This clutch of high-rise residential blocks towering over the otherwise relatively low-rise heart of Wrocław acquired the nickname “Manhattan” when completed in the mid-1970s. Designed by architect Jadwiga Grabowska-Hawrylak, their distinctive woven concrete façades hold echoes of the work of the Japanese Metabolists, with each interlocking concrete armature forming a balcony. Above, the flats incorporate roof terraces, whilst below, there are public spaces and shops. The adjacent square, Plac Grunewaldski, with its bus and tram stations, was not the result of modernist tabula rasa planning but of the tragic history of the city in the dying days of the Second World War. Wrocław, then Breslau, strategically situated on the River Odra, was besieged by Soviet troops for over 80 days and the site was razed by its Germans defenders to create a landing strip for supply planes. Today the whole area remains a key example of urban regeneration achieved not through a vanity cultural project, but by creating an integrated chunk of city for people to live in. p (rgw)
jakubcertowicz.pl
Jakub Certowicz’s “Ponad dachami Wrocławia / Over the Rooftops of Wrocław”, taken from the exhibition curated by Jednostka Architektury.
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