A residential and commercial complex has been built near the Saski Garden in Lublin, which in the future will also be enriched with an office building. Designed by MTA, the development has filled a breach in the urban fabric of the city. However, is it not too tight?
Between tenement houses from the 19th century and modernist buildings from the interwar period, in the quarter delineated by Wieniawska, Jasna, Karskiego and Evangelicka streets in Lublin, until recentlyuntil recently parked cars, stood pre-war residences, but also fast food stalls and post-war production pavilions that housed supermarkets, clubs and cheap clothing stores. There were also cafes, restaurants and the iconic "Wild East" multitap. A vibrant, multifunctional space aimed at a wide audience, but by no means compatible with the stature of the place (located right next to the Saxon Gardens), and failing to meet aesthetic and urban planning standards. In the past few years, the place has undergone a metamorphosis, thanks to the MTA Architekci studio, which designed the buildings of the Saski Garden Residence complex in Lublin. The investor is Mota-Engil Real Estate.
Saski Garden Residence in Lublin
Photo: Piotr Krajewski © MTA
residence by the garden
The Ogród Saski Residence consists of four buildings that occupy the southwestern part of the quarter formed between the streets mentioned in the previous paragraph. Seven-story buildings have sprung up on the plot owned by the developer, grouped in pairs - two of them are located deep in the quarter, with the shorter side facing Wieniawska Street, while the other pair has been located in the corner of the plot, with the longer side facing Jasna Street. The two sets of buildings were moved away from each other, which allowed to create a walkway between them with an alley, greenery and elements of small architecture. Potential buyers will be offered 334 apartments, an underground garage and retail and service units, located in the lowest, set-back and fully glazed floors.
Saski Garden Residence in Lublin
Photo: Piotr Krajewski © MTA
a game of quarters
The project area is under conservation protection by virtue of the entry of the urban complex into the register of monuments, hence all works required agreement with the Municipal Conservator of Monuments in Lublin.
- write the architects.
Indeed, the forms of the buildings were agreed with the surrounding buildings, not only in terms of the number of above-ground floors. The elevations in the parts of the top floors were deprived of detail (aluminum razor blades) and were receded, thanks to which they obtained an optical lightness, referring to the highest floors of the surrounding tenement houses, which are characterized by smaller dimensions than all the other floors. The ways in which the facades of the individual buildings in the new complex are shaped also relate to the nearby buildings. Thus, for example, the red lamellas of the building on Wieniawska Street allude to the façade of the tenement standing opposite, clad in brick threads. The lamellar apertures of the balconies at the intersection of Krótka and Jasna Streets, meanwhile, allude to the rhythm of the windows of the modernist building further along the frontage.
Saski Garden residence in Lublin
Photo: Piotr Krajewski © MTA
green ravine
Some of the space management solutions are puzzling, especially the one filled with greenery. This is, first of all, quite scarce - this may change in further stages of the investment, when the complex of office and service buildings will be added and the space around it arranged. What is surprising in the already constructed buildings, however, is the lack of use of green roof technology, which is slowly becoming a standard in today's construction industry. Even on the roof of the nearby Orion office building there was a bit of greenery, despite the fact that the building was already constructed in 2018. The spaces around and between the buildings of the Saski Garden Residence do not boast an abundance of plants - the "green shopping arcade," as the developer calls the place, has been planted with lawns, perennials and trees growing in small concrete pots. The green passage won't provide them with much light, because the distances between the buildings are so small that it looks more like a shaded ravine.
Saski Garden residence in Lublin
Photo: Piotr Krajewski © MTA
Manhattan in Lublin
Will the change work out well for this part of Lublin? Time will tell - it is already being called Lublin' s Manhattan, due to a fundamental change in its character. The metamorphosis began back in 2013, when the city sold plots of land in the neighboring quarter. where there used to be a space serving the residents (Tektura, or the Center for Independent Culture - Space for Creative Initiatives, IPN, Parking). Quickly, the Orion office building was built on the site, where, funnily enough, the City Hall also rents premises, locating some of its departments there.
The Ogród Saski residence in Lublin
Photo: Piotr Krajewski © MTA
by combine among the blocks
Developer investments are a touchy subject in Lublin - every year the Internet circulates a video showing a farmer driving a combine harvester into a field in South Węglin surrounded by residential buildings. However, critics of the city's activities also point to the way its center is being developed - according to many, the downtown area is regularly concreted over, and there are basically no plots of land left undeveloped. In the context of the development described in the article, it is difficult to agree with these arguments, because before the construction of the new office buildings, the plots were not abundant in greenery either. Fundamentally, however, the functioning of these spaces is changing, and they will begin to undergo gentrification. At the same time, the City has lost important land that it could have used for infrastructure to serve all residents, not just those with affluent wallets.
The Saski Garden residence in Lublin
Photo: Piotr Krajewski © MTA
Lublin in the fourth density
However, the quarter described in the text will undergo further changes - this is not the end of the construction of buildings designed by the MTA in this place. A building with office and retail functions is to be built on the eastern side of the plot. The new office building will enclose the green passage that has formed between the residential buildings of the Saski Garden Residence. The new development of the quarter will therefore be a comprehensive response to the need to fill the "gap" in the development of the western part of Downtown Lublin. It is also part of a very important process of urban densification, counteracting the disastrous phenomenon of suburbanization. Watching the effects of the construction and analyzing the infographics made available, one can't help feeling that the task was taken very seriously. Is the dense development and continuity of the urban fabric paid for by the creation of a narrow labyrinth inside the quarter, surrounded by high walls, surely an optimal solution from the point of view of urban planning?
