Exploring the rivers

Marta Kulawik

28 of March '24

Panel discussion, from left: Marcin Brataniec, Małgorzata Kuciewicz, Piotr Kempf, Alek Janicki, Prof. Stanisław M. Rybicki

Photo: Patryk Czornij

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The article is from A&B issue 12|23

On the first day of the International Architecture Biennale, October 13, a panel discussion "Discovering Rivers" was held at the ICE Congress Center. Its moderator was Marcin Brataniec - vice president for creative affairs of SARP Krakow Branch and founder of eM4 . Architecture Studio. Brataniec. He was met on stage by: Małgorzata Kuciewicz, architect from the Centrala Design Group; Alek Janicki, artist, curator of the Culture Futura project; Piotr Kempf, director of the Board of Urban Greenery in Krakow, forester; Prof. Stanisław M. Rybicki, engineer, Dean of the Faculty of Environmental Engineering and Energy of the Krakow University of Technology.

The moderator introduced each of the guests, and then introduced the topic of the panel by discussing his own presentation. It began with a very synthetic graphic representation of the development of cities located along the river, which has led and continues to lead to the gradual pollution and even disappearance of rivers. He cited the titles of books that deal with the subject of rivers in various ways, these were: "Vistula. Biography of a River" by Andrzej Chwalba; "Water. The story of a certain kidnapping" by Szymon Opryszek; "Odrzania. A Journey through the Recovered Territories" by Zbigniew Rokita; "Hydrozagadka. Who takes away Polish water and how to get it back" by Jan Mencwel; "Rivers that are not there" by Maciej Robert.

panel moderator Marcin Brataniec

photo: Lubomir Nikolov

Brataniec talked about Krakow's rivers, which have largely disappeared, some of them without any trace or only street names remain. He showed engravings, archival photos. Examples included the Rudawa River, the Młynówka Królewska River and the Białucha River. He also recalled activities related to the regulation of the Vistula River. As evidence of the residents' own interest in the subject, he pointed to projects from the civic budget concerning the creation of a walking and bicycle route along the riverbed of the Białucha river or a city walk along the former riverbed of the Rudawa River.

excerpts from Piotr Kempf's presentation

The presentation also did not lack foreign examples of places where the "discovery of rivers" has been more or less literally dealt with. He began with France's Bièvre River, which was literally unearthed with an excavator. In Oslo, in turn, a flume was created, that is, a place where water could gradually return. The German uncovered river was represented by the Hase in the city of Osnabrück, which runs in a very compact urban area. For more inspiration, the biennial audience was referred to the "Reconsidering Nature" exhibition located in the ICE spaces. A section of Rhetoric Street, based on the winning entry in the competition for the Kossak Square redevelopment project by the ngo + pasierbiński studio, was used as an example of a possible restoration of the water table in Krakow.

excerpts from Piotr Kempf's presentation

The next person to speak was the director of the Board of Urban Greenery in Krakow, Piotr Kempf. He presented the "Vistula connects" project, dedicated to Krakow's rivers, which still exist, but have been largely forgotten or altered. Altered means regulated and embanked, which was because, as he put it, "we were afraid of rivers." The focus then, in the early 20th century, was on the Vistula and the formation of the Vistula boulevards as we know them today. Since then, its tributaries have been ignored, often even becoming sewage, and the city has been increasingly swallowed up by the road network.

excerpts from Piotr Kempf's presentation

The "Vistula connects" project, as Kempf himself admitted, is based largely on Professor Bogdanowski's idea from thirty-four years ago, who postulated that urban greenery should be based on the axis of Krakow's rivers: the Wilga, Rudawa, Białusza, Prądnik, Dłubnia and, of course, the Vistula. Ideologically, the venture is to focus on thinking of rivers as communication, recreation and connection - with an emphasis on connecting, as evidenced by the project's title. What matters most is that the Vistula and its tributaries connect us to the areas surrounding the city. At a time of traffic paralysis on Krakow's roads, this is important because the rivers can connect residents to green spaces, which are in short supply within the city, but also residents of neighboring municipalities could safely access Krakow via bike paths.

Piotr Kempf

Photo: Patryk Czornij

The Rudawa River was also discussed, how it has changed over the years and what it looks like now, what role it plays, or rather how it could play it better - the talk is about connecting Mydlniki and the farther neighborhoods with the city center. Current ills are the lack of inclusive infrastructure, the lack of safe and collision-free crossings, the devastated natural landscape and the lack of rest areas. The director of ZZM presented an idea to designate a safe, inclusive pedestrian and bicycle path connecting Mydlniki with the center of Krakow, offsetting the aforementioned ills while minimally interfering with the landscape. Also, the difficulties faced during the design work, for example, the guidelines of the Municipal Conservator of Monuments or costs.

Zakole Wawerskie, Warsaw - an excerpt from a presentation by Małgorzata Kuciewicz of CENTRALA Design Group

The connection between the Ore Mountains and the Vistula River and the weaknesses of the Vistula boulevards were mentioned, especially on the most popular sections: near the dragon and Wawel Castle. There was mention of conflicts between pedestrians and cyclists, pavement in need of repair and barriers to movement, the chaos of development, the lack of visual coherence and the mismatch between aesthetics, such as small architecture, and the prominence of the place, or the untapped potential of some sections.

The design assumptions are, in the case of the Vistula, like the Ore Mountains, a direct response to current problems. An added value would be the creation of upper boulevards, which would relieve the crowded lower boulevards. I discuss this project with Marcin Brataniec: Can the Vistula be liked?

Excerpt from a presentation by Małgorzata Kuciewicz of the CENTRALA Design Group from the exhibition "Let them flow! Other Rivers of Warsaw"

After Piotr Kempf's speech, it was time for a presentation by Małgorzata Kuciewicz, who together with Simone De Iacobis makes up Warsaw's Centrala Design Group. The studio is known for introducing new concepts and ways of looking at water into the debate about the city. The statement began with the word "waterscape," which Kuciewicz says is now as important as "landscape." On the screen, she displayed Warsaw's waterscape from 1870 and 2015, showing how most of the city's watercourses have been canalized in nearly a hundred and fifty years, and how the Vistula River has changed dramatically along that stretch (despite being portrayed as a wild river). Kuciewicz stressed that "a river is not just a line on a map, it is an area to which all soaking areas belong."

She presented a project exhibited a few years ago in Zodiac, prepared for the "Futurama Warsaw" exhibition. She described it as a project conceived on the basis of climate fiction(cli-fi, climate fiction). It showed how land reserves for road projects could be used to create something that worked like an urban sponge, a spillway that could be flooded in the event of a flash flood and river surge, and create recreational infrastructure on a daily basis. There was also the notion of "dissolving the banks" of the riverbed, i.e., creating conditions for the variability of sandy skimmers, as is the case outside the Warsaw metropolitan area (and within the city they no longer appear). Water allotment gardens could be created behind the embankments that would regulate these surges.

Excerpt from a presentation by Małgorzata Kuciewicz of CENTRALA Design Group - Podskarpia Wetland Park - a model for Warsaw's wetland parks on the example of former Sadurka

What seemed like a design fantasy not long ago is becoming a real problem to be approached pragmatically. Kuciewicz talked about walks with naturalists from the Center for Wetland Conservation through areas in Warsaw that could become saturated again (after former urban swamps). She spoke of the real need to redeem these areas as soon as possible.

The role of language and the restoration of old names is important here, because behind each name is a habitat of a different type - and this diversity is extremely important. The speaker acknowledged that thanks to the public actions carried out, the "mud" theme has been noticed and has become an important urban topic. There was also the theme of infrastructure that would make sense in areas belonging to the river, which is once water and once land. The "accessibility gradient" was worked on as part of a planning exercise. Using the example of Zakol Wawerski, Kuciewicz talked about the use of such spaces not only as public areas, but also, or even primarily, as natural areas.

The activities of the Centrala Project Group were recounted chronologically, with slides from last year's exhibition "Let them flow! Other Rivers of Warsaw" at the Wola Museum. The displayed hydrographic map shows a "hole" that coincides with the outline of Warsaw. As part of this exhibition, the topic of the Sadurka floodplain in the Warsaw Subcarpathia emerged, which it was decided to take up. To trigger an urban discussion, an attempt was made to illustrate what a reconstruction of these areas could look like.

Malgorzata Kuciewicz

photo: Patryk Czornij

Malgorzata Kuciewicz pointed out that a component of the "waterscape" is not only flowing water (in the liquid state), but also evaporating water. She appealed to discover rivers not only in the sense of literally discovering their channels, but to recognize the whole cycle associated with them. As she spoke this sentence, a slide was displayed on the screen with the words "We live at the bottom of the air ocean - Luftmeer. We are immersed in water with a volatile state." The next slides were accompanied by the concept of "atmospheric rivers," that is, trains of moisture in the air masses that flow into a specific area. Associated with this phenomenon is a new type of cloud, classified in 2017, called silvagenitus - it appears as a result of sudden evaporation caused by thermal contrails. There were also mammoths, which are a type known before, very rarely seen, although in recent years they could be observed extremely often, for example in Warsaw. The phenomenon of "alpine glow," or the pinking of clouds, indicates the presence of an island of heat. And the hotter this island, the more intense the pink in the sky.

Alexander Janicki, visual artist

photo: Patryk Czornij

The Central Design Group wants to focus on educating how to observe these signals of climate change and how to assess the condition of our cities through reading them. At the end, the notion of "Earth's shadow" came up as a foreshadowing of one of the topics the studio is addressing and would like to give it attention in the urban debate. The speech was too short to elaborate on each of these concepts, but it certainly opened our eyes to many themes and phenomena that are not an obvious part of the discussion on architecture and urbanism.

Excerpts from Prof. Stanislaw Rybicki's presentation

Aleksander Janicki was the third speaker, and talked about the activities aimed at restoring the Rawa River in Katowice. He presented a methodology for creating a master plan that will take advantage of all experiences and give the river a chance to recover. He presented the work of Aneta Mroczkowska, among others, who, he said, "is the keystone of bringing the base of the masterplan to completion." The masterplan for the University of Silesia campus appeared on the slides - the experience gained here will become the basis for further thoughts and conclusions and the determination of priorities. He cites networking, attention to process, interdisciplinary team, decisions resulting from social dialogue or favor of the authorities of both the University itself, the city and citizens as factors to ensure the success and holistic nature of this project.

Prof. Stanislaw Rybicki

Photo: Patryk Czornij

Janicki mentioned that, as authors, they focus on the elements of river revitalization that are immanent to it. The result of four years of work is to be a set of activities and ideas (extracted by project participants) ready for later systemic implementation. These ideas are currently at the level of innovative construction of the "Green Learning Zone" space in the city center. He cited the application of ideas based on neuroscience as an example of innovation. The European Urban Initiative (EUI), which is part of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), is a strategic financial source to apply for funds for this purpose.

At the end of this speech, the Red Cross Med Center project, a network of diagnostic and therapeutic points in Ukraine, which was established under the banner of Culture Futura, was briefly presented. One of the many safety aspects considered is epidemiological safety. Among the innovative technologies used is BioMedAqua, a method of disinfection by dry mist fogging, which allows effective elimination of pathogens in the air.

The final of Prof. Stanislaw Rybicki's presentation

Prof. Stanislaw Rybicki, who called himself a devil's advocate, was the last to deliver his presentation, with the words on the first slide: "Discovering rivers through the eyes of a non-architect engineer." The professor began with a question: Why are we talking about revisiting rivers? Because we have cluttered the dry space of the city and pushed green areas out of the city; we missed not only climate change, but also the moment when there was a very strong emphasis on living in cities, and today there is a shortage of areas where one can breathe.

In his reflections, Rybicki went back to the origins of civilization, to the factors that made them develop along rivers, mentioning water for drinking, hygiene, transportation, the sense of comfort brought by the water table and defensive borders and frontiers. Many of the aforementioned functions rivers still perform today. Rivers also exhibit the beauty of their surroundings, including adjacent architecture. However, he pointed out that despite their sometimes soothing effect, rivers also have an unpredictable face and carry danger. Here one of the key sentences of the panel came out: "we must take responsibility for the river."

panel discussion "Discovering Rivers"

photo: Patryk Czornij

The Vistula has been a factor in both building and ruining the cities through which it flows. Stopping such large masses of flood water with systems of dikes or boulevards is not possible, and past events also show this. An important issue to consider is the regulation of the river. Unregulated rivers tend to change the course of their channels. The current riverbeds of rivers such as the Ore Mountains and the Vistula River are forced by engineering works from the early 20th century. At least seven different variants of the course of these rivers in the past are identified, and here comes the dilemma: which of the riverbeds should we restore? Because, after all, not all of them. The professor stressed that restoration is not a return to the old riverbed, but a restoration of the water table in the urban fabric (even if not exactly in the same place). The former floodplains were not protective areas, but simply more vulnerable neighborhoods where the poorest lived. Thus, they were not areas that protected the city from the dangers posed by the river. As the city grew, it also needed these "inferior" areas more and more, so they began to think about methods of using them. This is, in fact, still the case today. And reclaiming them and protecting the sections that may be in danger of flooding consumes colossal sums. For example, the modernization of 20 kilometers of the existing Vistula embankments in Cracow is a cost of 93 million zlotys. Today there is a different way of thinking about regulating rivers, if possible. It's an approach close to renaturalization, which is not about leaving a river to its own devices, but about carefully observing and consciously supervising natural processes.

A river that is a source of water is at the same time a receiver of used water, or wastewater. Lack of access to clean water slowed the development of Rome; London faced the same barrier to development. These ills are separated by 2000 years of civilization development. In ancient Rome, the solution was aqueducts, and in modern London - the first water treatment plants.

Finally, the speaker showed a photo of his free time spent on the water, in a canoe, and encouraged people to discover the rivers and make friends with them in private as well. "Let's discover these rivers on a micro scale, on a macro scale and on a decision-making scale," he said.

After the Biennale, when emotions had subsided a bit, I spoke with panel moderator Marcin Brataniec to return with my thoughts to the event and to draw conclusions from it. I invite you to read.