The Storm Action Park is not the only one to represent Polish design on the international stage. Another development from Poland will also face off against the best green spaces in Europe. The Nowy Targ Square in Wroclaw, which opened to residents and visitors in its new form this summer, will compete for the European Green Cities 2024 Award . What is the history of this square, what has changed and which features made it a candidate in the prestigious competition?
Hisotria of the New Market Square in Wroclaw dates back to the beginnings of the city itself. The oldest traces, dating back to the 12th century, speak of early settlements in the area. Today's outline of Nowy Targ was delineated at the time of the third location of Wroclaw - in 1261. From the beginning, there was commercial activity at the site, as evidenced by a record from the second quarter of the 14th century, allowing stallholders to set up stalls here three days a week. In the centuries that followed, the square was filled with trading booths, production facilities, and there was also room for a potting shed. The ordering of the forum novum, as Nowy Targ Square was called in documents, came in the middle of the 19th century, in 1909 much of the trade was moved to the nearby Market Hall, and two years after the outbreak of World War II a decision was made to build an underground shelter under the surface of the square.
Nowy Targ Square in Wroclaw in 1890
Public domain | Wikimedia Commons
a market without a marketplace
The close location of important structures associated with the command made the vicinity of Nowy Targ Square a target of intense bombing. After the war, commerce returned to the square - already after the decongestion, a "shaberplac" functioned here, where mainly antiques were sold. A fundamental change in the nature of the functioning of this space occurred in the 1950s and 1960s, when it was decided to make it a residential square, serving the residents of the new blocks of flats that sprang up near the square. The abandonment of the commercial function contributed to the gradual death of this space, which henceforth had no significant function. As the years passed, Wroclaw's Nowy Targ Square turned into a place surrounded by rows of disorderly parked cars, deserted and visited only on the way to the City Hall.
Nowy Targ Square after the 2013 revaluation.
photo: ZZM Wrocław
first approach
In the face of years of criticism of the square, which had ceased to serve a commercial function and had consequently become deserted, it was decided to rebuild it. The competition held in 2010 was won by the Roman Rutkowski Architekci studio , whose concept was implemented in 2013. The revitalization included the renewal of the pavement, the introduction of new plantings, the erection of small architecture and urban furniture, and most importantly, the organization of underground parking under the surface of the square. The plans also included a fountain and a commercial pavilion, but there were not enough funds for their implementation.
Despite meeting the competition guidelines and the exorbitant requirements of the preservation service, as well as the approval of the architectural community, the Nowy Targ Square once again became the subject of criticism from residents. Among other things, the realization was accused of lacking a clearly defined function, and it was said that, apart from the road to the City Hall, there was virtually nothing to come to the square for. There were numerous comments describing the Nowy Targ Square as a concrete desert or a Wroclaw frying pan. Despite spotty interventions, introduced in the form of green walls and even setting up umbrellas in the square, the "concrete" patch has stayed with the square for longer, and not without reason.
Nowy Targ Square after the 2013 revaluation
Photo: Raf24-commonswiki © CC BY SA 4.0 | Wikimedia Commons
The small amount of greenery was dictated by plans to make the square a venue for events, as well as the guidelines of conservationists, who pointed out that there were no trees in the medieval square. The result was a space that could not be used for much of the year. In the summer, temperatures there reached truly hellish levels - in July 2022, measurements taken by activists from City Action showed the pavement heating up to 66.6 degrees Celsius in some places.
In the face of the climate crisis and the changing needs of residents, just 10 years after the previous revaluation was completed, a new redevelopment project for Market Square has been announced.
A greened New Market Square in 2024
photo: ZZM Wrocław
New design for Nowy Targ
The new Nowy Targ Square was designed by a team consisting of Angelika Kuśmierczyk and Filip Jędrzak (landscape architects from a+f studio), Dominika Stryjewska (psychologist, expert in issues of furnishing urban spaces) and Roman Rutkowski (architect, Roman Rutkowski Architekci studio). It was an interesting move to invite the last-mentioned person, who was involved in the previous, not necessarily successful intervention in the square, to join the project. Despite the significant metamorphosis that the Wroclaw space has undergone, some of the principals of the previous revaluation have been preserved. This primarily refers to the modernist pavement grid, which was preserved in its original form in the 2013 design. In the new design for Nowy Targ Square, the geometric layout is reflected in the arrangement of low plantings, which are arranged in square flowerbeds that repeat the modernist pattern, which is, by the way, under conservation protection.
A greened New Market Square in 2024
Photo: Filip Jędrzak
green chess pieces
The rectangular flowerbeds included a considerable amount of new greenery. We're talking about more than 60,000 plants and nearly 200 trees, the species of which were carefully selected, taking into account the difficult summer conditions in the square, the potential to support biodiversity and aesthetic value. Compared to other such projects, the density of new plantings is relatively high. These appear at 16 plants per square meter, representing nearly 60 species. Such an accumulation of vegetation has two important advantages. First, it makes it easier to care for the plants, which tightly fill the available space, leaving no room for invasive species. Second, even if some of the plantings do not survive the summer, the essential expression of the flowerbeds will not change.
A greened New Market Square in 2024
Photo: Angelika Kuśmierczyk-Jędrzak
green engineering
The revaluation process, although carried out at a surprisingly fast pace, was not one of the easiest. Most problematic was the presence of an underground parking lot, the covering of which had to be transformed using green roof technology. The depth of the substrate that could be achieved was only 60 centimeters. For this reason, a number of modern solutions were used, which are ultimately intended to allow vegetation to grow freely.
The new landscaping of the square uses advanced technologies, such as anti-compression systems, irrigation and aeration systems for trees, and underground root ball anchoring.
- reads the page introducing the competition's candidates.
Remote-controlled drip irrigation systems are to help irrigate the vegetation, while rainwater will flow toward the flowerbeds thanks to appropriately designed slopes of the pavement.
Greening the New Market Square in Wroclaw
photo: Angelika Kuśmierczyk-Jędrzak
square in the process
This is not the end of the changes that await the Nowy Targ Square in Wroclaw. The city has recently announced the launch of another competition for the design of a fountain to be placed in its center, ideologically referring to the previously located Neptune's Fountain. The fundamental question of the square's function is still open - now it will no longer serve as a place for high-profile events, instead it has the potential to become a space for rest, recreation and spontaneous meetings, varied from time to time by smaller-scale initiatives, such as the now traditional food truck rallies. Will such a functional program be enough to put Nowy Targ Square back in the city's bloodstream? We'll probably find out in the coming years, but already the new version of Nowy Targ Square is garnering favorable reviews among residents.
Greening Nowy Targ Square in Wroclaw - Lighting and flowerbeds
Photo: Angelika Kuśmierczyk-Jędrzak
design once, but do it right
Nowy Targ Square hasbeen transformed from a concrete desert into an urban garden that provides shade, space for the development of urban biodiversity and functions as a meeting place. Considering the relatively low cost of revitalization, the fast pace and, above all, the scope and nature of the changes, the selection of Nowy Targ Square as a candidate for the European Green Cities Award seems justified. However, a long and bumpy road led to the achievement of a space with the aforementioned qualities, which cost the city a lot of time, work, money and frustration. The moral - design once, and design well. It remains to be hoped that this will be the final iteration of the square, and as conditions improve, it will gradually return to it the life it was teeming with before World War II.
Przemysław Ciępka
The greening of Nowy Targ Square was financed as part of a project by the Municipality of Wroclaw
