CRITICALLY ABOUT MURANOW

The first critical article by Jerzy Wierzbicki about the new housing estate appeared in no. 5/1949 of the monthly “Architektura”. The author stated that the author of the southern side of Muranów – Bohdan lachert – was facing a very difficult task. “The biggest difficulty in creating the concept was the absolute emptiness and deadness of the landscape. Creating a new composition without any topographic points of reference, without trees, antique buildings, without axes, perspectives and views is a daunting task” – wrote Wierzbicki, but on the other hand, this lack of points of reference could be considered an advantage to the architect – as there is nothing to limit the architect’s imagination.

 

“The overall concept is logical - wrote Jerzy Wierzbicki – the interiors of the blocks have a lowered plan, the space is filled with light, sun, greens are planned everywhere” However “the set of this dozen blocks does not present any especially interesting moments. The whole is monotonous, rigid and linear, the right angle rules the whole area uncontested”. He also did not like the stores located from the northern side in the stairwell and gallery buildings (“overwhelming uniformity and segmentational character”, “they don’t create any interesting interiors”) nor the public-use buildings: schools, kindergartens and baby day-care centers. He thought the kindergartens and children’s crèches were too small, hence seemed “suffocated” by the taller and longer residential architecture.

 

The author complained that neither the Mostowski Palace nor the court building on Leszno street (Solidarności alley today) did not receive any appropriate equivalents in the neighborhood and that the large arch in the block over Muranów cinema does not fit with the surroundings and leads to nowhere, remaining only “a dead decorative element”. About the buildings opposite the courts he wrote: “The ground-floor planning of the residential block needlessly narrows the W-Z route” (…) This ground-floor wing makes a visually unpleasant impression and one notices a lack of a compositional link with the residential block, which is sort of fenced-off from the street. The covering of the debris terrace mangles the purity of the landscape solution. To the residents of the lower stories this gives a very unpleasant view on the unaesthetic roof covering of the ground-floor pavilion, and the hot or dusted air strikes right in the windows in the Summer” (these points are actually hard to deny today). The case is similar concerning the objections to the small living space, which results from the standards valid at that time and the layout of the apartments, which makes it impossible to air them thoroughly (especially in the stairwell-buildings, as Wierzbicki counted, nearly half of them has windows outlooking west, which “is especially troubling and tiring in the Summer”).
Jerzy Wierzbicki also pointed out against Lachert that the housing estate does not have a strong center – contrary to the original plans. “If the realization of certain objects that were predestined to be a new center were put off due to economical reasons and if therefore their location was moved further north – then from these elements that were already created, but lost in the whole district, one could have made this center”. He also compared Muranów with Mariensztat, built almost at the same time, which had its own market square.

 

He drew attention to the negative effects of building on a ruble mound: “This mound forced very deep fundament-laying, which was still cheaper than clearing the whole area from rubble” (…) “But creating embankments and very numerous external stairs leading to all the entrances and stairwells that were made on a given level is troublesome. Especially the upkeep, maintenance and cleaning of these stairs from snow or ice requires constant effort.”
However, the author of the article found it most difficult to accept the “architectural expression of the New Muranów”. Let us listen to him once again: “About three years ago, on an exhibition in the auditorium of the Architecture Faculty of the Warsaw University of Technology, the projects for Muranów residential blocks on display raised serious doubts. However, the barrack-like character of these blocks was talked about only among colleagues, no-one stepped forward to clearly and publicly criticize Muranów. Only one of the colleagues critically remarked on the whole activity of the team, declaring that without any discussion, all the projects lack aesthetic concept – however, he received a quite sharp retort, namely that the best residential-block architects are working on these issues and the voiced concerns are unjustified. The structures in the originally planned version are overwhelmingly monotonous, grey, they are all the same due to the number of stories, their orientation and purpose. The walls are made from rubble-bricks, there is concrete framing, it runs around the window and marks the ledge of the building. The color-similarly of these materials would be acceptable if bright mortar and bright concrete had been used on the framing. Such attempts have been successfully implemented in some places and look pleasant and talking about this reminds of a certain analogy with French renaissance architecture, which used brick and brightness. The unbeatable model of such architecture is Place Royale in Paris, with buildings of uniform fronts around it, designed very carefully when coloring the framing of the openings and ledges, with brick walls. However, if one sees nothing else but rubble-made walls and concrete finishings of the buildings – then this solution is unacceptable and an experiment done in such a massive scale is quite risky”.

 

The author also noticed inconsistencies which resulted from the “beautification” of the original plans – supposedly at the request of the residents, who felt uncomfortable in a district full of “barracks-like” and monotonous buildings in the district: “So they kept the framings of the openings, the horizontal stripes and general proportions of the whole. (…) The new fronts that were made gave more light, enlivened specific blocks, whereas their character departed from modernism, but they cannot deliver a wholly harmonious solution. The ornamental elements in the shape of pinnacles and pyramids don’t fit with the whole, their situations are rather coincidental. The marquetry used on the fragments of the walls look pale. The lack of windowsills covered with tin causes the walls to drip strongly, which produces dark stains on new fronts after a few months. However, the general impression is more positive for the residents. The whole housing estate has brighter and more joyful tone (…)”

Wierzbicki did not like the prefabricated galleries and railings of the galleries made from concrete segments: he believed they excessively weighed-down the buildings and were monotonous, instead of being as invisible as possible. He asserted that the galleries do not perform in the Polish climate: the de-snowing and ice removing “is very troubling, whereas accidental peeking into other people’s flats is unpleasant for one side and the other. In the central flats in the tower blocks, with the smallest surface sizes, the use of large windows on the whole width of the external wall reduces the adjustability of the room inside”.
He was also struck by the poor workmanship: “ there are vast deviations when it comes to the straightness of the walls and posts, some balcony tiles are not installed vertically but in a slanted manner, the rubble and concrete elements were bound and laid in a negligent manner, the door frames were weakly installed in the walls, the stairwells are done carelessly, when it comes to concrete elements as well as iron railings”.
Wierzbicki declares that the “new Muranów does not achieve a fully positive form”. “It is an experimental housing estate, it’s a shame that it was made in such a central and displayed location”.

 

“However, one has to – as Wierzbicki emphasizes to finish – properly evaluate the enormous effort of the author, the work team and the vast number of builders, who overcame all the obstacles in such difficult conditions and who, in such a short time, on a desert, where 4 years ago a hundred people only lived and where there was grass covering the rubble pile of the northern district, built the new Muranow, the place of residence of a few dozen thousand people, happy about having their own, comfortable apartments and looking into the future with hope”.

 

 

Translation: Bartłomiej Kurtycz