The space of the Piast Brewery in Wroclaw has undergone profound transformations over the past 8 years. The long-degraded area has been revitalized and the 19th-century post-industrial buildings have become part of a modern residential and commercial complex. Has the metamorphosis into the Wroclaw Breweries, designed by {tag:Studio}, worked out well for the post-industrial space?
Powerful brewery complexes were an essential part of every major city in the 19th century. When production moved to the outskirts, city centers were left with acres of post-industrial, slowly degrading urban fabric. Not surprisingly, such spaces are now a tasty morsel for investors who are trying to breathe new life into them. Such transformations are happening on a massive scale in Poznan, Warsaw and Krakow. Now they have been joined by Wrocław, where the SRDK Architekci studio shows its approach to solving this problem. How does the Wroclaw Brewery present itself?
Piast Brewery after 1912
© public domain | Wikimedia Commons
a sip of history
Brauerei Pfeifferhof Carl Scholz, as the site originally referred to by Archicom for its revitalization, is located on Jedności Narodowej Street. The complex was built in 1894 on the initiative of Carl Scholz, who purchased plots of land on the northeastern outskirts of what was then Wroclaw, developing them with industrial infrastructure in eclectic forms. After the war, the plant was nationalized and renamed Piast Brewery, only to fall into the hands of the multinational Carlsberg in 2004. The latter ceased beer production at the Piast Brewery, at the same time requesting that some of the complex's buildings be entered in the register of historical monuments.
Wroclaw Breweries
photo: press materials © Archicom | SRDK Architekci
brewery like a hot (and delicious!) potato
After 2004, the post-industrial buildings kept changing hands. In 2007 Carlsberg sold the Piast Brewery to Claremont Global, which was already planning to build a housing development there. A significant part of the buildings that were not under conservation protection were demolished, but due to the economic crisis these plans did not come to fruition and in 2016 the Piast Brewery site was bought back by Archicom, which paid more than 36 million zlotys for it. The very next year, the developer invited the citizens of Wroclaw and Wrocław to an open meeting, during which the concept for revitalizing the area was presented. The announcements were hype - 1,000 apartments, offices, retail units and common spaces, all while preserving the spirit of the area. Have these promises been fulfilled?
Wroclaw Breweries
photo: press materials © Archicom | SRDK Architekci
a marriage of new and old
Wroclaw Breweries was built on a plot of nearly five hectares. The SRDK Architekci studio, which was in charge of developing the revitalization concept, prepared a comprehensive architectural and urban planning plan, which envisaged saving some of the former Piast Brewery buildings and erecting a significant amount of new volume. Three buildings were preserved from the original fabric - the Lodging House, the Bottling House and the Stables. An important element of the architectural landscape of this establishment is also the original chimney, which is to be the urban dominant of the complex. In addition to the building fabric, new life has also been given to individual elements of the Piast Brewery buildings and equipment. As the developer informs:
The most valuable elements have been preserved, such as steel girders, ceramic tiles and metal plates, or the Galanda drum, which have become symbols of the revived complex. The characteristic three-meter-high wind cowls have been restored and located on the new building, exactly where the previous display was, forming a dominant feature on the north-south axis.
Wroclaw Breweries
photo: press materials © Archicom | SRDK Architekci
The site of the former breweries, however, is now dominated by entirely new developments. We are talking about eight multi-family residential buildings. The most conspicuous element of the new Wroclaw Breweries development is an eighteen-story residential skyscraper, which stands right next to the Oder River, on the eastern side of the plot. The considerable height of the building was provided for in the provisions of the Local Development Plan. From the point of view of aesthetics, the skyscraper is the most elaborate part of the complex - the elevations are interspersed with steel bracing, expanses of loggias hidden behind glazing and walls covered with red cladding, referring to the brick architecture of the brewery. In the depths of the complex, the architects designed detail-free, white-gray maroon cubes. And although they don't show off their beauty, it's noteworthy that despite their minimalist expression, each of them has been designed slightly differently.
Wroclaw Breweries
photo: press materials © Archicom | SRDK Architekci
The 19th-century spirit of the Piast Brewery
The areas between the buildings were also developed. In addition to alleys, three squares have been created here: a brewery square, an art square and a market square, which are available to residents. Care has been taken with plantings and small architecture - here it should be mentioned that the postulate of "preserving the spirit of the place" is realized through attention to detail, as the structural elements of the benches, trash cans and other elements of small architecture were made in forms reminiscent of 19th-century production machinery. The most important space here is the square, which is located in front of the former bottling plant building. Located on Jedności Narodowej Street, for many people it will be the setting for their first encounter with the Wroclaw Breweries. The square, although paved to the extreme, looks neat, with a fountain and a few benches created. From the point of view of urban planning, a certain shortcoming here is certainly the high fence separating the Brewery area from Jedności Narodowej Street, which prevents the square from organically integrating into the urban fabric. However, the preservation and renovation of the fence justifies the desire to maintain the 19th-century character of the site.
Wroclaw Breweries
photo: press materials © Archicom | SRDK Architekci
The main avenue running through the establishment leads directly to the nearby Oder River waterfront between the Warsaw Bridges, which the city has revitalized on the occasion of the opening of a new residential complex. Previously, the area was heavily degraded and largely inaccessible to residents. Today the situation is quite different, although given the current urban context of the waterfront, which has been separated from the rest of the city by a dense residential complex, one may wonder whether it will serve a wider group of Wrocław residents, or rather become a semi-private recreational area for residents of the Wrocław Breweries.
Wroclaw Breweries
photo: press materials © Archicom | SRDK Architekci
not so rosy, certainly not green, actually gray
Although after listing the activities that have been carried out as part of the revitalization of the Piast Brewery, one might get the impression that a model realization has been created, the reality is not so colorful at all. The Warsaw Brewery nonetheless faces several problems - the first of which is cars. Despite the construction of a 3-level underground parking garage, there are still spaces for parking in the spaces between the buildings - 20% of the total number of parking spaces within the complex have been developed in this way. Considering the density of the development, the parking cars are a nuisance to residents, and they are calling for the paid parking lot to be turned into a green square.
Wroclaw Breweries
photo: press materials © Archicom | SRDK Architekci
Here we come to another problematic issue. There are not that many green spaces on the estate at all, quite a lot of concrete instead. The consequences of such a way of managing space in the city are well known - reduction of biologically active area, formation of urban heat islands and, above all, problems with rainwater drainage. And although the great floods that gave Wroclaw its name are almost 30 years apart, it is difficult to justify such design decisions. Certainly the aesthetics and level of workmanship of the new buildings are also a problem, as they are not among the most beautiful, and in some places simply do not fit in with the 19th-century buildings.
Wroclaw Breweries
photo: press materials © Archicom | SRDK Architekci
success or wasted opportunity?
Do such revitalizations make sense? Considering the tragic state in which the buildings found themselves after several years of "lying fallow". - certainly. However, calculating the potential of the place, the limited audience it is currently aimed at, and the smaller and larger stumbling blocks at the design stage, one can feel a certain regret and an impression of a wasted opportunity. There may not be a second one, as there are not many unrevitalized post-industrial spaces left in Wroclaw.
