On July 1 this year, in front of the Warsaw Architecture Pavilion ZODIAK, students and architecture students of the Warsaw University of Technology placed the installation Water Asylum. The object, which draws attention to climate change and the water crisis, is the result of work over the past few months and was carried out as part of the WODA: W CENTRUM project - a joint venture of the Architecture Department of the Warsaw University of Technology and SARP Warsaw Branch in cooperation with the City of Warsaw.
The WATER: IN THE CENTER project, which began in February this year, included lectures, workshops, training sessions and talks. Its aim was to draw attention to issues of sustainable resource use in the context of the climate crisis and the real threat of a water crisis.
The Water Asylum installation is located in front of the Zodiac
photo: Marta Wróbel
Water resource management is currently one of the biggest global urban challenges. Water is the essence of life, water can be an attraction, also water (as well as the lack of it) carries risks. That's why WATER must be at the CENTER - the interest of residents, the focus of attention of designers and planners, and at the very center of our cities, the project organizers stressed.
The public presentation of the installation took place on July 6 this year.
Photo: Mikolaj Kociolek
student project
Throughout the initiative, a team of a dozen students from the Architecture and Urban Planning specialty - City as a Place to Live, consisting of: Marianna Golińska, Beata Grzegorzewska, Wioletta Januszko, Milena Jaszcz, Paulina Kaczor, Emilia Kasjan, Julia Lisonek, Agnieszka Litych, Katarzyna Pawłowska, Natalia Piestrzyńska, Dominika Sapińska, Paweł Skowron, Dominika Smoleń, Marcin Stępień, Aleksandra Suchecka, Marianna Waśniewska, Aleksandra Więcław, Dominika Zając under the supervision of Dr. Anna Cudny and Dr. Artur Jerzy Filip and Prof. Krystyna Solarek (Head of the Department of Urban Planning and Spatial Management and coordinator of the specialty) worked on an unusual installation, which is a semester project.
Part of the project team with the instructors
Photo: Mikolaj Kociolek
The work consisted of several stages. During the workshop, led by Dr. Anna Cudny and Dr. Artur Jerzy Filip, the students created six variants of the idea, and from among them, during discussion and voting, the Water Asylum was selected for implementation.
Water Asylum
The facility in question is a specially designed vessel that can (but does not have to) fill with rainwater. The installation's reliance on water is meant to make us reflect on the presence of water in the city and our dependence on it. The authors want the Water Asylum to postulate a change in thinking about the treatment of the various elements of the ecosystem and draw attention to their overuse.
design work on the installation
© Faculty of Architecture, Warsaw University of Technology
Water Asylum is intended to be a place for collective reflection on water. Water is at the center not as a resource, but as an equal part of the natural environment of which we are a part," says Marianna Waśniewska.
Treating water as a resource that belongs to humans has led to the current global water problems. In our project we give water subjectivity," adds Emilia Kasyan.
How did we lead to an environmental disaster?
Water Asylum goes beyond promoting environmentally friendly solutions, as a sustainable approach to design should be considered mandatory. Thus, the point is not to talk about the effects of the climate crisis, but about its causes.
The project was made by male and female students of the Warsaw University of Technology
photo: Nikolaj Kociołek
When creating the project, the students used contemporary materials with a high water footprint and used regular alignment of the various elements of the installation to draw attention to the way we handle water in cities.
We use concrete, polycarbonate in public spaces. We regulate the course of rivers, concretize plazas, and then wonder where to drain rainwater during heavy storms. Our behavior has led to an environmental disaster that is already underway and whose effects we are all feeling," says Agnieszka Litych.
Summary of the WATER: IN CENTURY project
On July 6, the official conclusion of the WATER: IN THE CENTURY project took place at Warsaw's ZODIAK Architecture Pavilion. The event featured a panel discussion and a student installation. The meeting was moderated by Dr. Anna Cudny together with Jan Chwedchuk, OW SARP vice president for education. Other speakers were project leader Dr. Artur Jerzy Filip, Magda Maciąg, OW SARP board member and Zodiak WPA program officer, Magdalena Strużycka, OW SARP member and representative of the design group, who talked about the project, the stages of the installation and its role and message.
summary of the project WATER: IN THE CENTER
photo: Mikołaj Kociołek
Water is not a resource. Water is an entity, an equal part of our ecosystem. Water is not our property and is not subject to our greedy whims. Despite the fact that we may think we have control over it, and so in the end it is we who are completely dependent on water, not it on us. Just like our installation," the authors concluded.
The Water Asyluminstallation can be seen until August 7 this year on the square in front of the Zodiak Pavilion in Warsaw, and Geberit was the main partner of the project.
