Can superstructures be the solution to today's housing problems?
Superstructures help to reduce carbon footprint
Photo by Brett Jordan © UNSPLASH
What is superstructure and what conditions you need to meet to make it?
According to polish construction law, superstructure is an activity with the same rank as the construction of a building. Its purpose is to increase the height and usable area (while keeping the built-up area unchanged) by adding more floors. Since 2015, it is no longer required to obtain a permit for the expansion of a house. You only need a notification of construction work. However, three conditions must be met:
- The house can't be listed as a historic building.
- You can't do any work that requiries a permit as part of the superstructure.
- The impact area of the project must not extend into neighboring plots.
Before starting work, you still need to check whether the house superstructure will not conflict with local conditions. You can verify this in the local zoning plan. If the area is not covered by the local zoning plan, the applicable document is the zoning decision. Also obtain a technical expert's report from a building surveyor. It contains detailed information about the technical condition of the building and states whether it will be safe to superstructure the house. Such an expert opinion will also provide important information to the architect who will create the design of the house extension. Once you have completed the necessary documents, you can report the construction work to the district office. If the office does not object within 21 days, you can start the work.
As of 2015, it is no longer required in Poland to obtain a permit to expand your house
Photo by Brett Jordan © UNSPLASH
What can we gain by creating a superstructure?
The first aspect is, of course, finances. By modifying an existing building, we don't have to spend money on buying land. Another advantage is leaving a smaller carbon footprint, which is in line with European Commission guidelines promoting sustainable urban development. In addition, the increase in the purchase price of real estate in city centers and the lack of land for development forces people to look for more attractively priced properties on the outskirts. In this way, cities are losing their natural centers, and as a result, residents are experiencing problems with, for example, transportation. This phenomenon also generates costs for local governments, which have to create more roads, public transportation lines, schools, clinics, etc. Superstructures can provide the missing space, while limiting the use of greenfield sites for new developments.
- Superstructures can become one of the forms of a sustainable housing policy carried out by city officials. It takes into account the necessity of responding to the growth of urban population and increasing demand for housing while limiting the effect of city sprawl - explains Zuzanna Napieralska from Wrocław University of Technology.
By creating superstructures, we can reduce the use of green space for new developments
Photo by Brett Jordan © UNSPLASH
Untapped potential
Nowadays, the need to move away from the „linear” economy, associated with the constant erection of more buildings, is increasingly emphasized. A better solution is supposed to be the circular economy, which relies on using the potential of existing facilities more fully. There is a lot of discussion around this topic regarding architectural, administrative and legal aspects. Superstructures focus the attention not only of architects, but also researchers. In 2019, researchers at Technischen Universität Darmstadt analyzed the potential of superstructures of selected buildings created in Germany between 1950 and 1989. The authors of the project concluded that creating them would make it possible to obtain about 1.5 million new housing units.
The benefits of superstructures are increasingly more often being discussed in our country as well.
- The problem of the housing deficit is still present in Poland. Attempts are being made to change this situation, for example, by returning to large-dimensional prefabrication (large-plate or modular). There are also efforts being made to target superstructures of large-panel buildings, especially low- or mid-rise ones. In 2016-2018, the Building Research Institute, commissioned by the Ministry of Development and Technology, conducted a global survey of the multi-storey buildings in Poland, aimed at determining their safety and durability. As a result, it was concluded that these buildings meet current structural safety requirements and can still be used for many years. It was also pointed out that there is no substantive justification for taking action to massively demolish them. However, in view of the improvement of their functional-utility properties, modernization activities were recommended in line with modern standards and social expectations, e.g. in terms of thermal protection and access for the elderly and disabled — says Jarosław Szulc from the Building Research Institute.
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Compiled by:KATARZYNA SZOSTAK
