050
2015

Revitalisation of Post-industrial Area of Zablocie, Krakow

by Piotr Lorenz, Anna Lorenz from Cracow University of Technology, Faculty of Architecture, Poland
Tutored by: Phd Arch. Anna Agata Kantarek

Author comments:

Diploma presents revitalization of post- industrial area of Zablocie. District is located close to the center of Krakow, has interesting view points on important spots in the city. Unfortunately, it has its own disadvantages connected with chaos in urban plan, lack of connections with other districts and lack of public spaces. The main strength of the district is based on strong initiative of inhabitants and activists. There are a lot of museums, workshops and cultural events, which take place in post-industrial buildings in the district.
The main topic of our diploma was to solve problems and multiply advantages of the area of Zablocie. We wanted to put an emphasis on escalating the potential of Zablocie area. This is why we decided to reorganize communication system and create connected public places to activate the entire space.
We decided to choose two buildings, as the most important. They show the main idea of construction of functional program. We wanted to create buildings which are open for visitors and for inhabitants of the district. Pavilions provide activity inside the buildings, but also outside of them. The Outdoor structure has its own function- the function of communication. This is a common denominator of these two buildings.

Tutor comments:

The authors present the transformation of Zabłocie (being the industrial areas in constant conversion into the inner city district) into a complex with predominantly pedestrian public area. Car traffic is subordinated.

The sequence of public spaces is developed on pedestrian connections between main contact points of the district and the city - a railway stop and Bohaterów Getta Sq., the riverbanks and the newly designed footbridge, Lipowa Str. (with already functioning museums) and T. Romanowicz str. (linking with the existing university).
Two buildings identifying new structure are also presented in the diploma.
They are situated as to define essential relationships of the district and the city creating new landmarks and new viewpoints.

The first building - “the staircase” ties the railway stop with the public space of the district.
The second building is located on the edge of the Vistula River. This is a pedestrian node (river boulevards, Zabłocie, footbridge).
Main functions of the buildings are related to culture, commerce and co-working.
The proposed architecture is attractive and modern, designed with sensitivity and compositionally balanced. With very interesting solutions – formal, functional and structural – it presents a very interesting relations between volume and open space.

The work demonstrates the talent and skills of the authors and their design ability in many scales - from urban decisions to architecture and scope of architectural detail.

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