In April last year we announced the construction of the first prefabricated project under the government housing program. A small estate on Okólna Street in Toruń comprising eight four-story blocks of flats designed by Warsaw-based studio S.A.M.I Architekci is almost ready. The structures of all the buildings should be finished in early August.
Prefabricated housing estate in Toruń, visualization
© PFR Real Estate
Poland's housing crisis and ever-rising real estate prices require concrete, systemic solutions. In turn, the climate crisis - real changes in the construction industry. Can prefabrication be the answer to either of these problems?
I am enthusiastic about prefabrication and believe that this technology has a great future. We can see that it is developing in the world and is beginning to develop in Poland. Prefabrication fits very well with the offer of rental housing. In our case, when we maintain properties for 30 years, the quality of construction of the buildings is particularly important, and here we can safely say that it is at the highest level, and this guarantees the longevity of this product," said Wojciech Caruk, president of the PFR Real Estate company implementing the Mieszkanie plus program.
The Torun housing development being built under the government program is located on the south side of the Vistula River, between Okólna and Generała Andersa streets. Forty apartments are planned in each of the blocks, ten on each floor, with consideration given to people with disabilities, for whom the units have been placed in the first floors. The heart of the development is to be a square and a recreational area with a playground for children.
© Pekabex Group
Construction began last autumn, and nine months after the inauguration, the installation of the last two blocks is being finalized and parallel finishing work is being carried out inside the remaining buildings. The project uses prefabricated walls - composed of three layers, with insulation and a finished facade - which are brought from factories and assembled on site.
Two assembly brigades are working on this site, each consisting of six people. They are specialists in their field. Such a six-person team puts up a floor in a week and a building in a month. Prefabrication technology allows not only to speed up the execution time, but also thanks to thinner walls the apartment area is "saved", and this translates into a larger usable area for the tenant. PUM increases by about 5-7 percent, which means that with an investment of 10,000 sq. m., residents gain a total of about 500 sq. m. of space in their apartments," stressed Przemyslaw Borek, president of Pekabex Bet, the general contractor of the investment.
On the facades of the simple, minimalist blocks, the division into individual slabs is clear, and the white exterior walls are contrasted by dark window woodwork and rough-finished balconies. Inside, the designers took care to add variety to the gray spaces of the corridors - they introduced decorative infographics (made in different colors) and highlighted the entrances to the apartments through elaborate wooden doorframes.
inside, architects have introduced decorative infographics and elaborate, wooden doorframes
© PFR Real Estate
As we know, paper will take over everything - you can print nice color drawings, but in this case the real effect positively surprises me, and the speed is staggering. As you can see, it's worth going back to proven methods of implementation in a modern way. Looking at the cross-section of the prefabricated wall, you can immediately see that it is a Mercedes compared to commercial solutions. When developing the project, we paid a lot of attention to the fact that the residents should live well - we designed very good apartments, comfortable and large - we did not save on the size of rooms or bathrooms. We introduced the maximum amount of tree plantings, hedges and greenery. We also managed to enrich the space with gardens on the first floors. I'm looking forward to the moment when everything is ready. We will certainly be proud of this investment," argues Mariusz Lewandowski, owner of S.A.M.I Architects.
You can read about housing policy in Joanna Erbel's book "Beyond Ownership. Towards a successful housing policy"[excerpt] and in the latest issue of A&B Architecture and Politics [cf. A&B 7-8/2021].
