Despite the several years that have passed since part of Krakow's Wesoła district became city property, there is still no clear development strategy for the site. The owners of the remaining land in the area are not idle. The Ignatianum University, which belongs to them, recently announced a new development that could transform one part of Wesoła. The new Ignatianum University building was designed by Krakow-based studio AKKA.
The development of the Wesoła district has been one of the most important topics concerning the spatial development of Krakow in recent years. It's hardly surprising - it's not often that cities get such attractive and extensive areas at their disposal, located in the very center of the city. For the past five years there have been discussions about the future of the district, which until recently was associated by residents (and often by visitors) only with the University Hospital complex. However, the city is not the only owner of land in the district - there are apartments, a botanical garden and a Jesuit university, among others. The authorities of the latter are planning to add their contribution to the revitalization plan for this charming neighborhood.
Kopernika Street
Photo: Zygmunt Put © CC BY SA 4.0 | Wikimedia Commons
Wesoła for the City
The city became a major player in Wesoła in 2019, when it bought back 9 hectares of land from the University Hospital for more than PLN 283 million, on which a dozen historic post-hospital buildings are located. Since then, the "plan" for Wesola has been constantly changing, with consultations and workshops taking place. Currently, the plots belonging to the city are managed by the Krakow City Development Agency, while the animation of the area is handled by the Krakow Festival Office. However, these are temporary solutions, as the magistrate has recently taken the future of Wesoła seriously. The city is preparing to execute a master plan for the district, which will indicate directions for further development.
Competitions in Wesoła
Important will be the voice of a new participant in the "game for Wesoła " - Janusz Sepiol, who became Chief Architect of the City in September. The first plans for the future of Wesoła are already beginning to draw on the horizon. During a meeting organized by the Society of Lovers of Krakow's History and Monuments, Janusz Sepiol announced that architectural competitions for new accents for Wesoła will be launched in the near future. These include an edifice for the Library of Krakow and the so-called Hub of Urban Innovation, which will house the headquarters of the Architect of the City and the Malopolska Regional Chamber of Architects of the Republic of Poland or the Krakow branch of SARP.
Villa Zofiówka
photo: Zygmunt Put | © CC BY SA 4.0 Wikimedia Commons
Jesuits on Kopernika Street
The land owned by the City, however, accounts for less than 20% of the district's area. Quite a large area also belongs to the Krakow Jesuits who, back in 1868, purchased plots of land on Kopernika Street. In 1912 the erection of the most representative building of the Jesuit complex and an important architectural dominant of the district, the Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, designed by Franciszek Mączyński, was completed. The Jesuit grounds today are concentrated in the western part of the district, mostly on the north side of Kopernika Street. They include Zofiówka, a 19th-century villa designed by Antoni Łuszczkiewicz, which today serves as an administrative building with a rectorate, or the postmodern edifices of the Ignatianum Library and the university's main building. With the inauguration of the new academic year, however, it was announced that the university's Kopernika 26 campus will be established, which will also reach across the street named after the famous astronomer. There are two university-owned buildings at Kopernika 15c, also post-hospital, which were acquired by the university later in 2019.
The new building of Ignatianum University in Krakow
© AKKA | Ignatianum University
A troublesome corner
The post-hospital buildings of the plot are divided into two volumes - the so-called "high" and "low" buildings. The first one is a five-story long-plan infill, located in the depth of the plot and completing the frontage of the tenements on Blich Street. Right next to it, in the part of the plot where Kopernika Street converges with Blich Street, stands the "low" building - a two-story block formally representing the architecture of early postmodernism. The taller building was adapted for the needs of the university - in late September there was a formal inauguration of the renovated space, which housed teaching rooms and studios. The lower building proved much more problematic - due to the complicated layout of the rooms, its adaptation for university purposes proved impossible. For this reason, the Jesuits at Wesola decided to take a bold step - replacing the low-rise building with a completely new block, which was designed by the AKKA architectural studio from Cracow.
The new building of Ignatianum University in Cracow
© AKKA | Ignatianum University
gateway to Wesoola
There are three reasons for the new building. The first is purely utilitarian - Ignatianum University plans to increase the number of students at the university from just over three to five thousand in the coming years, so an expansion of infrastructure will be necessary. The second reason stems from the long history of Jesuits in the area. As representatives of the university - the chancellor and his deputy - have argued, the university and the Jesuits want to mark their presence in Wesola through the new building. So far, the university's most important buildings have been hidden in plots deep in the quarters between Kopernika and Lubicz Streets. The new building is therefore intended to become the face of the university, the first point of contact and a kind of "gateway to Wesoola." The last justification for the construction is rooted in the urban conditions of the immediate vicinity of the developed plot - the smaller of the post-hospital buildings is much lower than the surrounding buildings, both those on Blich Street and those standing on the opposite side of Kopernika Street. The university, together with the architects, therefore hope to close the quarter with a strong corner accent. What is the building they plan to do this with?
The new building of the Univ. of Ignatianum in Krakow
© AKKA | Ignatianum University
novum at Kopernika Street
The new didactic building of the Ignatianum University is to be a five-story, quadrilateral block, with a plan roughly coinciding with the outline of the building currently standing here. It will be connected to the "high" wing, which currently houses the Research and Didactic Center, by a two-story wing. The building's facades have been planned using two main materials - large-scale glazing and cladding, razor blades and light breakers made of stone referring to details in the nearby Sacred Heart Church. The facade compositions have been varied - in some places, such as the northwest corner, a large glazing is planned to optically "relieve" the mass. The lowest floor will also be glazed, so that the building will invite passersby inside. The fifth elevation has been planned in the form of a green roof, which will be lined with photovoltaic panels.
The new building of Ignatianum University in Cracow
© AKKA | Ignatianum University
to stay level
An important change that will take place in the building's immediate surroundings will be the leveling of the square in front of the university's buildings with the level of Blich Street. So far, the former ambulance road surrounding the building has been below the level of Kopernika and Blich streets. With the construction of the new Ignatianum building, the space on the street corner will be opened up to pedestrians. This is a seemingly minor change that will certainly benefit the continuity of the pedestrian space at this location. University representatives and architects see the change as a complement to the revitalization of Blich Street, where construction of a park under the railroad overpasses is currently underway.
The new Ignatianum University building in Krakow
© AKKA | Ignatianum University
interior counts
The interiors of the building, which will offer more than 3,000 square meters of usable space, plan numerous studios and teaching rooms, as well as an auditorium for 250 people, located partly in the underground floor. The architects point out the generous management of common spaces - these are indeed plentiful, with spacious lounges on the upper floors taking up almost half of the building's floor space, which is expected to foster the integration of the student community.
A gateway or a let-down?
The concept presented by the university and the architectural firm is not without problematic elements. The idea of enclosing quarters is in line with generally accepted principles for shaping cities, but in the case of the plot at the corner of Kopernika and Blich streets, one should take into account the low and low-intensity development in the entire area and the presence of a railroad viaduct, thrown over Kopernika Street. Walking into Wesola from the Old Town, including passing under the flyover, the view of the far side of Kopernika Street gradually emerges from under the bulky mass of the railroad crossing. The strong accentuation of the corner will dominate the view from the west, somewhat obscuring the perspective on the central part of the district. As the architects explain, this is to be counteracted by slightly moving the building back into the plot and arranging a glazed corner near the crossing. Practice will show how effective these solutions will be. It should be mentioned here that the project was consulted with the conservator of historical monuments.
in the shadow of the new
One more problematic issue is, paradoxically, the immediate vicinity of the new building, the "high" wing. At the time of construction, there were no plans for a new building in its immediate vicinity, so the entire northern elevation is equipped with window openings. After the new edifice is erected, some of them will be obscured, creating a situation in which the window openings in both buildings will be One of the arguments for erecting a new building was the questionable aesthetics of the technical roof of the "low" wing. Now, instead of a view of the canopy with chimneys, students will get a perspective on the windows of the new building. To compensate for this situation, two solutions were adopted. The first appeared while the "high" building was still undergoing modernization, consisting in locating rooms in the obscured parts of the building, to which access to plenty of sunlight is not necessary. In the newly designed edifice, on the other hand, it has been decided to arrange extensive, sun-reflecting glazing and arrange an extensive green roof on an overhang, which will be visible from the obscure windows of the "high wing." The provision of a green roof is not planned for the moment, but the architects do not rule out including such a possibility in future versions of the project.
Treasure of Krakow
One of the demands made during public consultations on the future of Wesola is to prevent the area from becoming a tourist district. The Jesuits see their contribution to fulfilling these recommendations as increasing the activity of the university in the district and the participating student population. Is filling a neighborhood with new volumes with lots of greenery and low-intensity development surely the best solution? A lot depends on the final form of the building and the level of workmanship, because, according to conversations with architects, there may still be changes in the design. It is also unclear what the future for Wesola will be determined by the master plan announced by the city. It is important to have open communication during the preparation of the document and the announcement of new investments, which will help to achieve a coherent concept and ultimately create a neighborhood with a high quality of space. Wesoła is one of Krakow's most valuable, so it is important to act carefully and make every effort not to waste its enormous potential.
