// 003 ISSUE water.reconstruction by kreatura.zine

003

X 2019

water. reconstruction

X 2019 water.reconstruction

// editors: Agnieszka Kępa Ela Zdebel Ewelina Cisak // zine collaborators & friends: Agata Pawlik | management Martyna Marzec | graphic designer Aleksandra Wróbel Dominika Kubicka Grzegorz Bukalski Jarosław Wilczak Katarzyna Zabielska Mikołaj Białasik Consultation, revision of the articles on behalf of the SARP Kraków Branch: dr inż. arch. Marta A. Urbańska Polish proofreading of the articles on behalf of the SARP Kraków Branch: dr inż. arch. Marta A. Urbańska Editors note: Original English texts were delivered by the authors. kreatura.zine@gmail.com http://kreaturazine.pl https://www.facebook.com/kreatura.zine https://www.instagram.com/kreatura.zine Stowarzyszenie Architektów Polskich Oddział Krakowski Plac Szczepański 6 31-011 Kraków

Issue design: Ela Zdebel Cover graphic: Michael Nemkov Patryk Ślusarski kreatura.zine logo design: Martyna Marzec Typography: Nunito Sans Libra Baskerville Publishing house: Mellow Sp. z o.o. ul. Zawiła 61 30-390 Kraków Quantity printed: 300 Release founder: SARP Kraków

ISBN: 978-83-65398-14-7

003 content

Overflow Matters / Joanna Dyba

Kapuas River / Sheila Nurfajrina

The offing / Will Judge

About Cisterns, Subjectively / Aleksandra Wróbel

High tides / Low tides / Agnieszka Omastka

Polyptych Okjokull / Ela Pauli

Agora / Michael Nemkov, Patryk Ślusarski

Bioplastics: A Path Towards a New Urban Hydrology / Léa Alapini, Edward Catlin, Guillaume Jami

Rainbow - Relax, Silence, Pier / Aleksandra Dzienniak

// About the issue Water, as an element of the natural enviorment, composition tool and material seen almost everywhere in the landscape, might be still ignored. It probably has different importance for a person who grew up in delta, near glacier or in a completely dry environment. Having related to the main topic of the International Biennale of Architecture in KrakĂłw - â&#x20AC;&#x17E; Connections - the town and the riverâ&#x20AC;?, we would like to reconstruct the image of water from different experiences collected in one publication with authors from around the world.

06 Overflow Matters Joanna Dyba

Shrinkage of Lake Urmia in Iran 1984 - 2011 - 2014

Mucilage

Basic---Element

14 Kapuas River Sheila Nurfajrina

Pontianak West Borneo, Indonesia Indonesia is one of the countries in the world with abundant water resources. As a maritime country, almost 80% of Indonesia territory is water. Pontianak is the name of the city in Indonesia, located in the western part of Borneo, the third biggest island on earth Pontianak is the capital of the Indonesian province of West Kalimantan, founded by Syarif Abdurrahman Alkadrie as a capital of Sultanate of Kadriyah on 23 October 1771. Pontianak occupying an area of 107.82 km2 in the delta of the Kapuas River. It is located on the equator, hence it is widely known as Kota Khatulistiwa (Equatorial City). The existence of the Kapuas river has contributed greatly to the development of - the people and the place they live - of the city of Pontianak. At 1,143 kilometers (710 mi) in length, it is the longest river of Indonesia and one of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s longest island rivers. As a river bank, the existence of water life on the socio-cultural values of the Pontianak community is implemented in the form of the spatial pattern of the city. Canals are one of the elements that play an important role in shaping urban spatial patterns. Unfortunately, as mentioned in the Pontianak City Plan and Report most of the canals in Pontianak are currently in poor condition which implicated the quality of the urban space.1

Based on the issue of water crisis experienced by the community both globally and regionally, the provision of clean water is one

Pola Pengelolaan Sumber Daya Wilayah Sungai Kapuas Kementerian Pekerjaan Umum 2012 [Online] Available at: http://sda.pu.go.id:8181/ sda/telah_ditetapkan_ files/Kapuas_1390204498. pdf [date of access: 05.05.2014]

of the agendas of the government. Though this city has the longet river compared to another city on the country, water problem such as drought and flood are two things which always coming every year. Water Scarcity Global Issue of Water in Kapuas River 2 Human Development Report 2006. UNDP, 2006 Mengatasi kelangkaan air. Tantangan abad kedua puluh satu. UN-Water, FAO, 2007

Water as a source of life plays a very important role in maintaining the balance of the environment and our earth. In recent years, various discourses and literature on water issues have been widely known to the public. One of them is the scarcity of clean water. As written in the UN journal regarding the action “Water for Life 2005-2015,” water scarcity can be categorized into three parts; water stress, water shortage, and water crisis.2 Water stress is the difficulty in accessing clean water for a certain period of time and could be led to further deterioration in environmental quality and damage to available water resources. Whereas the second condition of water scarcity is lack of water, which is caused by climate change drastically and can cause drought, floods and other disasters resulting from increased pollution, increased human demand and inappropriate use of water. The third is water crisis, it is a situation where water is polluted in an area so that people find it difficult to get clean water. Scarcity of water is caused by the unbalanced demand for clean water. Water scarcity can be the result of two mechanisms: physical water scarcity based on natural factors and the geographical location of an area, and the second is economic water scarcity caused by poor management of available water resources. According to the United Nations Development Program, poor water management and making it difficult for people to access clean water sources in general is a cause of water scarcity experienced by a country or region. Indonesia is one of the countries in the world with abundant water resources. As a maritime country, almost 80% of Indonesia territory is water. Hundred of rivers and lakes are spread in almost all regions of Indonesia. But apparently this condition does not make Indonesia free from water problems. According to a study conducted by Unicef in 2012 entitled “Clean Water, Sanitation and Hygiene,” Indonesia has launched a program to increase the supply of clean water and sanitation known as Millennium Development Goal (MDG), it is a plan

to decrease the amount of water shortages in the population up to half by 2015. To achieve this, Indonesia needs to achieve an increase in access to clean water to 68.9 percent and 62.4 percent for sanitation. In connection with the MDG discourse, in reality at this time Indonesia is not leading the right path to achieve its goals in improving access to clean water and improving sanitation. Clean water services in urban areas in Indonesia until the year 2000 reached only 39% or 33 million inhabitants, and in rural areas only reached 8% or 9 million population, so that if calculated as a whole only reached 47% or 42 million Indonesian population. This situation illustrates that clean water services have not been felt evenly and enjoyed by most people. Most people still use river water, lakes, water sources, or only rely on rainwater without an adequate filtration process. Canal (Kanaal = channel, in Dutch) is one of the ways to overcome water problems and make it easier for people to access water. The canal was not used only as a water channel, but also as a transportation route. However, these canal networks are no longer properly maintained and utilized. Shifting modes of transportation, habit of disposing garbage in canals and changing patterns of consumption of the people cause the condition of the canals to get worse. In a city formed and surrounded by water, water is no longer the main focus and is not even a variable considered in the collection the decisions and daily activities of the people. In the dry season, the city of Pontianak does not safe from drought. This of course raises the question of why drought often even occurs routinely in the middle of this city. Opposite conditions occur when the rainy season arrives. Meaning of the river There is one interesting way of thinking of indonesian people in term of river. As we live by it side by side, people in Indonesia treat river as a backyard of their houses. Backyard here means that they use the water for cleaning, bathing, and throwing garbage. On the other hand, for some people who are not able to buy clean water, they could use the water from the river to cook and daily consumption. 20

3 Human Development Report 2006. UNDP, 2006 Mengatasi kelangkaan air. Tantangan abad kedua puluh satu. UN-Water, FAO, 2007

Based on data obtained from UNDP, West Borneo occupies the 6th position as one of the lowest provinces with a percentage of less than 40 percent in terms of providing access to clean water and sanitation for its people.3 This condition is not much different from cities in other regions in Indonesia which generally use river water as their raw water source. River water in Pontianak city is increasingly polluted by the people themselves by throwing litter and making the river as a place for household waste disposal, factory and so on. In addition, the community is faced with environmental changes caused by human activities one of the examples is using water catchment areas for buildings. Sungai Kapuas / Kapuas River Hei sampan laju Sampan laju dari hilir sampai ke hulu Sungai Kapuas Sunggoh panjang dari dolo’ membelah kote Hei tak disangke Tak disangke dolo’ hutan menjadi kote Ramai pendudoknye Pontianak name kotenye Sungai Kapuas punye cerite Bile kite minom ae’nye Biar pon pegi jauh ke mane Sunggoh susah na’ ngelupakannye Hei Kapuas Hei Kapuas Hey speed boat The speed boat goes downstream to the upstream Kapuas River Is a very long river across the city Hey, who ever guess It was a forest and now it is a city With many people living there The city is named Pontianak The Kapuas River has a story If we drink the water Even if we go far, wherever we are It’s really hard to forget Hey Kapuas Hey Kapuas

Canals of the city Starting from how a city treats water both in its spatial structure and socio-economic context, the civilization and dynamics of cities in the world are built. The existence of water is closely related to humans who are always trying to use water as one of their basic needs. In spatial contexts, this is closely related to typical natural conditions or potentials; that is, by the rivers that divide the city. Natural conditions with these rivers then make several cities in the world use the canal as the embryo of city development. Canalization in various regions in the world is one of the efforts to solve the problem of water that connects water with the life of people on land, with which water can be more affordable even through spatial elements with the smallest scale. In the urban context, water and canals are one unity. Canals are the way to connects the river up to the settlements or citizenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s houses. As Borneo is one of the island that covered by forest up to 80% of its area, forests in Borneo provide the possibility for water to be kept in good condition and reach the community, reducing or even eliminating the risk of drought in the dry season and flooding in the rainy season as it stores the water. On the other hand the forest also improves soil quality and increases its absorption. Intervention Architecture and Urban Design Ideas Urban Scale The aim is to make the water accessible for the people. Since the water resources could be accessed from the river, the idea is to make the quality of the water increased by filtration. Local Scale In the local sphere, it is focused on the location where the design will be placed. Water infrastructure works as a water treatment plant for humans while improving environmental conditions.

28 The offing Will Judge

The offing most distant part of the sea in view If you stand on the edge of land and look as far as the eye can see in one single direction, out to sea, what do you perceive? Our bodies and minds are drawn to the elliptical point where water and sky collide, the distant most point where distinctiveness blurs, and objects on the horizon taunt our illusive state of reality - is it there, are we moving, or is it all orbital? Our fascination with structures that protrude into the ocean landscape offer a glimpse of being out at sea, whilst stable and motionless in our stationary state. Pleasure seeking structures along our coastlines appear so encapsulating on first sight; it is difficult to explain the level of satisfaction and accomplishment upon reaching the edge condition of the furthermost point protruding into the sea. This unique sense of space, scale, and happenstance place-making seems a clear point to begin in deconstructing our architectural relationship with water, the organic geography of the shoreline, and our yearning to configure the vista directly out into the offing.

We are land creatures, but each have a powerful connection with water, possibly because over half of our body content is water alone. Our seaworthiness is dependent on balance, stomach nausea, and the brainâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ability to adjust to a new environment. Evidence of waterborne vessels as early as 4000 BC, demonstrate our continued need to conquer the ocean. Our primitive desire to overcome the sea, to travel further; trade goods, seek defence, and transport information and skill, has led to the development of a complex network of routes, chartered services, and shipping lanes in modern times. Our ocean is actively navigated, and

connected in a similar manner to all other networks. Sea travel can be both the most luxurious of cruises and simple rudimentary transport - but irrespective of splendour, looking beyond each bow of the ship into the horizon offers something new and different upon each gaze every time. We are always intrigued by edges, limits, boundaries, as we try to define our position, to understand who we are and where we are. Boundaries inspire existential thought, metaphysical speculation, personal evaluation and imaginative leap-frogging. Seaside locations, with the basic sensory contrasts inspire introspection and personal projection. A curiosity causing us to peer at the horizon, encourages us to consider beyond, imagine elsewhere, refocus thoughts, readjust viewpoints, even bend timescales. Perhaps the popularity of stepping stones, bridges, ferries and piers is something to do with the joy of overcoming a physical barrier. As we defy a natural impediment to continue a journey, the sense of freedom must release various kinds of thought. 1 Stirling Prize 2017; www. architecture.com [date of access: 08.09.2019]

2 Formulary for a New Urbanism (Chtcheglov, 1953), The Situationist International Anthology : Bureau of Public Secrets. [Originally published 1981 and reprinted in 1989 and 1995. Extract from revised and expanded version published December 2006 Edited and Translated from French by Ken Knabb]

3 The Architects’ Journal (Pitcher, January 2019)

The stunning image of the reconstructed Hastings Pier, winner of The Stirling Prize 2017 neatly tessellates such liminal coastal thinking into a contemporary typology no longer beholding to the 19th century pier construction. This project was hailed “a masterpiece in regeneration and inspiration”1 by the RIBA prize jury, opening-up a structure that effectively resists commercial appropriation in a brave, generous gesture, which provides open public space. Eugenius Birch was the seaside architect and promenade-pier builder who constructed the original structure at the Hastings site in 1872, having previously developed fourteen such structures in Brighton, Blackpool, Eastbourne, and elsewhere. The Hastings project emphatically acknowledges the value of such structures in maximising exposure to the interaction of environmental and atmospheric conditions, as the pier encourages visitors to depart land and travel on a journey out into the ocean. In 1953 Ivan Chtcheglov wrote “architecture is the simplest means of articulating time and space, of modulating reality and engendering dreams”2, an ostentatious claim which can be realised when imagination is released and poetic qualities are enhanced by such structures in our landscape. Sadly, the future of this pier has been clouded by recent private development, change of ownership, and conflict with a community orientated vision.3 Piers are an important part of our cultural heritage and landscape, posing the question; should they be treated like public footpaths, protected, and open access for all?

Piers developed from boarding and disembarking stations for sea travel, became pedestrian routes in their own right, then sites of leisure entertainment. Recognition of commercial potential soon transformed such walkways with cafes, souvenir shops, kiosks, games and grand music halls, leading to some piers being gated and charging for admission. In fact when this first happened at Margate’s newly rebuilt pier in 1812, it provoked riots.4 Piers are popular extensions to international seaside resorts.5 Further fine examples include Sopot’s pier built in 1827 by Jean Georg Haffner, a surgeon and major of Napoleons’ Grande Armée. Initially constructed to form a marina and local harbour, Sopot’s pier has been gradually improved and extended to become the longest wooden pier in Europe; an impressive example of timber engineering. California has numerous walkways projecting out into the North Pacific Ocean. Oceanside has been the site of six piers dating from 1888, each structure’s limits challenged by heavy storms. Zhanqiao Pier in China dates from 1891 with an impressive double roof Chinesestyle octagonal pavilion constructed in 1930 at the farthest point like a lighthouse or beacon in the landscape. The crystal casino and incredible pier in Nice, France is hardly traceable but certainly not forgotten for its grandeur, opulence, and splendour.6 Postcards and photographs document the iconic tourist landmark and how it was a catalyst in transforming the coastline of Nice at the end of the 19th century. A boarded walk on a lattice of stilts, floating between sky, sea and sand, the basic pier structure offers a launching pad for millions of dreamy thoughts and suspends us in an airy, fluid, liminal zone. This deeply satisfying and refreshing pursuit of standing on the edge of land and directing contemplation out into the offing, offers free time to clear the mind - a kind of sublime. The dilation of time and elapsed measurement in these conditions is unique. No longer governed by the second-hand of a clock, our quantification and schedule is instead directed by the colour of the sea and sky, our geological position, and the orientation of the sun. Our spatial reality is challenged by the seascape. A surrealist example is the 1931 oil painting ‘The Persistence of Memory’ by the artist Salvador Dalì. Located in the coastal condition with rocky outcrop, hard and soft invert, time bends, and clocks melt in a recognisable and widely referenced motif, which Dalì referred to as the “camembert of time and space”.7

4 The Architectural Review, Typology: Pier (Slessor, April 2015)

5 National Piers Society; www.piers.org.uk [date of access: 08.09.2019]

6 The Good Life France Magazine; www. thegoodlifefrance.com/ amazing-pier-crystalcasino-nice-france [date of access: 08.09.2019]

7 The Museum of Modern Art; moma.org/collection/ works/7901 [date of access: 08.09.2019]

8 Hiroshi Sugimoto; www. sugimotohiroshi.com/ seascapes-1 [date of access: 08.09.2019]

9 Panthalassa; www. panthalassa.org/hiroshisugimoto-seascapes [date of access: 08.09.2019]

10 A Philosophical Enquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and Beautiful (Oxford World’s Classics), Edmund Burke (Author) : Oxford Paperbacks; New Ed. / edition (Nov. 2008) Adam Phillips (Editor)

The offing is not the horizon. Here the line where the earth’s surface and sky appear to meet is more precise and delineated. The presence and characteristics of uncertain and immeasurable qualities blur the boundary of place, space, and landscape; this is what makes the ocean waves so encapsulating and unpredictable. We can be sure that we join millions of other journeys that begin here drifting out to sea, memorised on some promontory, looking out into the marine landscape. The Japanese photographer and architect Hiroshi Sugimoto explains “Every time I view the sea, I feel a calming sense of security, as if visiting my ancestral home; I embark on a voyage of seeing.”8 Sugimoto’s black and white seascape photography documents the experience of such complex thoughts which “simultaneously capture a discrete moment in time but also evoke a feeling of timelessness”.9 The sea is an important organic object in view, often it is calm but sometime it can be fierce and unpredictable. It must be a basic impulse to get to the edge of land and then imagine beyond. As Edmund Burke wrote in his Philosophical Enquiry, 1757 “...when we cannot see distinctly, we know no bounds.”10 Just as we have innate explorer and survivor instincts to find other places, it is also compelling to gaze at fractal patterns and nature’s rhythms at some edge of land and sea. This phenomenon is not a romanticised condition, neither is it idealised; the precondition certainly is not commercial nor should it be exploited, damaged, or incommodious for people to engage, enjoy, and find comfort in our unique coastal landscapes. The sea is ours to care for, as custodians of the planet we must seek to protect, examine, and question these conditions further. Celebrating our connection with water, respecting its power, understanding the way it influences us and finding ingenuity in the offing are all important and essential.

36 About Cisterns, Subjectively Aleksandra Wrรณbel

At the very beginning it was bright. Fluorescent light fell on the concrete walls and passed through arcaded openings, gradually disappearing with each subsequent line of columns. It was also dry. I discovered this when I took off my shoes: the rough floor was warm and pleasant to the touch. It was part of the ritual entry into the inside - getting rid of everything unnecessary, to maximise the feeling of space. I realised that brightness is out of place here. Penetrating light is dead and deaf. Bare architecture without any secrets. Nevertheless, it has certainly been used here deliberately to enhance the contrast of what was about to happen. Despite the lack of indication, I instinctively moved towards the dark. Step by step the brightness mixed with the mist and slowly gave way to the place of darkness, which was not oppressive, did not take my breath away, but on the contrary - it gave me freedom to make decisions and revealed layers of meaning in space. It enhanced the sensation. It was not even dark at that moment. It became the background for the events taking place, the frame that brings out the play of lights between arcades, the medium between atmosphere and architecture. I was an integral part of it, a silent observer whose eyes began to see a multitude of halftones and light reflections emphasizing the loftiness of the structure. A witness who noticed the repetitive arches not only in their physical position, but also in their plasticity and mystery.

The soundscape completed the impression. As the feeling of coldness increased, the air became heavier and more penetrating and the sound fuller. It seemed indistinct and quite distant, and yet so tangible that I lost myself in listening to these elusive

tones, until they began to penetrate my skin and get deep inside, immersing me completely in this mystical experience. I walked forward slowly, silently, trying to reduce my presence to become only a recipient, absorbing space with all senses, feelings. My mind was in a state of elation, clouded by the unreal setting around me until I felt a shivering cold through my whole body. Immediately brought back to reality, I felt a damp surface under my feet, and my toes dipped into the water. A few steps further the water was up to my ankles. I stopped. I was in the middle of a clear mirror whose reflection was an extension of the walls; an infinite surface, by which the sound echoed deep into the interior. Water was a unifying medium between me and architecture. However, with only one the most delicate movement everything was immediately agitated, when the vibration of water broke the communication with the reflection, noise appeared. The sound materialised, became close and clear, dominant and disturbing. However, I quickly realised that my presence did not destroy the space at all, but was accepting it: step by step I entered into dialogue with it; I complemented my sound, I was an integral factor shaping the interior. From a silent recipient I became a creator responsible for the soundscape. This experience was accompanied by a glow just above the water, which uncertainly emerged from the darkness: dim, pale pink light touched the walls gently, then sliding down below the surface of the water, created a flickering glow. After passing a few meters it appeared again but completely transformed aware of its expression, it turned into a light beam, which boldly illuminated the moment of culmination of the entire passage: something seemed to grow out of the concrete wall, an organic extension, a living organism. It was characterized by expression of form, but at the same time it seemed extremely delicate and fragile. It was made of pearly white drops of water that fell from the ceiling and solidified into a petrified sculpture. However, this was not the only place: after a while I noticed that the perfect curvature of the arches and the verticals of the walls also had an organic contour in places. The architecture was changing, that was for sure. It gave birth to something, changed its form. Left alone, it began to drill its own corridors and to build. This was undoubtedly a spectacle of the birth of architecture again. On its own. From nature. From water. 37

Steps led by unsatisfied curiosity led me further, deeper into one of the corridors from which the sound started to be audible: I wandered in total darkness, and the sound was growing, becoming more and more pronounced, touching me. I let myself be guided through my hearing and mixed feelings that filled me: calm and uncertainty, unity and seclusion, openness and interference. Gradually it got colder. I do not know if it was associated with a decrease in temperature or with a pale blue shade of light that filled the corridor. The contrast became stronger and the light became clearer. I knew I was close. After a while I found myself inside a column room. It was filled with a dim blue fog that served as the background to the music and enveloped the entire space. It also enveloped me. I became an integral part of it and no longer did I know what water, what air, what light, or what wall it was. All this was architecture for me, here and now. It was discovering myself, understanding my senses and the components of space. Experiencing. After a while I saw a white light clearly emerging from the blue background and flashing on the surface of the water. I came closer. It was blurred, timid, fleeting. It seemed to be trying hard to define itself in some form, but it could not, still sliding on the water. There was inexplicable warmth and hope from it. I raised my head. I saw The end of the world.

42 High tides / Low tides Agnieszka Omastka

‘The Sea is everything! (…) Its breath is pure and life-giving. It is an immense desert place where man is never lonely, for he senses the weaving of creation on every hand. It is the physical embodiment of a supernatural existence… For the sea is itself nothing but love and emotion. It is the Living Infinite.’1 Facing the increasing threat of climate changes connected with the global warming and ceaseless growing number of the human population, which results in decreasing area of the land, it is possible that in near future it can lead to necessity of creating a new, alternative way of living on Earth. Jules Verne already emphasized in the XIX century that it seems most probable to use oceans, that constitute over 70% of the globe surface.

Proposals to build colonies in harsh conditions were not unusual in the 60s and 70s of the XX century. Making use of the emerging technologies developed for defense, excavating and exploring minerals, numerous architects proposed ambitious projects of cities and colonies on the sea, in the deserts, on the poles, in the Alpes and even in the space. During CIAM congress in Otterloo in 1959 Ralph Erskine presented a plan of a city on Antarctica.2 Ten years later, in cooperation with Kenzo Tange, Frei Otto published a series of plans of arctic cities.3 Critics of that time, such as Manfredo Tafuri and Colin Rowe, rejected the projects, as well as the more conceptual outlines, such as Superstudio and Constant. Rowe diagnosed them as an impulse that emerged from science fiction and deemed that the outlines give merely “picturesque visions of the future”.4 Simultaneously Japanese metabolists presented amazing projects, such as the Plan of the Tokyo Bay from 1960 by Kenzo Tange and proposals of marine cities by Kikutake Kurokawa.5 Around that time the foundation Triton in Cambridge,

1 J. Verne, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, https:// www.goodreads.com/ quotes/296707-the-seais-everything-it-coversseven-tenths-of-theterrestrial , [date of access 19.09.2019]

2 E. Mumford, The CIAM discourse on Urbanism, 1928 to 1960, Cambridge, 2000, p. 262

3 Arctic cities, Architectural design, 41, 1971,p. 329–333

4 C. Rowe, F. Koetter, Collage City, Cambridge, 1978, p. 40

5 R. Pernice, Considerations on the Theme of Marine Architecturesin the Early Projects of Masato Otaka, Kiyonori Kikutake and Noriaki Kisho Kurokawa, Taiwan, 2009, p. 97-107

Massachusetts, proposed a development of floating deep cities of enclosed waters of already existing metropolitan ports. Their scheme resembled patent illustrations from 1959 for an underwater island made by Buckminster Fuller, published in 1964 in one issue of the Archigram magazine “Metropolis”. The drifting city Triton connected the supertechnologies of oil tankers and drilling rigs.

7 https://www.oecd.org/ environment/actionon-climate-change/ dataindicators/ [date of access 01.09.2019]

All above mentioned proposals were created to solve the coming crisis of urban overpopulation and pressure connected with burnt out land resources. On top of anthropogenic activity the climate is warming up and the level of oceans is rising. According to Archimedes’ Principle and against the accepted assumptions, melting the arctic ice floe does not cause the level of water to rise exactly as a melting ice cube in a glass of water does not increase its volume. However, there are two huge ice reservoirs, which do not exist on water and their melting transport their volume into the oceans leading to their rise. They are above all ice caps of Antarctica and Greenland and continental glaciers. Moreover, rising level of the oceans, which has nothing to do with ice melting, is connected with enlarging the water in higher temperature. According to less disturbing forecasts of ICPP6 (the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) the level of oceans will rise from 20 to 90 cm in the XXI century, compared to 10 cm in the XX century. It is also thought that the rise of temperature of 1°C will lead to the rise of water of 1 metre. If the ocean level rises even of 1 metre, it will hit hard over 50 million people in developing countries. However, the situation will be worse with another metre. Countries such as Vietnam, Egypt, Bangladesh, Guiana or Bahama will be flooded in their most populated regions, and their most fertile fields will be devastated by brine destroying the local ecosystems. New York, Bombay, Calcutta, Shanghai, Miami, Lagos, Abidjan or Djakarta and Alexandria – these are the cities that embody over 250 million of potential climate refugees. It is a demonstration of unwilling ghosts conducted by a climatology research OECD7 (the organization of Economic Co-operation and Development).

8 Ekistics, Perspectives On Habitat: the United Nations Conference On Human Settlements, T (42), 252, 1976, p. 262-266

Within the recent decades critics rejected the projects of the sea as insignificant utopias and technological fantasies. Despite the exceptionally difficult sea environment, there are a lot of technically solved projects that are considered as an alternative for land cities. The topic of a global architectural discussion were captured during the first Habitat conference of the United Nations (“Habitata I”) in Vancouver in 1976.8 Using the current

6 https://www.ipcc.ch/ sr15/chapter/spm/ [date of access 01.09.2019]

proposals of new cities on the sea, it can be observed that the approach to society and technology has changed. In the context of environmental and climate crisis a change should be made – from the strategy of reacting to crisis to the strategy of adaptation and long-term planning. In April 2019, after over 40 years, during the first Round Table on sustainable floating cities in the UN headquarters in New York9 the newest proposal of Oceanix City10 was presented, made by the studio BIG – a conception of a drifting city that is resistant to extreme weather phenomena (i.e. category 5 hurricanes) and to rising level of water in seas and oceans. Six 12-hectare islands would create a village, in which 1650 people could live. The model could be multiplied, creating an archipelago for 10000 citizens. The project was presented together with the ex-minister for tourism of the French Polynesia, Marco Collins Chen, who is involved in Seasteading Institute that tries to develop autonomic city-states floating on shallow waters of the “hosts-nations”. The UN lent support for subsequent research on drifting cities, as an answer to the rising level of water and searching for shelter for climate refugees.

However, it is worth noticing that within the recent decades the idea of creating a city on water has appeared many times. One of the most interesting is Lilypad11 - a drifting ecopolis presented in 2008 by Vincent Callebaut that makes for two goals – serves not only to sustainable expansion on the coastal areas of the most developed countries, such as Monaco, but above all to provide shelter on the sea territory for future climate refugees. A new prototype dedicated to nomadism and urban marine ecology travels on a water line of the oceans, from the equator to the poles, following the warm bay currents or the cold Labrador Current. Lilypad is a half-land and half-water city that can accommodate 50 000 habitants together with a variety of fauna and flora. A multifunctional applicative program is based on three main marines and three mountains dedicated accordingly to work, trade and entertainment. Everything is surrounded by flats located in suspended gardens and transected by streets and lanes with an organic outline. The aim is to create a harmonious co-existence of the human being with the nature and discovering new ways of life on the sea by building smooth collective spaces for meeting all habitants. The structure of ecopolis is created from a double shell made of polyester fibres covered by a layer of titanium dioxide (TiO2), similarly to anatase, which through the reaction to ultraviolet beams enables atmospheric absorption of the pollution using the photocatalytic effect. Thanks to the integration of all renewable sources of energy (solar, thermal

9 https://www.un.org/ press/en/2019/dsgsm1269. doc.htm [date of access 01.09.2019]

10 https://oceanix.org [date of access: 01.09.2019]

11 http://vincent.callebaut. org/ [date of access 01.09.2019]

and photovoltaic, wind energy, tide power plant, osmotic energy and biomass) it also produces constantly more energy than it uses up, achieving positive energy balance with zero emission of carbon dioxide. In recent decades, there have been more similar examples to the above mentioned, and with years they will be improved and implemented step by step. A similar topics are more and more often shown in pieces of culture, for example in the film Waterworld that presents a postapocalyptic vision of the world as a big ocean, which have been created as a result of melting the glaciers; or in the series of games BioShock that take place in a fictional underwater city-utopia Rapture. It is worth then to ask yourself a question if the floating cities are really only a utopian vision or maybe the near future.

portrait of Velsen / Ela Zdebel

48 Polyptych Okjokull Ela Pauli

// Uniformly white spot that lived - as I was. Okjokull is disappearing, in the massive compact mass cracks, thin splashes are forming, violating the structure of the shrinking lumps. Firn crumbles into looser snow crystals, its mass thinns, and individual pieces lose mobility, solidified ice melts, the shapely form changes into a fluid reality “The last drop is running down The last rivers flow far ... “* *Sigur Rós - Heima

52 Agora Michael Nemkov, Patryk Ĺ&#x161;lusarski

Agora Most of us have been there, in schools, in nationally regulated facilities with the approved program and qualified staff of experts. We have been learning in the top-down enclosed systems which seem to fail us in the modern age. On the very verge of change, we want to redefine the learning environment. We want space to respond to locality and define the learning process. Located in Vienna, Agora is an educational institution bound to its environment, which is defined both by the topography and social structure. Activities of schoolâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s users may vary from learning to teaching, which builds up communication skills and critical thinking. The learning process is based on the abilities and interests of individuals. As a result, the curriculum is constantly shaped according to contemporary requirements and notions. The water of Danube

There are just a few things that could influence Austrian capital in a similar way as the river. Historically, the city was located alongside the great European watercourse which kept the neighbouring grounds fertile but also became an inevitable threat to the expanding city. For centuries, Vienna was expanding towards the South and West, merely touching the river. Until the 19th century when the city government had the will and technical knowledge on the flow regulation of the Danube, it was causing flooding and damage on a yearly basis. The most noticeable disaster happened in 1501 when flood wave brought 14,000 m3 of water per second which became a top

criterion for new water protection system designed over 400 years later. The Great Danube Regulation came at a huge cost, a process that started in 1850 took its current shape only in 1970. Consequently, the river was divided. Today’s Alte Donau is an artificial water basin that used to be a major river bend. The river was split in two, forming a reservoir on the northern side — Neue Donau and the actual river bed on the South — Donau. Part of the land which lies between those two is a 21.1 km long, artificial island — the Donauinsel. The peculiar conditions of the water on both sides of the strip became a framework for the project. After the regulation of the Danube, Vienna started growing towards the North. Development of the areas located by the northern riverbank began in 1973 with ambitious projects to house new district and the United Nations Office in Vienna (The Vienna International Centre — VIC). There is a clear difference between the North and South of the river. On the South, the district of the city is leaning on to the historical city, on the North there are structures of modernity which seem isolated from the Viennese downtown. These two parts are separated by 600 m wide strip of water and land. At its very middle lies the Donauinsel — Vienna’s favourite place to rest in summer. The island is season dependent, abandoned in winter and blooming with events in summer. Despite its artificial origins, nowadays the Donauinsel is seen as a natural enclave in the middle of the city. Unlike the other green areas in Vienna, it is not surrounded by architecture and urban interventions. The island is almost neglected by permanent architecture due to changing conditions of the water that fluctuates on both its sides. The project was placed on the most narrow part of the island with the intention for architecture to engage with the two different water conditions: running, dangerous water of Danube and still, picturesque water of Neue Donau. Water becomes an essential part of the design which reacts to its seasonal flow and fluctuation. Appropriately, the school’s public programme expands or contracts to absorb the neighbouring functions. Learning from the Environment Specific conditions of the site are the exercise for one of the school’s dogmas. At first, people who are exposed to diversified

environmental conditions can adapt and learn much more effectively than those who had constant stimulation of certain factors. Secondly, we are all teachers in our field of expertise and students in the areas that we are about to discover. To search for what do we want to improve is the distinctive feature of the learning environment. Agora explores this through its tectonics. All the functions of the building are placed in a manner which allows the flow of life around. The porous composition blends with the nearby topography and conditions. The plan has marks of decay, the fully optimised program was eroded and broken into pieces. Created slits allow for incidental interactions and surprising tectonic moments. People will experience a variety of spaces from the tightest and closed ones to the fully openair plateaus. Interiors are visually connected, or, so to say, layered. Diversity of spatial conditions encourages the emergence of informal relationships between participants. The learning environment is non-hierarchical and all of the zones are equally accessible for the participants. The program connects into a non-linear network of clusters. The basic group of volumes is a combination which can be inhabited by teachers or students. The main spaces are connected to the secondary areas and at the end to the generic public zone that binds the clusters together. Social and seasonal fluctuation Activities and venues present on the Donauinsel are extended within the weekly and seasonal behaviour of the school. Agora responds both to the rhythm of the working city and changing of nature. During the working day, the main function of the project is a public school, by the evening it shifts towards educating local communities and some clusters are available for small cultural events. On the weekends the island is activated as a place of leisure. Agora absorbs this scheme remaining directed towards education. It is an environment which has an ability to accommodate a series of small events, as well as a huge one such as a concert, public lecture, or performance.

The weekly behaviour is then modulated accordingly to the seasonal changes, Agora focuses its working schedule towards the clustersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; centres during cold months and opens up with the rise of the temperature unveiling more spots for public use. At the peak of the season, it activates a seemingly hidden water square and the whole environment becomes an amphitheatre.

Donauinsel originated as a flood prevention infrastructure, one of the many measures that can be visible in Vienna today. Agora takes advantage of this transformed environment and brings people again towards interacting with water. The available area in the clusters is defined by the seasonal fluctuation of the water, the result of long-term natural and anthropogenic changes. The ebb and flow become a matter of space. The public program expands naturally in the summer when the water reaches its lowest point. During the mid-season, water fluctuates on the medium levels and the rainfalls change the inner availability of the space. The building’s basic structure — shells — are sculpted in a way that lets the water to be collected in the pockets creating ponds. This storage method complies with a special atmosphere in transition seasons and changes the behavioural patterns of the users. In winter, the water level reaches its highest peak, thus the size of the public area shrinks to the required minimum. The flow of water on different levels leaves marks on the concrete shell structure through the years. This enriches the texture and tectonics of the structure, also allows spectators to discover the seasonal character of the building. Integrated building process Building consists of earth-cast concrete shells. Although the perfectly calculated mathematical surfaces are partially maintained as a scaffolding for the forms, other areas of the shells are just suggested and left for sculpting of concrete hydrostatic pressure against pre-formed earth. This approach comes from the functional agenda of the school which praises creativity and unexpected usage of space. Casting of the elements takes place along the shores of the Danube. This allows working on many of them simultaneously. The fact that these production zones are scattered along the river allows us to use water’s transportation potential to move shells to the main construction site. Sites that are chosen for shell’s moulding became landscape elements after the end of the construction. This strategy integrates manifold of construction sites of Agora with the Vienna’s masterplan 2025, where special attention is paid to the development of the city’s green zones. 55

programatic study 2019 (top) forma urbis romae 203-211 CE (right)

central event

distributed event

70 Bioplastics: A Path Towards a New Urban Hydrology Léa Alapini; Edward Catlin; Guillaume Jami

Bioplastics: A Path Towards a New Urban Hydrology According to most geologists, the era of human dominion over the environment and the earth’s geology, the Anthropocene1, began with the Industrial Revolution, which influenced the physical landscape of human society. Cities were built along rivers, harnessing the natural power of water and its strategic and economic benefits for the improvement of human life, most notably in terms of assisting the development of industrial economies. However, as the rapidly developing industrial economy determine the form of cities, it also dramatically affected the shape of the surrounding landscape of farms. It is by looking at both the physical form of the city and the surrounding environment that an accurate understanding of what the urban is allows for an understanding of the world as completely urbanized. While urban society is often used to refer to the physical aspects of a city, Henri Lefebvre2 wrote that the urban implies something other than just the traditional metropolitan elements. He argues that the social ideas and consciousness, of which the city is a representative object, have extended over what would traditionally be considered rural areas. The countryside exists to supply food and other resources for humans, parks exist to provide relaxation and tranquility to humans, and the built city exists to house human activity.

In Lefebvre’s approach, the world would appear to be completely urbanized. The anthropocenic categorization of the current global epoch would also appear to be an accurate one. All of the earth’s resources are under human control, but perhaps that control is not as universal or complete as we initially believed.

1 Anthropocene is the unofficial interval of geologic time, making up the third worldwide division of the Quaternary Period (2.6 million years ago to the present), characterized as the time in which the collective activities of human beings (Homo sapiens) began to substantially alter Earth’s surface, atmosphere, oceans, and systems of nutrient cycling. A growing group of scientists argue that the Anthropocene Epoch should follow the Holocene Epoch (11 700 years ago to the present) and begin in the year 1950. The name Anthropocene is derived from Greek and means the ‘recent age of man.’ https://www.britannica. com/science/ Anthropocene-Epoch, consulted the 24th August 2019 2 Originally published in 1970, The Urban Revolution marked Henri Lefebvre’s first sustained critique of urban society and is widely considered a foundational book in contemporary thinking about the city. This first English edition, deftly translated by R.Bononno, makes available to a broad audience Lefebvre’s sophisticated insights into the urban dimensions of modern life.

If we take a look at todayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s water infrastructure around the world we can observe a global tendency of cities towards poor water management - an actual lack of control. For instance, western and well-developed countries are developing their water systems around potable and clean water for all kinds of uses related to human activities. Shower, cleaning, agriculture - the whole systems are using clean water as a standard and anything else is relegated as wastewater. In many developing countries, the rich populations are converted to this western doctrine, monopolizing clean water for themselves while the rest of the population has to deal with non-filtered water sources for their survival. In one of many cases taking place now and of the many to come, Chile is suing Bolivia in the International Court of Justice, Dispute over the Status and Use of the Waters of the Silala (Chile v. Bolivia), a case that began in 2016 and is ongoing.

This point is essential, because regarding the tension around fresh water today, the distribution of these resources tends to be controlled and vertically distributed in many parts of the globe. In the opposite way, wastewater is running in a totally unlocked and horizontal distribution system. Even in the least developed areas, canals, drains, trenches, are indispensable informal infrastructures collecting wastewater. Alongside oil, water is quickly shaping up to be a resource of geopolitical conflict that will determine the course of the 21st century3. However, this next crisis is mostly caused by our lack of infrastructure surrounding the use and reuse of water. Regarding the clear division between two distribution paradigms; solutions for our future are maybe already running in our streets and down our buildings and factories. The poor management of water around the world is heightened by climate change as already dry places become deserts and wet places become floodlands, forcing people to move from what would traditionally be considered as rural areas to city centers. With a changing climate and the consequences it has brought and continues to bring, the Anthropocene perhaps deserves a slightly different definition. Rather than an era of human dominion over the environment, it is instead that all events within the environment have a direct causation from human action. Human dominion implies an ability to control, whereas we seem to be witnessing a lack of human control as major nations depart from international efforts to affect environmental change. But what if the Anthropocene existed as it does in its original definition - what possibilities exist when humans do have dominion over the earthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s resources, specifically water? The Netherlands are probably the most famous and striking

example of such an attitude towards natural resources. The countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s present geographical shape is the result of centuries of human intervention4 and improvement of flood defense systems. Without any of these interventions, 65% of the country would regularly be flooded and would be essentially uninhabitable, let alone arable on an industrial scale. To avoid high water levels inside the embanked areas, water was released through outlets at low tide. The first artificial drainage tools were hand and horse driven mills with very limited capacities, but with time the reclamation of large flooded areas became a common practice thanks to advanced drainage techniques. In the 17th century, with the economic growth of Dutch cities such as Amsterdam, money was invested into the enlargement of the agricultural areas, as there was a higher demand for agricultural production. After all this came the industrial era, which enabled the creation of new systems based on steam driven pumping stations. Water has always been the first priority in the Netherlands before even undertaking any planning or new settlement in the country, and that, since the very beginning of the history of the country. â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;Water as an organising principleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; has even become a catch phrase in planning in the Netherlands. This system of land use and water control is defined with three layers in manifesto Het Lage(n) Land (the Low and Layered Land)5.

This attitude is part of the Dutch culture and allowed the country to ensure its own long term viability so far. Indeed, the history of the Netherlands in the last ten centuries is particularly characterized by flood disasters, reparative works and reclamation. The main contemporary example of such undertaking were the Deltawerk monument6.Another policy set up after the North Sea Flood in 1953 lead to the construction of a chain of thirteen major flood protection structures, consisting of an intricate network of dams, barriers, sluices, locks, dikes and levees. In these conditions, the Netherlands is a relevant example of how water is becoming part of the landscape. This scheme of resource utilization is part of what has created the contemporary workscape, the idea of having in a given landscape several forms and networks of working and production areas. The Netherlands is a developed european country, but their relationship with water and different kinds of infrastructures related to it are present in countries around the world. We can imagine the workscape as a new paradigm of production that can be applicable to other regions. Today, UV farms, vertical cropping and giant greenhouses stay the closest example we have for cultivating biological products intensively, especially in the Netherlands, where the Westland region7 is

4 The genesis of this man-made environment, approximately occured in year 1000. Before that time, during the Glacial Era, the coastline of the North sea was 200 km further west than its present position. Around, 1000 AD, water systems started to be set up by first settles.

5 Het Lage Land (1998) was an effort to address the spatial position of water in the Netherlands, focusing on three layers: 1) The underground (land and water), 2) the traffic networks and 3) the pattern of settlement of cities and villages.

6 Deltawerk is the wave testing system monument by RAAAF architecture office.

7 Westland is a municipality in the western Netherlands mostly known today to be one of the most important regions in the world for greenhouse cropping.

fully dedicated to this intensive cropping. Even if these systems are already optimised they are still using water inefficiently. Today new technologies are emerging and allowing us to rethink the infrastructures and the shape of our urban landscape. 8 Kombucha is a syntrophic mixed culture of yeast and bacteria used in the production of several traditional foods and beverages. A gelatinous, cellulosebased biofilm called a pellicle forms at the airliquid interface and is also sometimes referred to as a ‘scoby’ (Symbiotic Culture Of Bacteria and Yeast). The scoby is in fact a natural metabolized kind of polymer. Kombucha bioplastics culture are today used by many experimental designs for their properties.

Agar-agar is a gelatinlike product made primarily from the red algae Gelidium and Gracilaria (division Rhodophyta). Best known as a solidifying component of bacteriological culture media, it is also used in canning meat, fish, and poultry; in cosmetics, medicines. Agar agar based bioplastics culture are today used by many experimental designs for their properties. https://www.britannica. com/topic/agar-seaweedproduct, consulted the 24th august 2019.

As one of the most interesting examples of the implications of this technological evolution could be, the production of bioplastic is highlighting several opportunities to shape a better urbanism. The emergence of bioplastic production on a city-wide or urban-wide scale can participate to the economic transition towards more sustainable systems. During the past months we studied how the production of bio-sourced plastics such as kombucha8 or alage-based alternatives9 could start a suitable transition for global plastic production and also a way to manage and allocate fresh water for industrial production. Kombucha is a symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast and has the incredible capacity to metabolise a strong and waterproof plastic when it is cultivated in the right conditions. Kombucha cultures are also very resilient and can survive a wide range of temperature variations as well as different water base solution for growing. The proposal we’re deploying is to rethink the relationship between our cities, our industries and the countryside with a new urban hydrology based on fair trade and efficient use of water. If we try to take a look to other resources we’ll see clearly how their infrastructures reveal problems and innovations that could be applied to an urban hydrology. For instance, oil is one of the most coveted resources, partially because its exploitation remains mostly vertical (extraction from beneath the earth’s surface) and localized in specific areas, allowing it to be transported and carried by the same private companies that are monopolizing the extraction. In the opposite way, electrical exploitation is based on horizontal power grids. Even if these grids are sometimes divided along borders of nation-states for security reasons, electricity remains shared between different entities. The primary reason for that is that we cannot store electricity as much as we want. The second is that to maintain high electrical tension everywhere and thus optimize the distribution, the best option is to interconnect the different sites of production with all the potential consumers. This infrastructural logic connects the local with the global service and is even more interesting today as private entities can contribute to the common grid, selling back energy produced by local solar generation. Infrastructure acts as a functional

system for the exploitation of resources and takes the shape that society tends to give itâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;sometimes for the good, but in other cases can increase inequities and tensions. Our thinking here tries to take advantage of this situation and reimagine the way water is exploited as it becomes an increasingly crucial resource. Water lends itself to a horizontal infrastructure organization, both because of the way it is collected but also because of its necessity for all of human life. Although there are different striations of water,10 the majority of western cities today use blue water for everything from agriculture and flushing toilets to drinking and bathing, but this has remained not because of rationality but rather because of tradition. There are preliminary steps being taken towards a more conscious approach towards water usage with buildings collecting rainwater to flush toilets and water plants. However, these efforts are taking place on the scale of individual buildings, rather than across urban society. As mentioned before, many bioplastics do not need blue water, but can be grown using water with lower levels of purification11. By taking wastewater, an essentially unused byproduct today, and transforming it into a valuable resource, production units that can utilise this water can bring new forms of economic means to individuals, allowing open access to a shared resource. These emerging bioplastic production units can utilise urban wastewater, most ofwhich is discarded rather than purified because of the high economic and energy costs. They could also disrupt the traditional agro-industrial landscape by distributing the production across urban landscapes, much like solar panels for electrical grids. As seen in the Netherlands, agriculture in most western countries is still based on a 20th century thinking that uses fresh water and industrial fertilizers to optimise soil production. The metric of success is the volume of production per square meter, which leads to a high concentration of monocrops and drastically reduces biodiversity. The introduction of a bioplastic production unit could be the first step towards a new infrastructure of water operating at the individual and global scale. This would ensure not only an efficient use of water across the urban landscape, but would also allow humans to begin controlling not only the earthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s resources but also the consequences of their usage. 74

10 Ranging from blue water (fresh, potable water) to grey water (shower water and urban runoff ) to black water (toxic or wastecontaminated water), this informal categorisation is used in many countries to qualified water respectively: fresh and potable water; the water of urban and building runoff and the toxic or wastecontaminated water.

11 In a series of experiments conducted in 2019 by Base material works, kombucha bioplastics have been grown using a range of contaminated waters, including urban runoff and water with liquid dish soap, both categorised as grey water.

76 Rainbow - Relax, Silence, Pier Aleksandra Dzienniak

„About a swimming pool as a promenade (sorry), a pool of various characters and attitudes (...) In the tribune (right side) we have two types of guys: the first - a man who came to just sunbathe and understands nothing (....) The second type is a representative male specimen, after returning from a trip. He returned recently, he does not want to get involved in anything, stands on the hill and looks after the whole company (...) The second zone - almost central, they were so-so, nice and not too rich Warsaw boys. Those, if they had a little grace, lured the girl with just a good word (...) A student who learns on the beach is a special type of a student, especially carefully rubbed with oil, equipped by his mother with a sandwich and thermos, and completely, eventually deprived of any money.” Agnieszka Osiecka, “Szpetni czterdziestoletni” [Ugly fourty-yearolds], Iskry Publishing House, Warsaw 1985 (author’s translation) Dry Pool

Our living space is fully dependent on time. Along with political and economic changes, we can observe the disappearance of characteristic public spaces. One of the huge examples of disappearance are outdoor public pools. In the 1970s, bathing resorts were built as part of sports workers’ clubs, housing cooperatives, and even landscape parks. Chlorinated water flooded the whole country. Why? First of all, sport was an important tool on the international arena of the Eastern Bloc countries. Secondly, pool complexes were built by workers and residents - “together”. It was a symbol of a community building a better future for the nation. However, the Poles sunbathed over the pool briefly. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, workers’ clubs

slowly stopped receiving state funding. Now most of the public pools are dry, devastated and abandoned. Let us focus on one of them. Green City Somewhere between Warsaw and Krakow there is a small city of Kielce - with less than 200,000 inhabitants. Urban planning of the city is strongly based on its natural environment, especially in the moves of water. The Silnica River flows through the city centre. Along the banks of this river a green promenade was designed. Residents can walk through the entire city along the green avenue, starting from the limestone rock nature reserve to the water tank. “Tęcza” Pool Near the Kielce reservoir there is an abandoned, Late Modern sport pavilion and a sports club pool. The sport resort was built in the 1970s by workers - members of the “Tęcza” [Rainbow] club and residents of Kielce. The building was the pride of Kielce. The sports complex included a pavilion, tennis courts, a children’s pool and a professional Olympic-size pool with an auditorium, and also the popular at that time café with a terrace overlooking the pool. The golden times of the baths were interrupted by the political and economic changes. The lack of funding from the city caused slow destruction of the swimming pool. And finally, in 2008 the facility was closed. “Societas - Existentia” Concept The project of revitalization of the “Tęcza” sport resort is an attempt to draw attention to the problem of extinction of the space of outdoor public pools and thereby the loss of the unique social atmosphere created by swimming areas of the 1970s. The project was divided into two parts: the existing - the “Tęcza” pool zone and the newly designed - the “Relaks” pool zone. The concept of the first part is the revitalisation of the existing swimming pools by reclaiming the former social qualities characterizing public pools of the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. That is why this part is called Societas (Latin: society). The second idea of the project is to extend the green avenue of Kielce by connecting the existing “Tęcza” zone with the water reservoir. To achieve the connection, a new contemplative swimming pool was designed. To emphasize the metaphysical value, the newly designed part was called Existentia (Latin: existence).

Societas The Polish poet Agnieszka Osiecka in her book “Szpetni czterdziestoletni” [Ugly forty-year-olds] described the game of social relationships in the space of public swimming pools. In a fun way, it shows how important swimming resorts were in the 1980s. Each user occupied a specific element of the space - a swimming pool wall, a grass zone, a concrete pavement, a tribune, etc. In the presence of such interesting personalities, swimming seems to be secondary. The project recreates the characteristic elements of pools’ space and the planes of various usages so that together with the user the space can create a variety of activities and invite personalities. Activity at a public pool is an interesting social phenomenon of private and public nature. Water, which we usually use in our own bathroom, here becomes the background for joint activity with a stranger. The savoir-vivre of bath breaks the rules of the city, creating a casual, natural atmosphere of undressing to the swimsuit itself and a full sense of summer in the city centre. Three Sculpture Elements The composition of the space of public pools is based on the game of levels and views. The usual elements of the pools are clear dominants. Slides, little bridges, shower, diving tower resemble concrete sculptures. The project is based on three sculptural elements. Each of them symbolises a different phenomenon. The diving tower is a symbol of freedom and overcoming the fear. The spiral slide is a child’s joy. Finally, the underwater abstract sculpture is a symbol of exploration of nature - it introduces the user into a state consternation and makes him or her dive. Existentia

Public pools in the existing “Tęcza” zone have a social aspect. Swimming in them is a joint activity. The “Relaks” pool, while bathing, is supposed to connect man with nature and put him in a mood of calmness - relaxation. In order to emphasise the symbiosis of man and nature, a swimming pool is purified naturally by filtering plants, such as reed, manna, and sedges was designed. Plants are located along the arc of the pool, next to a wooden bridge which marks the boundaries of the pool water and the reservoir. The water level was designed at an approximate height, and the water flowing from the reservoir

into the pool is naturally cleaned by the layer of the plants. In this way, the whole creates a natural system. The circular shape of the pool basin symbolizes a continuous circle of natural phenomena. On the flat roof of the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Relaksâ&#x20AC;? pool pavilion there is a naturist zone emphasising the philosophy of harmony of life with nature. A wavy tunnel has also been designed in the Existentia zone. The function of the tunnel and its form changes with the userâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s journey. The first part of the tunnel is contemplative. The user is surrounded by walls of 3 m height, water (flowing under his or her feet) and the sky. This is the symbolic point of the tunnel - the connection of earth and sky - man and nature. The other end of the tunnel turns into a pier and a harbour of sailing boats. The pier is to restore the former character of the Kielce reservoir and create the possibility of blue water recreation. Thus, it completed the green avenue, the river and a natural environment of the city. Water The space of public pools has a strong social value. It creates a sense of belonging, community of residents. At the same time, it allows mixing social groups regardless of social status or age. Depending on our design, water can create a different atmosphere for us. On the one hand, it creates a background for joint activity and fun, and on the other, for intimacy and contemplation. Both states permeate each other, complement and fill our daily life constantly. In the current reality of full social isolation and virtualisation, we should take care for public space that will sustain and create a sense of community, and also allow for contact with nature and with ourselves.

// 004 OPEN CALL

We are now accepting texts and graphic works for the 004 SILENCE ISSUE. The deadline for the submissions is 15/12/2019! // Audiovisual works In addition to 2d graphics, it is also possible to submit movies and music. Please send the graphics in pdf, jpeg, png or tiff format. Send a submision to: graphics.kreatura.zine@gmail.com // Texts We donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t not set the lower and upper limit of words, nor do we impose a form of text. Both essays and poetry can be published. In articles and essays, please include footnotes with the works cited by the author. Send a submission to: essays.kreatura.zine@gmail.com

Kreatura.zine is a bottom-up non-profit initiative launched by the students and recent graduates, aiming to gather young creatives to give them space to speak out. The undertaken topics, often seen from extreme perspectives, are the opportunity to research and seek for the answers. We are far from forming judgments; we present our current views, which may in the future change along with gaining knowledge. We are trying to go beyond the schemes and take up the topics that are not obvious or yet fully researched. We are open to collaborate with everyone who shares the same vision of development by making (and sometimes failing). Agnieszka KÄ&#x2122;pa / Architecture graduate from Cracow University of Technology Ela Zdebel / Urbanism student at Technische Universiteit Delft Ewelina Cisak / Architecture student at Warsaw University of Technology