Military island - our Plot
The plot is situated on the Island called Kepa Mieszczanska on Odra River in Wroclaw, Poland.
It is very good situated – located in the center of the city, close to the market square and university, with lots of greenery, access to the water and already existing buildings in good condition.
Big advantage of existing post military warehouses is their flexibility into adapting them into wide range of functions. With this place offering so much we didn't want to make many changes in the existing situation. We wanted to start with simple and not expensive interventions and make place for people's integration.
Few words about a History
Location on the island started in the 14th century with mills and warehouses. First barracks on this location started to emerge in the 17th century, but it got the present day shape at the beginning of the 20th century. At first the plot belonged to German army, but after second world war they lost their primary function and were turn into magazines, but still as a military space. Since 2010 the place is abandoned. The owners tried to sell it but didn't manage to do it .There have been some urban plans on developing this place, including locating there high-rise condominiums, but none of them was executed.
New Quality of Life
We want to change not - accessible space into a community place with different types of functions, which can stimulate the innovation and the identity of the place. We want to promote reuse and participation and create quality and people-friendly space for every generation. Lack of this kind of places in the city creates a need for a place suitable for an young people. By creating self-sufficient community – with communal gardens, sport activities, art galleries, offices, student and social housing, we are fulfilling the most significant needs of the society. We want to make independent and self sufficient neighbourhood inhabited by independent people, who are young and creative, prefer bike to car, and need a place to work, design and maybe sell their ideas ,with all the recreational spaces very close. For artists manufacturing products it provides spaces for working, living and exhibiting for free.
The concept is to create a multifunctional place, but not to design it wholly, but only by using limited tools, money and partly the participation of local the people. We want to reach the goal with only small and necessary interventions, by showing the direction of the changes. Apart from the social housing and stimualtors, we are not building any architecture . We only supplement and restore the existing structure, subtracting all the unnecessary objects and arranging space.
