Zachód II housing estate in Szczepin in Wrocław – a place built anew

Andrzej Sobolewski, Roman Czajka

doi:10.37190/arc220110

Abstract

The Zachód II housing estate in Wrocław’s Szczepin is an example of new development created on the ruins of the former city, destroyed during World War II. Realisation of modernist urban concepts, which broke with historical patterns of shaping the urban structure on the basis of quarter and frontage buildings, completely changed the character of the western part of Wrocław. The article presents the housing estate Zachód II, built in the 1960s according to the project of the team of architects led by Witold Molicki. The new buildings are presented against a background of the historical development of Szczepin until 1939 as well as in the context of conditions of the post-war reconstruction. A contemporary assessment of the settlement must take these conditions into account, because architecture has never been created in isolation from socio-economic reality. The aim of the article is not only to present the urban and architectural masterpieces of post-war modernism, but also to draw attention to the need to protect the cultural heritage and construction of the communist period in Poland. Threats arise not only from the technical wear and tear of buildings, functional changes, etc., but also from the need to educate the public about them and to protect them. It also seems necessary to educate people and change people’s awareness in order to recognise the qualities and specificity of this architecture and to develop concepts for its modernisation andrevitalisation, while preserving the most important original ideas of its authors.

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2022

1(69)

Andrzej Sobolewski*, Roman Czajka**

Zachód II housing estate in Szczepin in Wrocław

– a place built anew

Introduction

Wrocław is one of the cities tragically experienced by

the World War II. In August 1944, the city was proclaimed

a fortress – Festung Breslau. The order issued by the mil-

itary authorities ordered the city to be defended uncon-

ditionally until the last soldier, which meant, in the con-

text of the approaching defeat of Nazi Germany, a cruel

sentence and the destruction of the Silesian metropolis.

Its fate was sealed by the erce ghts between the Wehr-

macht and the Red Army and the Soviet air raids in April

1945

. About 70% of the buildings were seriously dam-

aged or completely demolished. Breslau capitulated on

6 May, four days after Berlin surrendered.

As a result of the Potsdam Conference (July/August

1945) on the division of post-war Europe, Lower Silesia

and its capital were granted to Poland. After several cen-

turies, Wrocław became a Polish city again

. There was

a complete replacement of the population, which was cer-

tainly a traumatic experience for both old and new residents.

The German population, who did not leave the city before

the siege of Festung Breslau (most of the civilians were

forcibly evacuated from the city in January 1945), were

relocated to the Soviet occupation zone in Germany. Poles

began to arrive in the devastated Wrocław, mainly from

the central part of the country and from Greater Poland.

* ORCID: 0000-0002-2802-9388. Faculty of Architecture, Wro-

cław University of Science and Technology, Poland, e-mail: andrzej.

sobolewski@pwr.edu.pl

** ORCID: 0000-0003-0318-3140. Faculty of Architecture, Wro -

cław University of Science and Technology, Poland.

On the night of April 1–2, 1945, 750 Soviet aircraft began mass

air raids and bombing Breslau. Incendiary and high explosive bombs

have ruined the city.

In the 14

century, Wrocław came under the rule of the King of Bo -

hemia, and in the 16

century it became part of the Habsburg monarchy.

A signicant part of the new inhabitants of Wro cław were

displaced inhabitants of the former Eastern Borderlands

of pre-war Poland. In 1939, before the outbreak of World

War II, the population of Breslau was less than 640,000.

people. In 1946, the Polish city of Wrocław “started” from

the level of approximately 170,000 residents.

The great reconstruction of the city has begun. In a com-

pletely new geopolitical situation in this part of Europe, the

future of Wrocław, Lower Silesia, or the whole of the so-

called Recovered Territories became part of the state po-

litical game of communist authorities. As the priority was

to rebuild the capital of the country, it was not planned to

reactivate Wrocław on a metropolitan scale. Due to consid-

erable damage, it was initially planned – as Przemysław

Dudek wrote – to rebuild [the capital of Lower Silesia]

as a city with a population of 200,000. It was supposed to

cease to function as an industrial center. On a supra-re-

gional scale, it would only remain a cultural, educational

(due to the University and the University of Technology)

and tourist center (thanks to the proximity of the Sudetes

and health resorts). A small concentration of light indus-

tries, such as food and confectionery, was also expected.

Wrocław was not and could not be a metropolis [1, pp. 60,

61]. Luckily for the city, its successive stages of recon-

struction and development quickly veried the original

assumptions.

As in other urban centers which were particularly pain-

fully aected by the war, becoming more or less ruins,

Wrocław also had to face a fundamental dilemma related to

its reconstruction strategy. Questions were asked about the

scale of the reconstruction of the pre-war, historic urban

and architectural structure, and at the same time wondering

about the degree to which the city had to be rebuilt. The

most damaged areas were southern and western districts of

Wrocław, including the Szczepin housing estate, the trans-

formations of which will be discussed later in the article.

DOI: 10.37190/arc220110

Published in open access. CC BY NC ND license

120 Andrzej Sobolewski, Roman Czajka

The state of the research

Szczepin as a historical part of Wrocław’s Przedmieś-

cie Mikołajskie (Nicholas Suburb) was described in works

on the spatial development of the city. One of the earlier

studies on this topic was a book by Zygmunt Antkowi-

ak titled Stare i nowe osiedla Wrocławia [Old and New

Estates of Wrocław] [2]. The summary of contemporary

research was in turn a collective work edited by Halina

Okólska, entitled Przedmieście Mikołajskie we Wrocławiu

[Mikołajskie Suburb in Wrocław], which contained arti-

cles showing the pre- and post-war history of the west-

ern part of Wrocław’s inner city [3], [4]. The volume also

includes a sketch of post-war Szczepin development by

Agata Gabiś [5] and an essay by Małgorzata Górska on

the modernist Siedlung Westend housing estate designed

by Theo Eenberger [6]. It is worth mentioning that part

of the described housing estate is one of the few groups

of buildings in Szczepin that survived the destruction of

the city in 1945.

So far, several studies on the post-war reconstruction of

Wrocław, including its western part with Szczepin, have

been published. Of particular note is one of the latest pub-

lications of the Museum of Architecture in Wrocław: Całe

morze budowania. Wrocławska architektu ra 1956–1970

[The sea of construction. Architecture of Wro cław 1956–

1970] [7], by aforementioned Gabiś. A Wro cław-Szczepin

thread was also included by Anna Cymer in her monu-

mental work about the post-war architecture of the Polish

People’s Republic: Architektura w Polsce 1945–1989

[The architecture of Poland 1945–1989] [8]. It is about one

of the most recognizable buildings from that period, i.e.,

Dol nośląskie Centrum Dia gnostyki Medycznej Dolmed.

This characteristic inverted “pyramid”, icon not only of

Szczepin, but also of Wrocław, was also described by Ag-

nieszka Tomaszewicz and Joanna Maj czyk in the work

devoted to its creators, Anna and Jerzy Tarnawski [9].

The new large-panel buildings of Szczepin and its in-

habitants were included in the interdisciplinary, compre-

hensive research conducted as part of a project imple-

menting a public task commissioned by the Municipality

of Wrocław in 2015 (29.07.2015/1647). Their aim was

to draw up a description of the functioning of Wrocław’s

housing estates mainly in social and spatial aspects. The

results of the research were published in the work Analiza

funkcjonalna osiedli Wrocławia [Functional Analysis of

Wrocław Estates], edited by Izabela Mironowicz [10].

Szczepin was also included in the monograph Struktu ra

przestrzenna i społeczna terenów rekreacyjnych w osied

lach mieszkaniowych Wrocławia z lat 70.–80 ubiegłego

stulecia. [The Spatial and Social Structure of Recreatio -

nal Areas in Residential Estates of Wrocław in the 1970s–

1980s] by Alek sandra Lis [11]. The work concerns the

residential en vironment in the context of the presence of

green and recreational areas, which are a very important

element of spatial development in the Zachód II hous-

ing estate. Anna Podolska and Aleksandra Dul took up

a similar topic in their publication: Przestrzenie rekrea-

cyjne na osiedlu mieszkaniowym Szczepin we Wrocławiu

– anali za stanu zagospodarowania, użytkowników i form

aktywności [Recreational spaces in the Szczepin housing

estate in Wrocław – analysis of the state of development,

users and forms of activity] [12]. Szczepin housing es-

tate Zachód II, the main subject of this article, was also

the subject of research in the aspect of transformation and

adaptation of blocks of ats to the needs of the elderly,

the results of which were published in the monograph by

Barbara Gronostajska entitled Kształ towanie środowiska

mieszkaniowego dla seniorów [Shaping the Housing En-

vironment for Seniors] [13].

The presented literature review shows that the work of

the main designers of the Zachód II estate – Witold Moli-

cki and his wife Maria Molicka – still constitutes a wide

eld of research.

Szczepin housing estate and its development

before the 1945

Today Szczepin (German: Tschepine) is a Wrocław

housing estate located just beyond the western border of

the Old Town, which is emphasized by the old town moat.

The administrative division between the old town cen-

ter of Wrocław and Szczepin is marked by Jana Pawła II

Square (formerly 1 Maja Square), which also clearly sepa-

rates the two dierent faces of the post-war city – the pre-

served or rebuilt structure of the historic old town with the

dominant dense quarter buildings and the newly shaped

vast districts of the western part Wrocław.

Szczepin was founded in the Middle Ages, and due to

the vicinity of the Odra River, it was mentioned at the

beginning of the 13

century as a shing village, and it

retained its character for the next several centuries. Inter-

estingly, at the time when Wrocław was a German city,

Szczepin was largely inhabited by the Polish population.

Even in the 18

century the area was called Polnische

Vorstadt – Polish Suburb [14, p. 319]. The settlement

de veloped along the existing two main communication

routes – the rst of them, leading to Leśnica, Legnica, and

then to Frankfurt on the Oder, became after the village

was joined to the city by Friedrich-Wilhelm-Straße

, and

after 1945 – by Legnicka, one of the most important ar-

teries of contemporary Wrocław. The second road, then

called Lange Gasse, is now Długa Street. At the beginning

of the 19

century, Szczepin, along with the entire Przed-

mieście Mikołajskie, was incorporated into the city

, but

the integration of the new districts was slow – for several

dozen years, Szczepin was dominated by rural buildings.

Only Friedrich-Wilhelm-Straße, as the main exit road to the

west from the city, was paved and enclosed with multi-sto-

rey tenement houses.

The development of the western part of Wrocław gained

momentum in the mid-19

century. Two r

ailway stations

On Endler’s plan from 1807, the area along the present Legnicka

Street is marked as Nicolai Vorstadt (Nicholas Suburb).

The annexation of Przedmieście Mikołajskie and other suburbs

to Wrocław took place in 1808 after the demolition, on the orders of

Jerome Bonaparte, of the city walls, which limited the spatial develop-

ment of the city (Napoleon’s army captured Wrocław in 1807 during the

Prussian-French war).

Zachód II housing estate in Szczepin in Wrocław – a place built anew 121

ed the earlier checkered street layout, “softened” the plan

of the estate giving it landscape features. At about the same

time, in the years 1927–1928, in the adjacent quarter, the

stylistically similar Viehreiche estate was built by the same

architects, which, however, did not survive the war [16].

Post-war reconstruction

Szczepin was an area particularly badly damaged du-

ring the three-month siege of Festung Breslau in 1945,

when – along with the entire Przedmieście Mikołajskie

– it turned into a sea of rubble. Only the network of streets

survived as a testimony to the pre-war urban layout of

the district. Of the densely built-up quarters of tenement

houses, a few individual buildings remained, among oth-

ers at the following streets: Legnicka, Rybacka or Stefana

Czarnieckiego, as well as the frontage along Łęczycka

Street (Fig. 3). Large school buildings survived the ghts,

including brick school buildings at Poznańska Street

(now the District Court of Wrocław Fabryczna) and of the

Młodych Techników Street. Several factory buildings and

a bunker built during the war – an air-raid shelter for civil-

ians at Strzegomski Square – have also been preserved

The post-war future of Szczepin was not clear at rst

Until the beginning of the 1960s, the district was mainly

rubble and a background for the brick recovery operation.

The large-scale demolition of damaged buildings, which

The air-raid shelter, built in 1942, with a characteristic round

massive body, was designed by Richard Konwiarz (1883–1960) – a Ger-

man architect, town planner, but also an ocial and academic teacher,

associated with Breslau from 1909 until the end of World War II [15,

p. 990]. Currently, the building is the temporary seat of the Contempo-

rary Museum in Wrocław.

The Szczepin area played an important role in the plans of the rst

Polish president of the city, Bolesław Drobner. In a document from the begin-

ning of April 1945, that is, when the ghting for the city was still ongoing and

he could not have known about the destruction of the district, he assumed

that this is where the German inhabitants of Wrocław would be moved and

located [1, p. 63]. President Drobner assumed that after the war and the

takeover of the city by the Polish administration, the remaining German

population would be resettled to the area designated as a classic ghetto.

were built here, in 1842 – Świebodzki Station (Frei burger

Bahnhof), and two years later Lower Silesian-Mark Sta-

tion (Niederschlesisch-Märkischer Eisen bahn hof), which

does not exist today. The railway con tributed

to the rapid

industrialization and development of the industrial district

– industry, including heavy industry

(including the Linke-

Homan-Werke plants, later Pafa wag), became the driv

ing

force behind the large-scale spatial transformation of Przed-

mieście Mikołajskie. The development of industry resulted

in the expansion of housing, mostly multi-story tenement

houses for workers, which formed a compact housing of

the quarters and gave the district a metropolitan character

(Fig. 1). The population intensity of Przedmieście Mikołaj -

skie grew steadily, but housing standards were not always

high. Many workshops and small factories were creat-

ed in the courtyards or next to the residential buildings.

The 19

-century image of Szczepin was completed by

neo-Gothic churches: the Catholic church of St. Nicho las

(St. Nikolai Kirche) and the Lutheran church of St. Paul

(Pau lus kirche) with a characteristic double tower, as well

as public buildings, mainly schools. At the beginning of

the 20

century (in 1901), an electried tram line was

opened, running along today’s Legnicka Street, which be-

came a great convenience for the inhabitants.

The buildings in Szczepin were supplemented in the in-

terwar period in accordance with the urban planning plans

that were corrected at the beginning of the 20

century.

The modernist housing estate Siedlung Westend, designed

by architect Theo Eenberger in collaboration with Hein-

rich Lauterbach

, was built on the western edge of the for-

mer village in 1924–1930. Built in the years 1924–1930 in

the area of today’s Słubicka Street, fortunately it has been

partially preserved to this day [16] (Fig. 2). The urban lay-

out of the estate was adapted to the curved railway line

running at the back of the complex. The architects correct-

Theodor (Theo) Eenberger (1882–1968), Heinrich Lauterbach

(1893–1973) – German modernist architects born in Wrocław, working

mainly in Wrocław, Silesia and Berlin (Eenberger); co-organizers of

the WUWA exhibition in Wrocław (1929), for which they designed sev-

eral single-family houses [15, pp. 965, 995].

Fig. 1. Wrocław, Legnicka Street and Strzegomski Square

with the church of St. Paul, 1930s (source: own collection)

Il. 1. Wrocław, ul. Legnicka i plac Strzegomski z kościołem św. Pawła,

lata 30. XX w. (źródło: zbiory własne)

Fig. 2. Wrocław, former Siedlung Westend, contemporary view,

Słubicka Street (photo by A. Sobolewski, 2022)

Il. 2. Wrocław, dawne Siedlung Westend, widok współczesny,

ul. Słubicka (fot. A. Sobolewski, 2022)

122 Andrzej Sobolewski, Roman Czajka

cated in the immediate vicinity of the Old Town, on the

west side of the then 1 Maja Square (now Jana Pawła II

Square) was taken over. The concept of the estate was

prepared in the years 1962–1963 by architects gathered

at the Municipal Design Oce in Wrocław (MBPW): An-

drzej Łukaszewicz, Jerzy Jabłoński, Jerzy Szmorliński and

Jerzy Wojnarowicz. Of course, there was no question of

trying to recreate the pre-war character of the district. Ten-

ement houses, compact quarters of urban buildings were

replaced by free-standing prefabricated residential blocks.

Along the initial, eastern section of Legnicka Street, re-

peating residential blocks in a comb layout were built un-

til the end of the 1960s. Simple residential blocks, slight-

ly architecturally diversied, in several height versions:

9- and 11-storey on the south side of Legnicka Street and

5- and 11-storey on its northern side, make up a clear,

though schematic, urban composition of the Zachód I

(West I) estate. A variation, which is worth noting, was

the inclusion in the system of the few surviving pre-war

tenement houses, which were kept from demolition in

a relatively good technical condition. As a result, several

residential blocks were added to the blind gable walls of

the tenement houses. Of course, this did not restore full

street frontages, but it slightly individualized and dis-

rupted the schematic nature of the urban plan. The free

spaces between the residential blocks are designated for

greenery and recreational areas. Two one-story retail and

service pavilions were also built, the architecture of which

is distinguished by details. The rst of them – a modu-

lar pavilion located on the south side of Legnicka Street

with characteristic patios lled with greenery and cov-

ered with light openwork roofs, was designed by Andrzej

Łukaszewicz. The second pavilion on the northern side

of the street was erected in accordance with the design of

Maria Molicka. It is distinguished by a compact body and

a clearly horizontal layout of the façade.

started in 1949, on the one hand cleared the city of rubble,

but on the other hand led to the irretrievable destruction of

buildings that could still be saved and rebuilt. Demolition

was then subject to, among others the remains of the front-

age and lines of tenement houses along Legnicka Street,

on the section from Jana Pawła II Square to Strzegoms-

ki Square. By 1960, the Szczepin area was cleaned and

prepared for development. However, for a long time no

decision was made to start the construction of a new dis-

trict of Wrocław. Legnicka Street has simply become an

exit road from the city towards the west, running through

undeveloped elds. The development plan for the years

1961–1965 adopted by the city authorities did not envis-

age any major construction projects in this part of the city.

At that time, the reconstruction of the southern areas of

Wrocław became a priority. In those years, the axis of

Powstańców Śląskich Street was more important than the

axis of Legnicka Street, which was in line with the general

design guidelines for the entire city

However, it was impossible not to notice that the vast

empty area of Szczepin was directly adjacent to the large

industrial plants located in the area of Robotnicza Street.

The aforementioned industrial facilities, as well as the

constantly growing number of people

, led to the con-

struction of the Wrocław-Zachód (Wrocław-West) hous-

ing estate “somewhat in the shadow” of projects carried

out in the southern districts [7, p. 138]. In the rst stage

of construction of the new western Wrocław, the area lo-

In 1957, the General Spatial Development Plan for the years

1958–1980 was approved [17, p. 100]. It assumed the development of

Wrocław mainly in the north-south direction, giving the development in

the east-west axis a decidedly secondary importance.

In the rst post-war decade, the number of inhabitants of Wrocław

doubled from nearly 171,000. in 1946 to nearly 380,000 in 1955. In the

early 1970s, the population of Wrocław already exceeded half a million.

Fig. 3. Wrocław, preserved pre-war tenement houses

in S. Czarnieckiego Street

with a residential infill added in the 1990s

(photo by A. Sobolewski, 2022)

Il. 3. Wrocław, zachowane przedwojenne kamienice

przy ul. S. Czarnieckiego z dobudowaną w latach 90. XX w.

plombą mieszkalną

(fot. A. Sobolewski, 2022)

Il. 4. Wrocław, the rhythm of the Legnicka Street frontage

in the Zachód II estate, which consists of 11-story residential blocks

situated perpendicularly to it

(photo by A. Sobolewski, 2022)

Il. 4. Wrocław, rytm pierzei ul. Legnickiej na osiedlu Zachód II,

którą tworzą usytuowane prostopadle do niej

11-kondygnacyjne bloki mieszkalne

(fot. A. Sobolewski, 2022)

Zachód II housing estate in Szczepin in Wrocław – a place built anew 123

Zachód II estate

Another complex of buildings erected within Szczepin

was the Zachód II estate, which occupied an area enclosed

between Legnicka and Długa Streets (along the longitudi-

nal east-west axis) and Młodych Techników Street and the

railway viaduct in the area of Zachodnia Street. The ba-

sis for the studies started in 1963 was the aforementioned

General Plan for Wrocław Spatial Development, approved

in 1957. Initially, several concepts for the estate were cre-

ated by various authors, preliminary urban and architec-

tural designs were developed at the Miejska Pracownia

Urbanistyczna, Zakład Projektowania i Usług Inwesty-

cyjnych “Inwestprojekt” (architect Jerzy Chełmic

ki) and

Miastoprojekt Wrocław (arch. Włodzimierz Cze re chow ski,

Leszek Zdek). Ultimately, however, the estate project was

put on the boards of the Miastoprojekt Wrocław

oce by

the team whose main designer was the architect Witold

Je rzy Molicki (1930–2013). For the then still young, and

later one of the most famous builders of post-war Wrocław,

the project of the Zachód II estate was the rst such big

and important professional challenge. The main co-author

of the Szczepin development concept was Maria Molicka,

privately the architect’s wife.

The project of the Zachód II estate was approved in

1966, and its implementation started two years later and

lasted until the 1970s. As a result, a housing estate was

built for nearly 25,000 residents, consisting of multi-fam-

ily, mainly 5- and 11-storey residential blocks built in the

technology of the so-called large plate (Fig. 4). Molicki

realized in his project the idea of the so-called residen-

tial nests forming closed complexes of apartment block

buildings. The basic element of such a nest are two types

of buildings: double point buildings – two 11-story sky-

scrapers connected on the ground oor with a small service

pavilion, and lower 5-story cages, the length of which is

broken by a stepped segment arrangement. High-rise and

low-rise buildings juxtaposed with each other create closed

development quarters with internal courtyards, which have

been designed as full of green places for recreation of res-

idents and playgrounds for children (Figs. 5, 6) [12]. The

skyscrapers were situated perpendicular to Legnicka Street

(and Zachodnia Street), which was probably supposed

to alleviate the nuisance of heavy car trac on the main

communication artery of western Wrocław

. On the other

hand, the low apartment blocks are mostly situated along

the inner streets of the estate, often still paved, which to

this day gives the interior of the complex a more intimate

and resident-friendly character. The clear contrast between

the monumental scale of the Zachód II estate viewed from

Legnicka Street and the muted climate of internal, green

courtyards is intriguing. Gabiś believes that: […] on such

a scale, Molicki wanted to create the illusion of a series of

defensive towers protecting the inner, lower buildings, and

to give the street a modern, metropolitan expression, which

In the 1980s, Legnicka Street was rebuilt. Along its entire length

of several kilometers, it has become a dual carriageway (three lanes

each) with a tramway track separated in the center.

is particularly well visible from a distance [7, p. 150]. It

seems that the concept of the nests was also a deliberate

contemporary interpretation of the historical, pre-war ur-

ban layout of Szczepin with quarters of tenement hous-

es and street frontages. The green urban interiors of the

Zachód II estate, surrounded on four sides by residential

blocks that close the courtyards, can be considered a mod-

ern form of quarter development. The layout of the housing

estate can also be seen as a continuation of the forms of

housing which in Szczepin began with the pre-war Sied-

lung Westend […] with a structure of rationalised building

blocks and green courtyards […] [16, p. 25]. It is impos-

sible to deny Mo lic ki’s vision and consistency in the im-

plementation of the plan referring to the views, trends or

even dogmas that were then in force in urban planning and

architecture, with which the creators of the post-war world

confronted the history and tradition of shaping urban space.

The creative inventiveness of architects in shaping both

urban layouts and residential buildings was severely lim-

ited by the technology of the large panel. The residential

blocks of the Zachód II estate are no exception – the forms

of buildings, assessed as repetitive and schematic, t into

the canon of large panel aesthetics, which is still perceived

as unattractive. Social reception and evaluation of the ar-

chitectural legacy of the People’s Republic of Poland and

the implementation of modernist ideas under the condi-

tions of a socialist state, burdened with many stereotypes,

are still supercial and harmful to the period and the ar-

chitects and urban designers of the time. Post-war mod-

ernism in Poland is just beginning to be objectively an-

alyzed, studied, appreciated, and nally protected. There

is no doubt that this is a very necessary process, and its

necessity is justied by the observation of contemporary

trends in architecture, especially in urban planning, which

are increasingly adversely changing urban space.

The designers of the Zachód II estate tried to break the

monotony and schematic form of residential blocks made

of large slabs – the juxtaposed point-shaped residential

blocks were given simple, cuboidal solids with symmetri-

cal elevations. The axis of the building was emphasized by

the core with a staircase and the entrance accentuated by

a roof, withdrawn in relation to the façade face. The hori-

zontal layout of the façade was emphasized by the ribbon

windows running along the entire length of the building.

The divisions of the windows with characteristic loops

and wallets in the outermost elds created an expressive,

geometric composition. On the southern gable walls, the

architect placed long balconies with full balustrades. Sim-

ilar balconies were also found on selected oors, in the

recesses of the staircase core. Thanks to this, the domi-

nant verticalism of the communication core, which was

additionally “disturbed” by the eects of chiaroscuro, has

been mitigated. A certain visual diversication of the sky-

scrapers’ elevations was also the original colors designed

by Witold Molicki, which consisted of alternating white

and gray stripes and a few strong orange accents. The de-

scribed composition of the elevation, skillful operation

of both horizontal and vertical articulation, softened the

monumental scale of the skyscrapers and at the same time

gave them an individual character.

124 Andrzej Sobolewski, Roman Czajka

The nest residential block buildings were supplement-

ed, without aecting the legibility of the urban layout, by

low service facilities: commercial, schools, kindergartens,

nurseries and clinics. The estate has also been skillfully

integrated into the few remaining buildings from before

World War II.

A little later, after 1970, three higher 16-storey apart-

ment blocks were built between Zachodnia and Stefana

Czarnieckiego Streets, which were also designed by Wi-

told Molicki’s team as the dominant feature of the Za -

chód II estate. The skyscrapers were supposed to be part

of a larger shopping and service center, which, however,

ultimately was not built. The completed buildings were in

line with the main urban concept on which Molicki based

the spatial plan of the eastern part of Szczepin, although

they were no longer in the type of nest buildings. They

were placed perpendicularly to Zachodnia Street, in a par-

allel arrangement and slightly shifted in relation to each

other. The architect repeated the principle of exposing the

gable walls towards the street, which he applied to the dou-

bled skyscrapers standing along Legnicka Street. Archi-

tecturally, […] skyscrapers are by far the most sculptural

buildings designed by Molicki for the Zachód II estate.

The faults of the external walls and the restless rhythm of

rectangular balconies, originally emphasized by intense

colors, are the elements that enliven the façades, intro-

duce rich light and shade eects and give lightness to tall

apartment blocks [7, p. 150] (Fig. 7). The development

in the eastern part of the estate was complemented by

the monumental Church of Christ the King, which was

Fig. 5. Wrocław, Kruszwicka Street,

characteristic geometric layout

of block buildings

in the Zachód II estate

– low 5-storey blocks

and 11-storey high-rise buildings

juxtaposed together

perpendicularly

(photo by A. Sobolewski, 2022)

Il. 5. Wrocław, ul. Kruszwicka,

charakterystyczny geometryczny

układ zabudowy blokowej

na osiedlu Zachód II

– zestawione ze sobą prostopadle

niskie 5-kondygnacyjne bloki

i 11-kondygnacyjne wieżowce

(fot. A. Sobolewski, 2022)

Fig. 6. Wrocław, the interior of

the nest building housing estate

Zachód II: the blocks surround

an inner courtyard – a green

square, a place for recreation

and games for children

(photo by A. Sobolewski, 2022)

Il. 6. Wrocław, wnętrze gniazdowej

zabudowy osiedla Zachód II:

bloki otaczają wewnętrzne

podwórze – zielony skwer,

miejsce rekreacji i zabaw dla dzieci

(fot. A. Sobolewski, 2022)

Zachód II housing estate in Szczepin in Wrocław – a place built anew 125

erected next to the skyscrapers at Zachodnia Street, on

the plot between Młodych Techników and Inowrocławska

Streets. The construction of the temple

, which was also

pleted only in 1991. The church draws attention with its

non-standard, dynamic shape – a polyhedron broken into

four parts that have been shifted relative to each other.

The architect joined the developing trend of postmodern

architecture with this project. In his design, Molicki re-

vealed a rich symbolism, the very shape of the church’s

body refers to the Old Testament tent, which symbolized

the meeting with God (Fig. 8).

Among the non-residential buildings in Szczepin, it is

certainly worth paying some attention to the building of

the Dolnośląskie Centrum Diagnostyki Medycznej Dol-

med at Legnicka Street. It is located on the southern side

of the artery, so it does not belong to the area of the Za -

chód II estate, nevertheless, together with the skyscrapers

Church of Christ the King stood on a plot of land near Św. Mi-

ko łaja Square, where the church of St. Nicholas as a parish church for

Catholics. Heavily damaged, it was nally demolished after the war. To-

day, a cross stands in this place, and the square itself, as a result of later

reconstruction, lost its original shape and became a square. The inhabi-

tants of Szczepin did not have their own parish for 40 years.

of the estate, it forms the “housing” of Legnicka Street (in

the vicinity of Strzegomski Square) in its new post-war

form

. Dolmed is considered one of the most important

architectural achievements of Polish post-war modernism

and is mentioned in all major studies devoted to this sub-

ject. The building was designed by architects Anna and

Jerzy Tarnawski, and it was built in the years 1974–1977.

The object is distinguished by the shape of a solid, rem-

iniscent of an inverted pyramid, which grows out of the

undercut ground oor. The facility was to serve primarily

healthy people, so the designers wanted to avoid associ-

ations with a hospital facility – hence not only the un-

usual shape, but also the careful nishing […] [9, p. 24].

According to the design assumptions, Dolmed was to be

a very modern medical facility, which is why it used the

latest technical solutions and information technologies

that were then new. Computers, an absolute novelty, were

used to handle patients, process and store data on their

health and research. Therefore, engineers from the pio-

neering Wrocław Electronic Works were involved in the

design process. The architectural simplicity and clarity of

form, proportions and elegance, as well as individually

designed details, both façade and interior design (coop-

eration of outstanding artists, including Józef Chierowski,

the author of the famous and now almost iconic 366 arm-

chair) make up the class of the building (Fig. 9).

In the 1980s and 1990s, during the political transforma-

tion, the conditions for the functioning of the construction

industry changed, which coincided with the fascination of

architects with the postmodern trend. The standardization

and monotony of prefabricated housing estates is then

abandoned in favor of more individualized architecture.

In the Zachód II housing estate in Szczepin, vacant plots

are being lled with buildings, but also the urban interiors

Dolmed was built in the place where the church of St. Paul, with

extensive parish buildings and in the immediate vicinity of the preserved

air-raid shelter from 1942, currently the seat of the Contemporary Mu-

seum.

Fig. 7. Wrocław, the highest apartment blocks in Szczepin,

16-story skyscrapers in Zachodnia Street

(photo by A. Sobolewski, 2022)

Il. 7. Wrocław, najwyższe bloki mieszkalne na Szczepinie,

16-kondygnacyjne wieżowce przy ul. Zachodniej

(fot. A. Sobolewski, 2022)

Fig. 8. Wrocław, the monumental church of Christ the King

in Młodych Techników Street

(photo by A. Sobolewski, 2022)

Il. 8. Wrocław, monumentalny kościół pw. Chrystusa Króla

przy ul. Młodych Techników

(fot. A. Sobolewski, 2022)

126 Andrzej Sobolewski, Roman Czajka

for the elderly, for people with disabilities. Eliminating

architectural barriers is certainly a big challenge, not only

in Szczepin, of course.

The attractiveness of the area translates into new in-

vestments. Unfortunately, the latest one, which was built

in Szczepin, is an example of degradation of the existing

spatial arrangement and disregard for the context and spec-

icity of the place. A large apartment building has been

erected on a highly exposed plot at Strzegomski Square, at

the intersection of Legnicka and Poznańska streets

. The

apartmenthouse is a term, which has been very much used

recently in Poland, for a residential block, rarely adequate

to the quality of ats and architecture. The building has

aggressively lled the empty corner, probably very valu-

able from the point of view of the development economy,

but in no way relates to the existing neighborhood. The

manner the house is located in relation to the street dis-

turbs the rhythm of the urban composition of the Zachód II

housing estate, which dened the character of the frontage

of Legnicka Street. In his design, Molicki did not use the

frontage estate, which would recreate a pre-war compact

quarter development with tenement houses lined up along

the streets. The new residential block “pretends” to be

such a frontage (which is additionally emphasized by the

service ground oor) on a very short section of Legnicka

Street, which looks articial and strange in the existing

surroundings (Fig. 10). Without further reection, the de-

signers also resolved the direct contact between the east-

ern wing of the said building (from the side of Poznańska

Street) and the existing buildings of the former school.

The brick building that stands out in its surroundings,

one of the few in Szczepin, which survived the siege of

Festung Breslau and became the seat of the court after

modernization, was overwhelmed by the scale of its new

The investor is Vantage Development, the designer – architect

Maciej Kowaluk

other things, a residential and commercial complex of

vary ing scales and heights was built on Zachodnia Street

as a continuation of the development of the southern

frontage of this street, which began with the aforemen-

tioned 16-storey skyscrapers and the church designed by

Molicki. More single, mostly taller, detached buildings or

added to existing houses (e.g., apartment blocks at Stefana

Czarnieckiego and Kruszwicka Streets) have appeared on

the estate. Despite these interventions and additions, the

original urban layout of the Zachód II estate with the char-

acteristic way of shaping the interiors of the estate and

a well-thought-out, geometric composition of perpendic-

ular apartment blocks remains legible. Undoubtedly, it is

of great value as an outstanding example and a testimony

to an era that inuenced the shaping of Wrocław’s urban

spaces so strongly. It is worth recalling that in 1972 Witold

Molicki received the award of the Minister of Construc-

tion and the Minister of Local Economy and Environmen-

tal Protection for the design of the Zachód II estate.

Currently, the Zachód II housing estate, like the whole

of Szczepin, is perceived as a very attractive place to live.

Great location, proximity to the centre, good transport

connections, availability of services, green and recreation-

al areas – all these factors attract new residents. Although,

as Gronostajska points out in her monograph on shaping

the living environment for the elderly [13, pp. 129–143],

Szczepin as a typical large-panel housing estate with al-

most 50 years of history and nearly half of its residents

classied as seniors requires urgent transformations, that

will adapt it to the requirements of the present day. The

age of the estate is not only associated with the techni-

cal wear and tear of the buildings and infrastructure. The

estate was designed and realised in a dierent reality, in

which many aspects obligatory in today’s thinking about

a people-friendly city did not exist or had a dierent di-

mension. Such an element is undoubtedly the car as the

primary form of individual transport, which has taken

over urban space. But it is also the accessibility of the city

Fig. 10. Wrocław, the new investment “Legnicka 33”

at Strzegomski Square

(photo by A. Sobolewski, 2022)

Il. 10. Wrocław, nowa inwestycja „Legnicka 33”

przy pl. Strzegomskim

(fot. A. Sobolewski, 2022)

Fig. 9. Wrocław, Dolmed

– an icon of Polish People’s Republic modernism,

view from Strzegomska Street (photo by A. Sobolewski, 2022)

Il. 9. Wrocław, Dolmed – ikona modernizmu PRL-u,

widok od ul. Strzegomskiej

(fot. A. Sobolewski, 2022)

Zachód II housing estate in Szczepin in Wrocław – a place built anew 127

neighbor. The lack of dialogue between the present and

history is not justied by the quality of the architecture

of the apartment building itself, which has been provided

with repetitive façades, typical of residential houses under

construction. A mosaic of several fashionable solutions –

façade “templates”, which were probably intended by the

designers to divide the optically long façade on the side of

Legnicka Street and soften its huge scale, is not enough to

create a new, aesthetic dominant of Strzegomski Square.

And only such action could possibly explain the complete

lack of respect and understanding for the work of previous

generations of architects.

Summary

Archival photos, lms and other source materials show

the beauty of pre-war Breslau, the capital of Lower Sile-

sia, a metropolis with a rich, centuries-long history, but

also with bold visions of future development. It is un-

doubtedly regrettable that this Wrocław did not survive

the war drama and began its new historical chapter in 1945

as a city in ruins. A city that had to be not only rebuilt, but

in large part built from scratch. Faithful to the historical

original, reconstructions and reconstructions were possi-

ble only in a small part of the devastated areas, thanks to

which the architects received a huge testing ground for the

implementation of modern urban and architectural ideas,

responding to the needs of rapidly changing societies. Al-

most all of southern and western Wrocław was built from

scratch. The new districts changed the urban landscape as

their urban composition diered signicantly from his-

torical rules and principles. Time constantly veries the

achievements of that time. Discussions and assessments

of the architectural achievements in Poland of the com-

munist era are still ongoing. Filip Springer, in the title of

one of his “architectural” reportages, called the objects

of this era symptomatically ill-born [18]. Jakub Lewicki,

historian of architecture and conservator of monuments

noted in one of the interviews: The stigma of the People’s

Republic of Poland is a very important element, but most

of these buildings are extremely neglected and degraded,

their condition is deteriorating and most often deprived of

any care. Hence, buildings that were beautiful, functional

and useful, today are dirty, neglected hovels. […] I wish

that everyone would look at 20

century objects more

sympathetically. He did not immediately dismiss them

as nasty blocks, but tried to understand the intentions of

their creators and tried to imagine them not neglected, not

dirty, but still clean, eective and useful [19].

The analysis of the Zachód II estate proves that it is

a very interesting experiment and a testimony of its time,

and at the same time it is a value that should be protect-

ed. A great challenge in the modernization of post-war

architecture is maintaining, rstly, respect for the origi-

nal idea, and secondly, the greatest possible degree of the

original substance – while meeting the requirements of the

construction industry and the investor’s expectations [20,

p. 204]. Many elements that make up the original expres-

sion of the estate have not survived. First of all, the origi-

nal “strip” colors of the residential blocks’ elevations have

not been preserved. Like most large-panel buildings, they

are successively insulated, which is an understandable and

most economically justied process. The new colors on

the insulated façades do not, however, try to refer to the

Molicki project in any way. Window joinery, replaced by

the tenants themselves, does not reproduce the original

rhythm of divisions with characteristic vent windows. The

recently rebuilt balconies in apartment blocks receive bal-

ustrades in a form and material that is foreign to the proto-

types. The list of threats goes on. It was discussed earlier

about increasing the density of buildings that changed the

composition of the estate. Therefore, the prospects for the

urban and architectural protection of the Zachód II estate

are not very optimistic. It is a pity, because the experienc-

es of other countries, but also fortunately emerging Pol-

ish examples, prove that the cultural heritage of post-war

modernism is beginning to be perceived as a great value.

Translated by

Jan Urbanik

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Abstract

Zachód II housing estate in Szczepin in Wrocław – a place built anew

The Zachód II housing estate in Wrocław’s Szczepin is an example of new development created on the ruins of the former city, destroyed during

World War II. Realisation of modernist urban concepts, which broke with historical patterns of shaping the urban structure on the basis of quarter

and frontage buildings, completely changed the character of the western part of Wrocław. The article presents the housing estate Zachód II, built

in the 1960s according to the project of the team of architects led by Witold Molicki. The new buildings are presented against a background of the

historical development of Szczepin until 1939 as well as in the context of conditions of the post-war reconstruction. A contemporary assessment of

the settlement must take these conditions into account, because architecture has never been created in isolation from socio-economic reality. The

aim of the article is not only to present the urban and architectural masterpieces of post-war modernism, but also to draw attention to the need to

protect the cultural heritage and construction of the communist period in Poland. Threats arise not only from the technical wear and tear of buildings,

functional changes, etc., but also from the need to educate the public about them and to protect them. It also seems necessary to educate people and

change people’s awareness in order to recognise the qualities and specicity of this architecture and to develop concepts for its modernisation and

revitalisation, while preserving the most important original ideas of its authors.

Key words: Wrocław, Szczepin, housing estate, large-panel construction, modernism in the architecture of PRL

Streszczenie

Osiedle Zachód II na wrocławskim Szczepinie – miejsce zbudowane na nowo

Osiedle Zachód II na wrocławskim Szczepinie jest interesującym przykładem nowej zabudowy powstałej na gruzach dawnego miasta, zniszczo-

nego podczas II wojny światowej. Realizacja modernistycznych założeń urbanistycznych, które zrywały z historycznymi wzorcami kształtowania

tkanki miejskiej w oparciu o kwartałową i pierzejową zabudowę, całkowicie zmieniła charakter zachodniej części Wrocławia. W arty kule przedsta-

wiono osiedle Zachód II w kontekście rozwoju Szczepina do lat 40. XX w. oraz uwarunkowań powojennej odbudowy. Współczesna ocena osiedla

musi te uwarunkowania uwzględniać, architektura nigdy nie powstawała w oderwaniu od rzeczywistości społeczno-ekonomicznej. Celem artykułu

jest nie tylko prezentacja wartościowego dzieła urbanistycznego i architektonicznego, ale również zwrócenie uwagi na potrzebę ochrony w Polsce

kulturowego dziedzictwa i budownictwa okresu PRL-u. Zagrożenia wynikają nie tylko z technicznego zużycia budynków, zmian funkcjonalnych itp.

Konieczna wydaje się również edukacja i zmiana świadomości ludzi, które pozwolą dostrzec walory i specykę tej architektury oraz wypracować

koncepcje modernizacji, rewitalizacji, przy jednoczesnym zachowaniu najważniejszych założeń autorskich jej twórców.

Słowa kluczowe: Wrocław, Szczepin, osiedle mieszkaniowe, wielka płyta, modernizm w architekturze PRL-u

użytkowników i form aktywności, “Architektura Krajobrazu” 2016,

1, 68–85.

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seniorów, Ocyna Wydawnicza PWr, Wrocław 2016.

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wa–Kraków 1991.

[15] Leksykon architektury Wrocławia, R. Eysymontt, J. Ilkosz, A. To-

maszewicz, J. Urbanik (red.), Via Nova, Wrocław 2011.

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do rozwoju racjonalnych form budownictwa mieszkaniowego we

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19–30.

[17] Przyłęcka D., Nie od razu Wrocław odbudowano. Plany zagospo-

darowania przestrzennego, koncepcje oraz projekty urbanistyczne

a ich realizacja w latach 1945–1989, Ocyna Wydawnicza Atut –

Wrocławskie Wydawnictwo Oświatowe, Wrocław 2012.

[18] Springer F., Źle urodzone, reportaże o architekturze PRLu, Karak-

ter, Kraków 2011.

[19] Powojenny modernizm – niechciane dziecko PRLu, rozmowa Ag-

niesz ki Rumińskiej z prof. Jakubem Lewickim, 26.08.2010, http://

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