system Szczeciński 131
Polkowice, Hubala Str construction type framing, reinforced concrete "H-frame" 132
Legnica, Przybosia Str construction type system Wk-70 133
Radom, 11 Listopada Str construction type system W-70 134
Suwałki, Kowalskiego-Wierusza Str construction type system Wk-70 135
Katowice, Kściuczyka Str construction type system WUF-T 136
Głogów, Gwieździsta Str construction type system Wk-70 137
Poznań, Orła Białego estate construction type system Rataje 138
Legnica, Wielkiej Niedźwiedzicy Str construction type system Wrocławska Wielka Płyta 139
Tarnobrzeg, Kopernika Str construction type system OWT-67 140
Poznań, Łaskarza Str construction type system Szczeciński 141
Zielona Gรณra, Pomorskie estate construction type system Szczeciล ski 142
Stargard, Struga Str construction type system Szczeciński 143
Poznań, Wojciechowskiego Str construction type system Szczeciński
4 "We have one of the worse - in terms of technical level - construction in the world. (...) If the construction industry does not have the proper resources, the labour forces appropriate for the tasks, of course the market laws operate, and the demand greater than the supply creates a specific position of contracting. So long as technical underdevelopment is not overcome, our speaking about architecture will be a futile discussion."
arch. Kazimierz Piechotka "(...) Most of the new investments have little in common with architecture: they are always end to the viewer and are not on a scale. (...) The second feature of these investments is that they always look much older than they are, which can be the fault of the materials."
arch. Jacek Nowicki "Today, we have a situation that a good apartment, impeccably made, exhausts the public's need for architecture. But in 20 years, all these basic needs will surely be satisfied, and at the same time education, the intellectual level of society will be a higher class. Then, new needs in the field of architecture will automatically appear. However, then we will be stuck in what we are building today."
arch. Jerzy Buszkiewicz "Once again about the matter - do we have good architects and bad conditions, or bad architects? Of course, there are both. However, there is no doubt about the conditions: they are bad in every respect. (...) The word "architecture" is deleted from the documents. Officially, we talk about construction, not about architecture. Even in our own group we have difficulties in communication, it comes to the fact that one of the architects says that we should stop talking about architecture, because it is unpleasant for representatives of other industries cooperating with us that it is indecent, immodest."
arch. Kazimierz Piechotka (Architecture, Warsaw, nr 11/276, november 1970)
147
Sosnowiec, 11 listopada Str construction type system W-70
Poznań, Stare Żegrze estate construction type system Szczeciński 150
Gliwice, Kujawska Str construction type system W-70 151
IÅ‚awa, Wiejska Str construction type system Wk-70 152
Sosnowiec, Kielecka Str construction type system W-70 153
Łódź, Zamenhofa Str construction type system Wk-70 154
Stargard, Wieniawskiego Str construction type system Szczeciński 155
Ruda Śląska, Gołębi Str construction type system W-70 156
Katowice, Adama Str construction type system W-70 157
Augustรณw, Norwida Str construction type system OWT-67 158
Ostrรณda, 21 stycznia Str construction type system Wk-70 159
Łódź, Składowa Str construction type system Wk-70 160
EĹ‚k, Kochanowskiego Str construction type system OWT-67 161
Ruda Śląska, Gojawiczyńskiej Str construction type system NRD 162
Stargard, Przedwiośnie Str construction type system Szczeciński 163
Ostrรณda, Stฤ powskiego Str construction type system Wk-70 164
IÅ‚awa, Okulickiego Str construction type system Wk-70 165
Szydłowiec, Kolejowa Str construction type system OWT-67 166
Wrocล aw, Gรณrnickiego Str construction type bricked 167
Chorzรณw, Karola Miarki Str construction type system Wk-70 168
Chorzรณw, Karola Miarki Str construction type system Wk-70 169
CzeladĹş, W. Pola Str construction type system Wk-70 170
CzeladĹş, W. Pola Str construction type system Wk-70 171
Sosnowiec, Akacjowa Str construction type system Wk-70 172
Sosnowiec, Akacjowa Str construction type system Wk-70 173
Wrocław, Nowy Targ Square construction type mixed concrete/large-block 174
Wrocław, Nowy Targ Square construction type concrete/large-block 175
Sandomierz, Baczyńskiego Str construction type system OWT-67 176
Olsztynek, Szkolna Str construction type system Wk-70 177
Ełk, Kilińskiego Str construction type system OWT-67 178
Tychy, Honoraty Str construction type system Serie 540 179
Staszรณw, Konstytucji 3 Maja Str construction type system OWT-67 180
Warszawa, Browarna Str construction type large-block "Å»" 181
Konin Dworcowa Str construction type OWT-67 182
Lublin, Lwowska Str construction type large-block "Å»" 183
Augustรณw, Osiedlowa Str construction type system OWT-67 184
Tychy, Dmowskiego Str construction type system W-70 185
Lubin, Krucza Str construction type system Wrocławska Wielka Płyta 186
Tychy, Hetmańska Str construction type large-block "Tychy brick" 187
Jaworzno, Tęczowa Str construction type system Wk-70
Suwałki, Paca Str construction type system Wk-70 190
Łódź, Polskiej Organizacji Wojskowej Str construction type system Wk-70 191
Mikoล รณw, Prusa Str construction type system W-70 192
Wodzisław Śląski Przemysława Str construction type system W-70 193
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195
Augustรณw, ul. Wojska Polskiego konstrukcja system OWT-67 196
Poznań, os. Stefana Batorego konstrukcja system Szczeciński 197
Rawicz, Sobieskiego Str construction type system WUF-T 198
Tychy Dmowskiego Str construction type system W-70 199
Warszawa, Jerozolimskie Avenue construction type large-block "Ĺť" 200
Rzeszรณw, Kurpiowska Str construction type system Wk-70 201
Tychy, Legionรณw Polskich Str construction type system W-70 202
Tarnobrzeg, Zwierzyniecka Str construction type system OWT-67 203
Kล odzko, Bohaterรณw Getta Str construction type large-block 204
Rybnik, Szwedy Str construction type system W-70 205
Rzeszรณw, Mikoล ajczyka Str construction type system large-block "Rzeszowski" 206
Ĺšrem, Paderewskiego Str construction type system Wk-70 207
Jaworzno, Granitowa Str construction type system Wk-70 208
Jaworzno, Bursztynowa Str construction type system Wk-70 209
Kraków, avenue Przyjaźni construction type mixed concrete/large-block 210
Sosnowiec, Wieczorka Str construction type system W-70 211
Jastrzębie-Zdrój, Małopolska Str construction type system NRD 212
Poznań, Stare Żegrze estate construction type system Szczeciński 213
Olsztynek, Kolejowa Str construction type system Wk-70 214
Częstochowa, Pużaka Str construction type system Częstochowska Wielka Płyta 215
Suwałki, 1 Maja Str construction type system OWT-67 216
Tychy, Czysta Str construction type framing, reinforced concrete 217
Olsztynek, Ĺšwierczewskiego Str construction type system Wk-70 218
Buk, 700-lecia miasta estate construction type system Rataje 219
Polkowice, 11 lutego Str construction type system Wk-70 220
Wrocław, Kamienna Str construction type system Wrocławska Wielka Płyta 221
Zamość, Hrubieszowska Str construction type system Wk-70 222
Ruda Śląska, Sejmu Śląskiego Str construction type large-block system 223
Lublin, Okrzei Str construction type large-block "Å»" 224
Lędziny, Pokoju Str construction type system NRD 225
Krakรณw, Bohaterรณw Wrzeล nia estate construction type system WUF-T 226
Poznań, Małachowskiego Str construction type system Wk-70 227
Siemianowice Śląskie, Stara Katowicka Str construction type system W-70 228
Mikoล รณw, Prusa Str construction type system W-70 229
Szydlowiec, Kolejowa Str construction type system OWT-67
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"In our housing construction, we can note several specific records, we occupy a leading position in terms of construction intensity and population density of newly built housing complexes and one of the last places in terms of the number of dwellings built, their size, standard equipment and finishing."
Izaak Rozenberg (Architecture, Warsaw, nr 8/237, august 1967)
233
Tychy, Elfรณw Str construction type framing, reinforced concrete 234
Katowice, Adama Str construction type system W-70 235
Wrocław, Szewska Str construction type framing, reinforced concrete 236
Wrocław, Nożownicza Str construction type mixed concrete/large-block 237
Rybnik, Orzepowicka Str construction type system Fadom 238
Przemyśl, Rogozińskiego Str construction type system Wk-70 239
Łódź, Łagiewnicka Str construction type system ŁSM 240
Konin, Tuwima Str construction type system OWT-67 241
Wrocław, Sienkiewicza Str construction type framing, reinforced concrete 242
Wrocław, Drukarska Str construction type system Wrocławska Wielka Płyta 243
Gdańsk, Obrońców Wybrzeża Str construction type large-block system 244
Gdańsk, Kołobrzeska Str construction type large-block system 245
Zamość, Zamoyskiego Str construction type system Wk-70 246
Warszawa, Motorowa Str construction type system Szczeciński 247
Katowice, Ordona Str construction type reinforced concrete 248
Świebodzin, Łużyckie estate construction type system Szczeciński 249
Nysa, Wasylewskiego Str construction type system OWT-67 250
Prudnik, Ĺ angowskiego Str construction type system OWT-67 251
Tarnรณw, Marynarki Wojennej Str construction type system OWT-67 252
Katowice, Fredry Str construction type system Wk-70 253
Bytom, Arki BoĹźka Str construction type system PBU 254
Kłodzko, Spółdzielcza Str construction type system Wk-70 255
Sosnowiec Naftowa Str construction type system W-70 256
Rybnik Orzepowicka Str construction type system Fadom 257
Warszawa, Wiejska Str construction type steel framing 258
Warszawa, Siennicka Str construction type bricked 259
Świnoujście, Kołłątaja Str construction type system Szczeciński
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"When in the late 1960s a solution was sought for the most serious problems in construction - the issue of the number and quality of housing - opportunities were seen in the industrialization of construction processes. According to the program created at that time in the years 1980-1985 in multi-family housing, a large-plate technology was to become a material for 55 percent of flats. (‌) For twenty years, we have developed a paranoid system of a large-plate monoculture, which does not provide a number nor the quality of apartments. Freezing of huge capitals in the factories has inevitably left no funds for the development of other construction techniques, so when the large-plate system began to crash it meant a go bust of Polish construction. The large-plate turned out to be the gravestone (...) of Polish architecture."
Halina Zielińska (Architecture, Warsaw, nr 3/409, august 1982)
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265
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267
268
269
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271
„The idea of systematizing facts and phenomena that have a clear impact on development as well as on the
regression of architecture (mainly housing), arose under the influence of national opinion opposing the superficial and often tendentious, assessments of the causes of this regress. The wave of social criticism that came to the fore at the beginning of the 1980s concerned the architecture being implemented in our country after the war, and was preceded by a state of general dissatisfaction with the implementation of the emerging construction industry. This dissatisfaction, understandable due to the deepening disproportions between the program intentions of the so-called housing estates, and the real state of underinvestment of these areas into services (according to the hierarchical model), increased as the regress of technical quality of constructed buildings and the lack of land development also deepened.
(…) All knowledge acquired by architects returning to the country in 1945 was used in the reconstruction.
The year 1949 (period of Bolesław Bierut's rule - auth.) Can be described with the slogan "Official style". Initiated by the National Conference of Party Architects in 1949, and completed by the Krakow Architects 'Conference in 1956, it covers 8 years and it would seem that it is a period of subordination of architects' work to orders, prohibitions, and specific preferences. Diversity includes the scale and rank of tasks, location (capital or provincial), the position of the designer in the project office (rank-and-file or master). (…) The centralization of the design process (ZOR) has had a huge impact on the strengthening of the architectural convention. Determining the standard of housing (1947), Temporary Urban Planning Norm (1951), organization of a network of project offices, which was later transformed into state-owned project offices - created the basis for controlling a small staff and led to the unification of views and methods of operation. Architects then faced the task of mass construction and change the scale of investment. They were not prepared for it professionally, especially in the field of urban planning. (…) The year 1964 (under the slogan "In the face of savings") was written as the beginning of a regression in housing architecture (period of Władysław Gomułka's rule - auth.). In the face of constantly growing housing needs, limited resources, the need to increase expenditures for new utilities in cities, the current methods of investing have been unsatisfactory. The authorities reached for measures that were to accelerate and make cheaper residential construction by improving the orderliness. Special powers of attorney obtained by the Minister of Construction minister in 1964 gave the possibility of subordinating the design to the execution. A program and implementation conditions have been selected at an increased pace and reduced costs. The housing norm (the regulation of the Minister of Construction and the building materials industry) has been reviewed. Projects have been limited by many orders and bans (eg the dimensions of five floors, without balconies and logs, without faults). The growth of urban tasks involved in this situation increased scale from the estate to the district, without looking at the whole urban structure, which would require additional expenditure on municipal facilities, such as street network, public facilities, and green areas. The plans took on the characteristics of a community monoculture, often shaped by the use of so-called "super-units". "Houses of commune," grouping thousands of people, with a full program of social services, returned as a deformed echo in the shape of a large, tall and long building. Repetition of such a building without services gave the possibility of dealing with an investment unit for a few tens of thousands by one project team in a short, usually very short time. (…) The year 1970 (under the slogan "Second Poland") brings further regress of architecture. The increase of needs
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(1275 thousand apartments), centralization of decisions, weakening of the cooperative investor and dictates of the contractor resulted in the creation of housing estates without a structure allowing for connection with the existing city and with service facilities. (‌) The idea of a housing estate with full equipment gave way to amorphous areas plundered with residential buildings, whose size, length, horizontal and vertical outline were determined a priori by regulations or by what construction was received from factories. Particularly noteworthy is the activity of those who were able, despite the difficulties, to design and lead to the implementation of individual teams, consisting of diversified buildings with optimally designed apartments. Differences between good and mediocre projects, despite the apparent similarity, are very significant and noticeable in use. (‌) Lack of criticism of this trend of abstractly formed housing units contributed to the removal of barriers to the gigantomania of residential districts that were created in the 1970s. The great accomplishments of this period, bypassing the internal structure of the district and external relations with the environment, have become determinants of the future dissatisfaction of social and professional opinion. The lack of criticism and intra-environmental discussion favored the long-lasting maintenance of the monoculture of solutions from this period, which was followed by numerous monographs and favored the emergence of negative opinions in the environment.
The year 1980 can be described as "Rejection" - it made a general protest against occupational ossifica-
tion, made with social and professional assessments. It can not be reported due to the existence of numerous publications on this subject, limiting itself to the reflection that now - as in 1956 - one can speak of a change of generation. Differences consist in the fact that that change was made by passing the baton on the run, this, as a result of a generational gap caused by the outflow of architects (from work in offices and from the country), it performs with the message "from father to grandson". Distance caused by lack of experience and difficulties in finding your own does not make it easier to create a "new" one.
(‌) Starting from the 1940s, journalists accompanied the pioneering period of reconstruction, and be-
came fascinated by the idea of a "social housing estate". Then they put up a sign of equality between high-rise buildings and modernity, up to the adoption as a synonym of modernity of the so-called prestigious-building, put up regardless of the scale of the city. The apotheosis of success, the great scale of intentions, the hopes placed in industrialization, collapsed only because of the absence of services, devices, communication, and not as a result of the discussion on the idea. Similarly, there is a curve of public opinion, in which two reference points have to be distinguished: before the assignment of a flat and a year after living. Creating total opinions on behalf of a society that is not homogeneous is a business that is fraught with consequences. Working in this field requires a great deal of responsibility that a good journalist can not avoid. Analyzing all of this facts, one can find justification for the existing state of architecture. However, one can not refrain from stating that the professional attitude of a single architect and individual groups of architects played a great role. Without charging anyone with the sum of the failures created in Polish architecture, it must be stated that the number of those who have made partial errors reaches many hundreds of engineers. These are not only employees of design offices, but also architects working in administration, research institutions, in investor institutions, at universities, in the press, in management bodies."
Hanna Adamczewska-Wejchert (Architecture, Warsaw, nr 6/434, november/december 1986) 275
Special thanks to: Parents - for everything, without You involved there would be no Leningrad wife Anna - for patience and understanding Wojciech Wilczyk - for finding the Leningrad Troy Litten - for all the support
I bear responsibility for all mistakes and misrepresentations only in person. Copyright for the images © Bartosz Dworski, 2020 Copyright for this edition © Bartosz Dworski, 2020 Copyright for the text © Bartosz Dworski, 2020 Bartosz Dworski bartek.dworski@gmail.com
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