The slogan "Łódź revitalizes" set the direction of Lodz local government policy for several years. More woonerfs were put into use. Elevations of renovated tenement houses were unveiled and restored to their former splendor. Radiant with it, the city authorities could proudly present long strings of figures unambiguously demonstrating continuous progress in the battle against the neglect of previous eras. A Special Revitalization Zone was designated, as well as sections of the center subject to area revitalization.
Colorful visualizations showed a picture of Łódź of the future - restored historical buildings, modern buildings complementing the historic fabric, orderly public spaces where smiling people strolled. It all looked like a beautiful dream bathed in sunlight from V-Ray.
Suddenly, something cracked, specifically the walls of one of Lodz's tenement buildings that had just been renovated. Then another one collapsed. No one was to blame. Apparently, it was unavoidable. Thirty years of neglect," politicians stressed. The building inspector in Lodz began to wonder if more tenements would collapse like houses of cards during the planned construction of a railroad tunnel connecting two Lodz stations. In this atmosphere, the city's authorities announced that they would apply to the central government for funds for renovations and drafted a so-called revitalization special law.
"We have learned from revitalization, we know what problems we have encountered and what paralyzes the process," the mayor declared.
All that's left is to wait for the cash injection and act. All within the framework of the slogan: "Let's not do politics. Let's renovate Łódź."
Lodz's first woonerf on 6 Sierpnia Street, which started changes in the way of thinking about space in the city
photo: Błażej Ciarkowski
Let's renovate Łódź!
No longer the slogan "Łódź revitalizes", but "Let's renovate Łódź" has been placed on Łódź banners. Let's lean on this slogan for a moment, because exchanging certain two words for others expresses a great deal. Perhaps even more than the PR specialists who created it would like to convey. Let's renovate. Who? Us. Lodz is no longer an entity. It is not the city to act, but the residents. Will you help? We will help... Let's renovate. Let's not revitalize. The human factor is gone, the building matter remains. Let's renovate the city, just like we renovate a bathroom or an attic. We'll think about the people later.
New pavement made of granite slabs, urban furniture stylized to the times of "Promised Land" - Piotrkowska Street is again "the living room of Lodz"....
photo: Błażej Ciarkowski
revitalization bill
What is hidden behind the enigmatic slogan "revitalization specustawa" (the full name of the project is: the Act on special rules for the preparation and implementation of investments in housing and revitalization of Łódź)?
In order to reduce costs and streamline the investment process, it was proposed to "adjust the guidelines of the conservator of monuments to the modern realities of the art of construction and the actual historical value of buildings." The postulate to "allow for the possibility of demolishing historic tenements and rebuilding them anew when the cost of renovation significantly exceeds the cost of reconstruction" sounds, both in light of contemporary concepts of historic preservation and the somewhat outdated but still current Venice Charter, cursory.
After all, it turned against one of conservation's sanctities - the authenticity of the historic substance. At the same time, no one questioned the very premise that it is cheaper to demolish and rebuild. This myth is still considered true in Lodz (and in Poland!). Meanwhile, as indicated by studies, such as those conducted by the Danes (L. Le Fleur et al., "Energy Renovation versus Demolition and Construction of a New Building - A Comparative Analysis of a Swedish Multi-Family Building," Energies 2019, No. 12), renovation of existing buildings is and always has been more cost-effective than demolition and erecting a structure from scratch. It is worth noting that these studies analyzed structures from 1850-1930, considering the cost on a global scale and taking into account factors such as the carbon footprint left by the production of building materials.
The environmental impact of new developments is enormous. As Jonathan Watts wrote in The Guardian, every day an amount of concrete is poured around the world equal to that used to erect the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River in China. By demolishing and rebuilding tenements, Lodz will add a drop to the sea of concrete flooding the world, as I don't think anyone doubts that the stone foundations and wooden ceilings of 19th-century outbuildings will be replaced by "the world's most destructive material."
Renovated 19th-century tenements in the Old Polesie district of Lodz
photo: Błażej Ciarkowski
Observing the lively discussion going on in social media, one gets the impression that so far the revitalization processes have been going smoothly in Lodz. Only a small step separated us from the rendered Łódź of the future from visualizations bearing the name of the Office of the City Architect. So is Lodz's only problem, from the point of view of historic preservation, a speculative law? Have we really been on our way to a "great new city" so far?
life, space, buildings... or so it seems
"First life, then space, finally buildings - in reverse order it never works". - claims Jan Gehl in his book titled. "Life Between Buildings. The Use of Public Spaces." It's hard to resist the impression that the hierarchy looked different in Lodz.
Gehl lists the buildings last, but in Lodz they are the first to catch the eye. The situation looked really good if we look at what has happened to Lodz's townhouses in recent years. Many of them were renovated, restored, enriched with painstakingly restored details on facades and gates. Even courtyard wells have received a new aesthetic appearance. Art (including modern art) was introduced into the public sphere, enlivening the debate about how the city should look.
The courtyard of one of the tenements decorated with Wojciech Siudmak's work "Birth of a Day" - an example of aestheticization of space
photo: Błażej Ciarkowski
Space? It's worse here. Designer Pawel Grobelny aptly characterized Polish problems with public space in an interview with Kraft magazine.
"In the center (of Polish cities - author's note) we have a freshly concreted market square, where you can take pictures, and a few dozen meters away - a totally neglected space, even though the buildings are sometimes restored."
Sound familiar? If we replace the market with a walkway or woonerf, we get a diagnosis of one of Lodz's problems. Streets paved with concrete cubes, dotted with flowerbeds, mostly play a communicative role. In short: what we could call social life does not take place in them, and yet this was the original idea. Subsequent woonerfs being built in Lodz bear little resemblance to the first two, extremely successful developments - those diverging from Piotrkowska Street, which were teeming with life from the very beginning. Neither the granite paving slabs nor the stylized lanterns and benches matter. They will never be what Pawel Grobelny calls "viruses infecting new quality." It is not urban furniture and parking spaces that make space come alive.
Aestheticizing space
"Revitalization is not just renovation. Its goal is to bring a degraded part of the city back to life and complement it with new functions." - The website of the City Council of Lodz is full of nice formulas.
In practice, restoring life is often understood as the aestheticization of space. The specter of gentrification and boredom hangs over downtown Łódź. Boredom, because, as Rem Koolhaas wrote in "Generic City" (Rem Koolhaas, "Garbage Space. Texts," Warsaw 2017), generic cities drowning in beige lose their precious unpredictability.
"Drowned in beige" woonerf, whose dominant function is parking....
Photo: Blazej Ciarkowski
a wasted opportunity
Revitalization was an opportunity for Lodz. A chance to create a city friendly to residents and the environment. A sustainable city. To show that preservation can be understood more broadly - not only as saving material substance, but first and foremost as an aesthetic, cultural and intellectual framework through which buildings retain their relevance and value. Unfortunately, it is hard to resist the impression that this opportunity is being gradually squandered. Instead of revitalization, we will get, at best, renovation.
***
Just before the text was published, life added an epilogue to it. Actually, it was written by Łódź councilmen, who adopted the draft of the special law, thus responding to the appeal of one of Łódź politicians, who made it clear: either the development of Łódź, or protection of historic buildings.
