This studio's project won the SARP 2024 Award of the Year for the best multifamily building. Studio UCEES is not idle and is designing another residential building in southern Poland - this time not in Katowice, but in Krakow. On the left bank of the Vistula, Portowa Zablocie is sprouting up - are you sure it's the right place?
The Nova Mikołowska in Katowice, designed by UCEES, was a success - not without stumbles, as the designers (or investors) were accused of neglecting to protect greenery during the construction of the building. However, this did not prevent it from winning Poland's most important architectural award, which was given for its efficient "unraveling" of a difficult urban situation, diverse building forms or designs for greenery in internal courtyards. Will similar laurels fall on the studio after the delivery of the new Krakow realization?
Portowa Zablocie
proj.: UCEES © press materials
fruitful collaborations
Portowa Zablocie - as the name suggests - will stand on the right bank of the Vistula River, in a post-industrial district of Krakow. Finnish investor IYT has already completed several projects in our country, some of them in cooperation with renowned design offices. The best examples are the Nordic Bemowo estate in Warsaw, built according to a concept prepared by the Kuryłowicz&Associates studio, or the Cranes in Gdansk, whose design was prepared by Rainer Mahlamaki, author of the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews. In Cracow, the Nordic Górka Narodowa housing development is already under construction, for which UCEES is responsible - the same studio as for the buildings described in the text.
Portowa Zabłocie
design: UCEES © press materials
Portowa Zablocie
The building, which is currently under construction, is designed on an L-shaped plan - one arm is adjacent to Portowa Street, the other is located parallel to Jana Dekerta Street. The building, with 8 overground floors, will offer 156 apartments of varying square meters - from 34 to 130 square meters. Thus, there are no micro-apartments on offer; each unit has at least two rooms and a balcony. The glazed first floor will house services, while two underground floors will house parking for future residents.
Portowa Zablocie
proj.: UCEES © press materials
architecture in the industrial spirit
The architects, as in their realization in Katowice, made sure that the building they designed would fit in with its surroundings. In this case, a nearby 1940s cold storage building was chosen as a reference point. The monolithic body of the building is differentiated by the sculpted corners and the way the top floor was resolved, parts of which were set back from the outline of the building's foundations.
Our idea was to recreate the climate and space characteristics of this post-industrial area. The building refers to the historic brick buildings of the former port cold storage facility and is an important element of the local urban fabric. Hence the gray brick and stucco with concrete texture on the facade. Adopted throughout the design intent as the basic color scheme of gray tinting is also repeated in elements of small architecture. The exception here is the service area for residents located on the first floor, which is distinguished by graphite clinker brick
- says architect Marek Szpinda of the UCEES studio.
According to the investor, the courtyard, which will be sheltered by two wings of the building, will also be developed. There will be low and high greenery, small architecture, a playground and an entrance to the underground garage. Perhaps they will be able, at least partially, to compensate for the lack of larger recreational areas in the immediate vicinity. According to visualizations provided by the developer, greenery will also land on the roof, but there is no indication that it will be available to residents.
Portowa Zablocie
proj.: UCEES © press materials
neighborhood to be replaced
The proposed building is located on Portowa Street, near the intersection with Dekerta Street, in an area described in the Local Land Use Plan as intended for residential and commercial development. Currently, the area is not the most pleasant - at the moment there is not even a sidewalk on Portowa Street, there is a lack of parking spaces for cars, which park "in the wild", the road itself is also quite narrow and cracked. In the immediate vicinity, in addition to the planned residential building next door, there are construction warehouses, a concrete plant or the STK 47 electronic music club, organized in an old warehouse. There is also no major park nearby.
Portowa Zablocie
proj.: UCEES © press materials
On the north side, the residential building designed by UCEES will be adjacent to the former cold storage building, built in 1943 to a design by Witold Marcinkowski. For the moment, the monumental industrial building, erected in the style of pre-war modernism, is the most important dominant feature of the immediate vicinity. In use until the beginning of the last decade, today it stands fallow and awaits revitalization, as the Marcinkowski building is included in the Municipal Register of Historic Places.
Portowa Zablocie
proj.: UCEES © press materials
A light in the tunnel
However, the deplorable state of Portowa Street and its immediate surroundings will not last forever. Several residential developments are planned nearby, and above all the city has its plans for the surrounding area. As Jacek Bednarz, then a member of the city council, reported last March, a new elementary school will be built at the intersection of Dekerta and Portowa Streets (and thus right next to the block of flats being erected by YIT) at a cost of PLN 75 million. The city has much bigger plans in the north - here the revitalization of Podolski Boulevard is primarily at stake, which will most likely be carried out as part of a comprehensive revitalization campaign.
Port Zablocie
proj.: UCEES © press materials
For the moment, however, it is not known when the work will begin - first a General Plan must be created, which the city has until the end of this year to develop. It is possible that, in line with the policy announced by the new Chief Architect of the City of Krakow, Janusz Sepiol, a competition will be held for the revitalization project of the Vistula boulevards, which may further extend the waiting time for the new face of Krakow's Vistula banks. The revitalization of the boulevards is not the only investment the city is planning on the Vistula in the area. As early as last March, work was underway to demolish the long-decaying Krakow Shipping Port - in the future, the site will be home to a Krakow marina, which the Sports Infrastructure Management Board says will be built from 2023.
Port Zablocie
proj.: UCEES © press materials
portowa avant-garde
Portowa Street and its immediate surroundings are not stunning at the moment, but over time they are likely to turn into a charming neighborhood. And while transportation or retail infrastructure is not a problem there, a lot of work is still needed to make it truly liveable , both on the part of the city and private investors, who will have the opportunity to develop the plots of land next to the Vistula with quality architecture. Will Port Zablocie set a good direction? We will find out in the near future, as the construction, scheduled to end in the last quarter of this year, is slowly approaching the finishing stage, crucial from the perspective of architectural reception.
