That what? - ZETO!
Such a catchy slogan could appear in front of the building of the ZETO Electronic Computing Technology Plant in Wroclaw. It would draw the attention of passersby to the excellent building, designed and built in the 1960s "in a modernist style, with abstract detailing". - as written in the insert to the registration card of architectural and construction monuments. The slogan (by Kalina Zatorska, a Wroclaw-based design enthusiast of the younger generation) will not be on the street, but it has already existed in the virtual public space and has been included in the discussion of the further, uncertain fate of the unique building.
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The building is located on Ofiar Oswiecimskich street in Wroclaw
photo: Kalina Zatorska
ZETO was designed in 1965 by Anna and Jerzy Tarnawski, a well-known and recognized Wroclaw architectural husband and wife duo. It was the first evidently and overtly new building constructed (1967-1969) in the very center of the city, in close proximity to Wroclaw's market square. Overtly, because many of the tenements standing around were also new, but pretending to be old, rebuilt according to German pre-war plans or even much earlier models. In such a setting, then, ZETO became a symbol of modernity and new technical thought, which intruded into the old city's fabric, which had been destroyed by warfare.
As Dr. Agata Gabiś wrote in the Lexicon of Architecture of Wroclaw: the Wroclaw headquarters of ZETO housed Poland's first electronic digital machines, located on the first floor, visible through large glass windows on the outside.
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The building was supposed to attract Wroclawians with new technology and services
photo: Kalina Zatorska
A supplement to this description can be read in the aforementioned insert to the record card of architectural and construction monuments:
The new building was to have a modern and representative character - specially designed rooms on the first floor were intended for electronic digital machines (i.e. prototypes of the first Polish computers). The building was to attract Wroclaw residents not only with new technology, but also with services - a bar with a terrace was placed on the first floor.
Thus, it was an ideological avant-garde, a demonstration of new digital devices and a manifesto of the greatness of man creating Artificial Intelligence with success, including in the People's Republic of Poland. Such a function was accompanied by architecture that was simple but refined in detail. According to some connoisseurs: architects and art historians - timeless, according to some laymen - unworthy of survival.
today the ZETO building is very dilapidated and needs renovation
photo: Kalina Zatorska
Today ZETO is very dilapidated and requires renovation and restoration to the splendor of its original state. The quality of the architecture and its remarkable history speak in favor of saving the building. Unfortunately, the building has long fallen into disfavor with the citizens of Wroclaw. "It should be demolished for urban planning reasons," "demolish... ZETO scares," "total disrespect for the historic buildings of the Old Town," "to be documented and removed" - these are the words citizens write on social media forums. Among the avalanche of insults against the building, one can read few voices of sympathy and appeals for rescue. The plans of the current owner of the building, the ZETO company, are also not very clear, it is only known that the required scope of renovation work lacks funds.
Building of the Department of Electronic Computing Technology ZETO in Wroclaw.
photo: Kalina Zatorska
As if in spite of the city's residents' aversion to ZETO, an excellent master's thesis was written on the subject of the building, followed by a book by Adam Pacholak, a young art historian and graduate of Wroclaw University. The work, entitled "The Electronic Brain of the City. The idea of modern Wroclaw and one example of its realization - ZETO at Ofiar Oświęcimskich Street by Anna and Jerzy Tarnawski," written under the supervision of Professor Agnieszka Zablocka-Kos, won second prize in 2019 in the Mieczyslaw F. Rakowski competition organized by Polityka weekly for the best master's thesis dedicated to the communist era.
In justification for the award, the jury wrote that the dissertation
on a selected example of modernist architecture shows not only its historical value against the national and European background, but also its place in post-war Wroclaw, or more broadly - in the Regained Territories.
Both the success of the master's degree and the book published this year based on it, "Electronic Brain of the City. The Idea of Modern Wroclaw and the ZETO Building," testify to the validity of the idea of saving the eponymous building from total destruction, uncontrolled modernization-devastation or demolition.
A storm on the subject is sweeping over the city, but in its gloomy atmosphere two facts give cause for optimism: first - the Wroclaw branch of SARP intends to apply for the entry of ZETO in the register of monuments, and second - the people involved in social support for the building are young people. Like Adam Pacholak, Kalina Zatorska, or young people from the Society for the Beautification of the City of Wroclaw - they do not, like their parents or grandparents, associate good post-war Wroclaw architecture with the communist socialist regime, and can objectively assess the value of buildings built during that period. They want to speak out: that what? - ZETO!
