Kielce's Market Square has resembled a stone desert since the last renovation. Attempts made to tame it with additional furniture or greenery in pots have proved insufficient. Officials have come up with a completely new plan to improve the city's main square and introduce greenery to the place.
June 2011 saw the grand opening of Kielce's Market Square after renovation. The greenery, although badly neglected, was turned into a stone and concrete pan. The space was paved with granite slabs arranged in an orthogonal grid composition. Only a few trees were left in the square space, and the drawing of the foundations of the old city hall (unearthed during archaeological work) was isolated in the floor. Several elements were then introduced into this space, i.e. a water pump, a pillory and a fountain. Despite the traffic calming and aestheticization of the space, the market began to be associated by its users with a concrete desert. Designers from Chodor-Projekt Construction Design Bureau were responsible for its concept.
Urban Salon
photo: Michal Jaron / IDK
urban living room
The response to these problems was to be the measures initiated two years after the square's renovation by the city authorities. They began with public consultations and design workshops, in which residents unequivocally voted for the return of greenery. Between 2013 and 2017, the Municipal Salon functioned in the Square . The installation was designed by Grzegorz Bień, Ewelina Gdak, Michal Gdak working at the time at the Public Space Studio of the Institute of Design in Kielce. The salon consisted of a set of modular furniture, serving diverse functions from seating to loungers to pots for greenery. However, the installation was mobile and temporary, easily damaged.
Urban Salon
photo by Michal Iaron / IDK
greening
After a decade, the new city authorities have decided to make further changes to the space of the most important square in the capital of Swietokrzyskie. Work is underway on a preliminary concept for greening the square, which is being prepared by the mamArchitekci studio. The added greenery elements are to emphasize the historical character of the square. Two large trees are to appear in the Market Square, as well as rows of small trees along the street connecting Bodzentyńska and Duża. In place of a non-existent tenement house, the Market will be separated by a group of larger trees from the neighboring St. Tekla Square. An underground irrigation system is to help in the growth of the greenery. Officials stress that the project is part of efforts to eliminate the heat island effect in the city center. Similar changes are to await Liberty Square, among others.
photo: mamArchitekci / UMK
public consultations
The concept presented by the city will now be subject to public consultation. Until March 22, 2022, a questionnaire is available on the Idea Kielce portal, in which Kielce residents can express their opinions about the project and choose from among several presented solutions how to develop smaller parts of the Market Square. In turn, a consultation meeting is scheduled for March 21 at 5pm in the Hall of the Registry Office of the City Hall, during which the authors of the concept from mamArchitekci will present the assumptions of the functional-utility program of the square.
Photo: mamArchitekci / UMK
