Correct architecture, prefabricated elements and a very good neighborhood. There is a permit for the construction of another communal housing estate in Poznan. It will take the place of the pre-war barracks for the unemployed. There are other communal housing estates under construction and planned.
It's hard to believe, but sub-standard housing barracks from the 1930s and the occupation period still stand in Poznan . Fortunately, they have recently been disappearing at a faster pace and giving way to new municipal housing complexes. This will also happen on Jarzębowa Street at the junction with Opolska Street on the border of the Świerczewo and Dębiec districts. Officials have just issued a building permit for the construction of four apartment blocks on a municipal plot occupied for almost 90 years by wooden barracks erected by the pre-war magistrate for the unemployed.
pre-war barracks on rowan street in Poznan, 2020. - view from Opolska Street
photo: Jakub Głaz
apology with a great slab
The one-story wooden buildings have been gradually dismantled since last year. In two years they will be replaced by four council houses built by the Board of Communal Housing Resources. Three houses are to be five stories high, and one (closer to single-family housing) will be one story lower. They will contain 180 apartments and four commercial units on the first floor. For the first time in the history of the project, the Management Board will be erected from large-size prefabricated elements, or, to put it figuratively, large slabs. This is yet another case in Poznań of a return to this building material, which allows construction to be faster, more efficient and - unlike in the case of the great slab of communist Poland - with greater precision. ZKZL will now announce a tender for a contractor and expects the new blocks to be built by the end of 2026, thanks to BGK's Surcharge Fund financing.
communal houses at jarzębowa street in Poznań, visualization, proj. LEKKO Architekci
source: zkzl.poznan.pl / © proj. LEKKO Architekci
The design of the blocks was selected through a request for proposals, as ZKZL has been building more and more in recent years, but still does not hold architectural competitions. It neither announces competitions for the design of individual housing complexes, nor - which would also make sense from an economic point of view - for a coherent system of building and designing new houses in different locations. This time the design is the responsibility of the Poznan studio LEKKO Architekci ( one of the four that took part in the proceedings - details here).
there will be no shortage of windows!
Four buildings with simple but varied masses look modest and correct. The apartments are to range in size from 29 to 66 sq. m. (from studios with separate kitchens to three-room units). According to the project's guidelines, 80 percent of each type of apartment (except for studios) is to have a separate kitchen with a window (rather than a so-called annex), which demonstrates ZKZL's sensible approach to the investments it will come to administer over the next decades. Unfortunately, the Board has so far failed to provide floor plans of the units. Nor does it clearly show the space between the blocks. We are left only with the declaration that
a playground, bicycle sheds and parking spaces will be built on the estate. Greenery will also be planted around the buildings, and there will also be small architecture in the vicinity of the blocks.
There will be no underground garage, as in the case of the ZKZL investment in Nadolnik, which we described over a year ago . According to the development conditions, there can be no less than 0.7 parking spaces per area ¬per apartment here . It remains to be hoped that plenty of space will be left for greenery (including mature trees), and its design will be carefully refined. As the site is located along the Górczynka stream and the trees and shrubs growing along it, the existing greenery should be combined as well as possible with the planned landscaping.
communal houses at jarzębowa street in Poznań, - the buildings will be built between jarzębowa street and allotment gardens, visible in the vicinity of the investment: elementary school, osrodek zdrowia, food market and kindergarten
source: openstreetmap.org
fifteen-minute estate
In addition to the proximity of greenery (there are allotment gardens behind Górczynka), the area is also very attractive for other reasons. Right next to itare an elementary school, a health center, a grocery market and a bus stop. Nearby is a kindergarten, another school and services. To the interchange Dębiec PKM with a streetcar loop is equal kilometer (unfortunately, on the way there is a barrier is often and for a long time closed railroad crossing).
communal houses at jarzębowa street in Poznan, visualization, view from the east, from Opolska street, on the right out of the frame - elementary school, designed by LEKKO Architects
source: zkzl.poznan.pl / © proj. LEKKO Architekci
The project at Jarzębowa Street will therefore be better served than the flagship (largest - 280 apartments) development complex located a little further south on Opolska Street. This development, described by us more than two years ago, is yet to expand, replacing the existing and partly still inhabited (!) barracks built for Poles displaced from downtown by the German authorities during the occupation. However, the timing and shape of the expansion of the municipal housing development is unknown for now.
Occupation barracks for Poles on Opolska Street in Poznan (2021)
photo: Jakub Glaz
Instead, the nearly twin (brick) barracks also built before the war on peripheral Kopanina Street are to disappear within two years. The tendered project by a company called Pawel Jedras - KALDO Construction Agency envisages the construction of three five-story blocks with 161 apartments right next to the new office buildings by Easst Architects, which we showed a year ago.
Planned municipal buildings on Kopanina Street in Poznań (in place of 8 barracks) - in the background, on the right you can see the elevation of the new office building
source: zkzl.poznan.pl / © proj.: Paweł Jędraś KALDO Construction Agency
At Kopanina, however, conditions are not as convenient as at Jarzębowa. School, stores and clinics are much further away. Also worse is the communication with the nearest transfer point in Górczyn. Better in this respect, however, is the investment already mentioned here on Nadolnik (a mini-main district), which is expected to be completed next year.
