In the competition organized by the Municipality of Myszków in cooperation with the Częstochowa branch of the Association of Polish Architects for the development of an architectural concept for the revitalization of the center of Myszków, the first place went to the project of the Warsaw office 4am Architekci. The winning concept was appreciated by the competition's jury for, among other things, the best identification of the problems of the space covered by the study, as well as good communication links that take into account the expectations of their users.
The goal of the architects from the 4am Architekci studio was to restore public space to the residents of Myszkow, to create a place that would emphasize their roots and identity, and at the same time be a unique urban landscape.
The development area was divided by the designers into three main zones: a multifunctional center space including the City Salon, the Public Library with the Municipal Garden, the Local Entrepreneurship Center and the Transfer Center; a multifunctional recreational space with the City Square, a strip of provincial road and green areas in front of the City Hall; a city prom enade connecting the zones - Tadeusz Kosciuszko Street.
site development plan
© 4am Architects
multifunctional space of the city center
The quality of architecture and urban space strengthens the process of people's identification with their surroundings, through which they can make the place itself more attractive. The quality of urban space manifests itself in urban composition. People naturally gravitate toward places with a distinct identity, allowing them to feel cultural continuity with the past, the project's authors write.
The main zone of activity and integration for all age and social groups in the design of the center of Myszkow is the City Salon, which stretches from Dworcowy Square to Kosciuszko Street. It is formed by ten urban modules - functional zones, the width of which refers to the proportions of the station building's facade. The heart of the establishment is the Dworcowy Square, occupying five modules, two parts of which are occupied by floor fountains. The water fountains disappear into the floor when necessary, allowing to turn the square into a place for mass events.
Dworcowy Square in Myszków
© 4am Architects
Another module is occupied by the City Café located on the eastern side of the square. The facade brick of the designed building refers to the architecture of the existing train station, and, the project's authors add, the rhythm of six wide openings pierced by concrete lintels gives the architecture a contemporary look. Between the station square and Kosciuszko Square is planned the Urban Grove - encompassing one urban module, a composition of sixteen trees, and further, in the area of the next three modules - Kosciuszko Square.
The process of creating harmonious public spaces today involves taking care of spaces in the city center in parallel, as well as those outside it. Hence our attentiveness to the demand to integrate the southern part of the city with the downtown area of Myszków, expressed in the idea to create a bright and safe passage under the tracks, creating at the intersection with the axis of the City Salon a small recessed square, a meeting place for the young and not only. The hollow is accompanied by a cascade of stairs and platforms on the side of Tadeusza Kosciuszko Street, and on the opposite side - a slope overgrown with greenery. The reorganization of the underpass, involving the elimination of the existing two underpasses and a breakthrough directly into the square, could be a separate investment task, the architects add.
scheme of shaping urban modules
© 4am Architects
A Public Library was designed in the building of the former bus station in accordance with the competition task. The awarded project assumes expansion of the existing building with a brick block referring to the station's architecture, connected to the existing volume with a glass link. Both the area in front of the library and the plot adjacent to the building in the proposed concept are to be covered with greenery, and a branching garden avenue is to connect places characteristic of Myszków - the Station Square, the City Café, the square in front of the library and lead to the Local Enterprise Center.
The architects also included in the design a Transfer Center, which was created to separate passenger traffic from bus traffic, as well as the aforementioned Local Entrepreneurship Center, where the designers recommend locating functions that activate social integration, such as a language school, a dance school, NGO headquarters or a business incubator.
Multifunctional recreational space
The next part of the study concerns an area that is currently occupied by three spaces: the Myszków Town Square, a wide strip of provincial road and unused green areas in front of City Hall. The architects' goal in the competition proposal was to combine these places into a park-like space. This is to be helped by the reconstruction of the existing road system in favor of a traffic circle, which will allow the maximum narrowing of the road lane and the widening of the green areas so that they constitute a coherent establishment including a recreational garden by the City Hall, on the opposite side - a large playground and an off-road gym, and flower meadows along Pulaski Street.
city promenade
The space of the center with the recreational space is to be connected by the last element of the project, the city promenade.
As an urbanized area, the city has a natural tendency to seize more and more green areas for its civilization needs. Wanting to provide Myszkow's residents with harmony of existence, listening to their need to commune with nature, we designed Tadeusz Kosciuszko Street as a kind of woonerf, providing light reflecting off the tall trees, and at the same time providing shade for those in need, a place of respite for shoppers on benches among the greenery, wide sidewalks and streetlights," write architects from the 4am studio.
visualizations of individual fragments of the study
© 4am Architects
Ola Kloc: The subject of the competition was to develop an architectural concept for the revitalization of the center of Myszków, including not only the comprehensive development of the main public space of the city, but also, among other things, the conversion of the former bus station building into a public library. What was the biggest challenge for you in such an extensive project?
Tomasz Karpinski: The biggest challenge was to reconcile the expectations of the users of the designed space, which were often completely mutually exclusive. As a strong example of this, we can cite the expectations of car parking in the designed area. For local entrepreneurs, the most important issue was to have as many parking spaces as possible for customers, while enthusiasts of a "pedestrian" city devoid of car traffic expected almost the exclusion of streets in the development area from vehicular traffic in favor of giving the space to residents and developing it mostly with greenery. Spiritually we were on the other side, but as architects and urban planners we have to design "beyond private emotions", looking for a compromise, not causing conflicts and social tensions with our work. Finding a satisfactory compromise is always considered our greatest challenge.
It was also a challenge to mute the burden of responsibility we felt, knowing that this investment would be the largest public investment in the city's history, which would change the face of the city forever. Doing so allowed us to reject the temptation of "monumental-eccentric" design in favor of responsible, restrained design that matched the scale of the city and the expectations of users.
bird's eye view visualization
© 4am Architects
Ola: The jury appreciated your proposal for, among other things, identifying space problems and introducing viable solutions for the city. What was your design process like, learning about Myszków and its needs?
Tomasz: The design process always begins with a careful and repeated reading of the competition regulations. In the case of Myszków, in addition to the strictly architectural materials attached to the regulations, we also received very extensive material from large-scale public consultations on the needs of the city's residents and their expectations regarding the planned changes.
And so it began. The project team, after reading all the materials received, pulled out the most important, in its opinion, and the most common aspects that we should pay attention to when designing. At the same time, the analyst, who is not an architect, once again and from his own angle, analyzed the social survey materials and told the architects about them. Each member of the design team looked for inspiration and solutions already in place that were closest to their design vision. Every day, we met at the same time for a teleconference, as the bulk of the time spent on this project was spent working remotely in lockdown, which was another challenge, this time organizational. Each idea was discussed, several versions of a given sub-solution were created. At the same time, we explored Myszków using virtual tools, looking for its historical roots, finding, among other things, the Retro Myszków portal, learning about its location and geographical conditions.
In the highly advanced phase, we expanded our existing team with a new architect, who made a constructive critique of our previous assumptions and details, and brought an element of freshness and coherence to all its elements. Throughout the design work, our analyst shared with the architects his feelings about the resulting project, as a person outside the circle of architecture, thinking primarily as its recipient and user, empathizing with a resident of Myszków, and not necessarily of the capital. The final phase was the preparation of a proper application of our project, which was subject to exactly the same rigors as proper design - idea, discussion, analyst's opinion.
In our opinion, the essence of this project was to give the city, that is, the space that makes it up and the people who inhabit it, the right quality of this habitation. And that's why it was so important to serve architecture in the broadest sense to people, from the good use of space to the beauty of detail.
Ola: The competition was organized by the Municipality of Myszków in cooperation with the Częstochowa branch of the Association of Polish Architects. In your opinion, are architectural competitions the best form of project selection?
Tomasz: In the case of public investments, certainly YES. Certainly with the participation of SARP as a guarantor of quality and reliability of work evaluation. About the value of such a form of selecting works for the Employer we will not elaborate, because there are only advantages. Competitions are an opportunity for young, or less well-known studios, which find it difficult to break through in the commercial market. In this aspect we also view the organization of competitions very positively. However, there are big doubts about competitions organized by private entities, i.e. developer competitions. In most cases, the competition requirements are very poorly prepared, the criteria for selecting works are unclear.
Ola: Thank you for the interview.
