Work submitted for the competition
"Best Interior Diploma 2021/2023".
I come from the suburban garden city of Milanówek and feel connected to it. Every day I experience its spaces: interiors, streets and squares. I noticed that there is no central space here, no places for social gatherings, the increasingly popular remote work outside the home, cultural events or relaxation among the dominant nature of the garden city. I decided to take care of a city that was important to me and had unique potential. As part of my diploma project, I designed an additional public space for Milanówek—one that would concentrate social life in the city, create a spatially defined center, and enrich the offer of urban activities. I decided to develop a spatial concept for a central square, the focal point of which will be a park.
Green space in Milanowek
© Barbara Ziarkowska
In the course of my research and gathering inspiration, I looked at the geometry of the city plan. Currently, Milanówek has a dispersed plan—public places are located in different parts of the city. In addition, the city is clearly divided by the railroad line into northern and southern parts. There is valuable greenery, mainly trees, many of them monuments of nature—they are the strongest indication that we are in a garden city. However, the spatial layout is sometimes illegible from the level of the viewer, meanwhile its geometry is worth emphasizing.
Project of the central square of the park in Milanowek, axonometry
© Barbara Ziarkowska
The genesis of the garden city concept promoted by Ebenezer Howard dates back to 19th-century Britain. Its main motive was to develop a city model that would respond to the problem of metropolitan overpopulation. The idea of a garden city involves organizing a smaller city slightly removed from a large city, which is well connected to it. Its urban scheme is based on a circular plan, divided into several parts with a radial arrangement of streets that meet at the central point of the city, which is the central park.
Project of the central park square in Milanowek, visualization
© Barbara Ziarkowska
I found this scheme inspiring and decided to base my design activities on it, as it involves forming the interior of the city in such a way that at its heart is an organized space with a recreational and social-creative function surrounded by nature. Comparing Howard's scheme and Milanowek's plan, I noticed many similarities, for example, the layout of the streets. In the southern part of the city along the train station is Warszawska Street, whose axis deforms, forming a semicircle visible from the bird's eye view. What's more, two streets, Krzywa and Grudowska, which form the radial spatial backbone of the city, have their geometric beginning at a single point.
Project of the central square of the park in Milanowek, site development plan
© Barbara Ziarkowska
Studying the street grid in Milanowek, I observed that the axis of Grudowska Street, which passes through the designed plot, extends all the way to the other (northern) part of the city. This axis is interrupted by the railroad tracks, so I considered it crucial for the search for geometric forms in the project. The main idea of the project is to develop the empty plot of land located between Warszawska Street and the area of the railroad tracks in such a way that it becomes a central place for Milanówek garden city.
Project of the central square of the park in Milanowek, cross-section
© Barbara Ziarkowska
The design guidelines, which I determined myself after conducting both geometric and personal, felt research, included: creating a central park square for Milanówek, completing and continuing the northern frontage of Warszawska Street, emphasizing the axiality and radiality of the area as a source of garden city geometry, and designing a small building inspired by the idea of the Crystal Palace as a fragment of Howard's concept of a garden city.
Barbara ZIARKOWSKA
Illustrations: © Author
