Warsaw: Devastation, Modernization, (Re-)privatization, dérive - Zeitschrift für Stadtforschung, Heft 72 (3/2018)
Warsaw is a city that has experienced radical breaks in its development over the last century, which are still relevant and visible in many different ways today. There is the Nazi occupation, the crushing of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and the subsequent systematic and almost complete destruction of the city; and more recently, the shift from a state-socialist to capitalist system. The new issue of dérive, entitled »Warsaw: Devastation, Modernization, (Re-)privatization«, sheds light both on these historical components and their impact on contemporary urban society – e.g. on the housing market. In addition, we talk to people who are self-organizing and working on alternative solutions that resist current socio-political conditions. The focal point is entirely in English. You can order it here: https://shop.derive.at/collections/einzelpublikationen/products/heft-72
Warsaw is a city that has experienced radical breaks in its development over the last century, which are still relevant and visible in many different ways today. There is the Nazi occupation, the crushing of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and the subsequent systematic and almost complete destruction of the city; and more recently, the shift from a state-socialist to capitalist system. The new issue of dérive, entitled »Warsaw: Devastation, Modernization, (Re-)privatization«, sheds light both on these historical components and their impact on contemporary urban society – e.g. on the housing market. In addition, we talk to people who are self-organizing and working on alternative solutions that resist current socio-political conditions. The focal point is entirely in English. You can order it here: https://shop.derive.at/collections/einzelpublikationen/products/heft-72
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Juli — Sept 2018
N o 72
Zeitschrift für Stadtforschung
dérive
dérive
WARSAW
Devastation, Modernization, (Re-)privatization
ISSN 1608-8131
8 euro
dérive
Editorial
This special issue on Warsaw is the 72nd edition of dérive and
the first with an editorial in English for 18 years (the German
version is available on our website, derive.at). In addition to the
editorial, all contributions to the focal point are in English.
However, this does not mean that dérive will be available only in
English in the future. The choice of language is due to the issue
being produced in cooperation with the organizers of this year’s
INURA conference in Warsaw, where the magazine will also
be the conference reader. INURA (International Network for
Urban Research and Action) is a network of international urban
researchers and activists of which dérive has been a member
for many years. Every year a conference takes place in a different
city and is conceptualized and organized by the local INURA
members. I would like to thank Kacper Pobłocki in particular
for the great cooperation on the editorial work for this Warsaw
issue. Kacper is not only responsible for the editorial concept,
but was also – despite the time-consuming preparation for the
conference – involved in the production of the issue from the
initial idea to printing.
Warsaw is a city that has experienced radical breaks in
its development over the last century, which are still relevant and
visible in many different ways today: the Nazi occupation, the
crushing of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and the subsequent
systematic and almost complete destruction of the city can
hardly be surpassed in terms of cruel contempt for humanity.
Several articles in the focal point refer to these events and their
consequences, most directly a text by Bolesław Bierut from
1955, which Irena Maryniak has translated – along with others
– from Polish to English for this edition of dérive.
The second major break in Warsaw’s recent urban history
saw the shift from a state-socialist to capitalist system.
Thereafter, the significance of property grew enormously and
profit-oriented thinking made a decisive breakthrough, having a
fatal effect on today’s housing market. This makes the ownership
of many houses and properties a hotly contested topic,
especially in connection with the (re-)privatization of property
originally stolen by the Nazis. Of course, most of the buildings
affected were destroyed at the end of World War II and, in many
cases, the property claims pursued today have nothing to do
with the original owners or their descendants. There are cases,
for example, where the companies that had real estate confiscated
by the National Socialists are revived simply in order to
construct a claim for compensation. In the recent past, this topic
has caused a stir in the media in Warsaw. Łukasz Drozda analyses
the associated debate as played out in current publications.
In an interview, activists of the Warsaw Tenants Association
(WSL) report on the everyday and concrete effects of conflicts
concerning the Warsaw housing market, which have repeatedly
turned violent.
In addition to the 1955 text by Bolesław Bierut, we have two
further manifesto-like texts from other periods. The architects
and urban planners Jan Chmielewski and Szymon Syrkus published
Warsaw as a Functional City in 1934. Meanwhile, in
2006, Bohdan Jałowiecki considered whether Warsaw is in danger
of becoming a Third World city. Taken together, the three
texts provide a range of reflections about the fate of Warsaw
and its development through time, thus documenting various
historical perspectives.
Three interviews with urban activists complement these
texts. In addition to the conversation with the WSL housing
activists, dérive spoke to representatives of the Open Jazdów Initiative,
an organization that is determined to save a very central
park-like site, and the activities that have developed there, from
valorisation. The third interview is about the highly active urban
grassroots movement that has established itself in Polish cities.
Chaos is a term widely used in discussions about the status
of Warsaw. Joanna Kusiak focuses in her article on what the
word chaos describes, how it is used, by whom and what it is
meant to obfuscate. She traces an arc from Hegel to Harvey,
from everyday experiences in Warsaw to the unbuilt Museum of
Modern Art, and from a heterogeneous cityscape to neoliberal
shock therapy.
Kacper Pobłocki has not only written an introduction to
the focal point. In his contribution Salon: Domestication of
Warsaw’s Public Space, Pobłocki writes about the relationship of
the capital to the rest of the country, about the dominant role of
the gentry in urban (class) society and how they have inscribed
themselves on Warsaw’s buildings (amounting to a literal
gentryfication) and, to conclude, about the function and use of
public and private space between salon and socialization.
Finally, a look at the 9th urbanize! festival which will be hosted
in two cities for the second time, combining theory, best practice
and hands on workshops. urbanize! takes place in Berlin from 5
to 14 October and is organized collectively by a broad alliance of
Berlin’s urban movements and housing initiatives in cooperation
with dérive. In Vienna urbanize! will take place from 24 to 28
October at Nordbahnhalle, taking a close look at the scale of the
neighborhood and its potential for citizens empowerment.
Program details will be available from August on www.urbanize.at.
You are welcome to join! Save the date(s)!
Our crowdlending campaign is still running for the
Viennese Habitat/Mietshäusersyndikat house project Bikes and
Rails, where dérive is also involved. We recently surpassed the
200,000 euro mark, which is a great success. But don’t worry,
we need another 1.3 million euro. So you still have the opportunity
to participate. Information is available at bikesandrails.org.
Christoph Laimer
01
Inhalt / Content
01
Editorial
CHRISTOPH LAIMER
Schwerpunkt / Focal Point
04—05
WARSAW – A Taciturn City
KACPER POBŁOCKI
06—10
WILD reprivatization
Property restitution in post-communist Warsaw
ŁUKASZ DROZDA
11—13
It All Started with RAGE and ANGER
SYRENA AND CAFÉ KRYZYS,
LISA PUCHNER
14—19
SALON – Domestication of Warsaw’s Public Space
KACPER POBŁOCKI
20—24
Creating spaces for free thought
and FREE activities
All about a once long-forgotten site
in central Warsaw
ANDRZEJ GÓRZ, WOJTEK MATEJKO,
LISA PUCHNER
25—32
The Cunning of CHAOS and Its ORDERS
A Taxonomy of Urban Chaos in Post-Socialist
Warsaw and Beyond
JOANNA KUSIAK
Kunstinsert / Artistic Insert
33—37
Joanna Rajkowska
Trees and Stumps
38—39
Urban grassroots movements in POLAND
TYMON RADWAŃSKI,
CHRISTOPH LAIMER
40—45
Manifesto 1 (1934):
Warsaw as a FUNCTIONAL CITY
JAN CHMIELEWSKI,
SZYMON SYRKUS
46—48
MANIFESTO 2 (1955):
CARE for the HUMAN person
BOLESŁAW BIERUT
49—54
Manifesto 3 (2006):
Is WARSAW becoming a city of the THIRD World?
BOHDAN JAŁOWIECKI
Besprechungen / Reviews
55—60
Otto Wagner – zweimal zum Gedenken S.55
Architektur in der Grauzone S.57
Die Rückeroberung der Stadt –
S. 58
aber wo ist der politische Kampf?
S. 59
Alle, die hier sind, sind von hier
68
IMPRESSUM / IMPRINT
–
dérive – Radio für Stadtforschung
Jeden 1. Dienstag im Monat von
17.30 bis 18 Uhr in Wien auf ORANGE 94.0
oder als Webstream http://o94.at/live.
Sendungsarchiv: http://cba.fro.at/series/1235
03
KACPER POBŁOCKI
WARSAW —
A Taciturn City
Self-identity, historical trauma,
Warsaw Uprising, geographical location, INURA conference,
flâneur, urban research
Alej Jerozolimskich (Jerusalem Street)
Photo — Jan Gebert
There are two types of cities. Some are talkative – they churn
out one story after another. Denizens in New York City, Paris,
Beirut or Tokyo, when asked about the city they live in, will
openly and gladly tell you what makes their city special. Such
narratives usually add up to a coherent picture of local urban
identity. Warsaw belongs to the other group – that of taciturn
cities. It does not have a predefined identity, and when asked
about their city, Warsavians’ knee-jerk reaction is either to ask
the outsider for their view or to change the subject.
When it does speak up, Warsaw communicates through
its walls. Coming from western Poland, when I first moved to
Warsaw, I was shocked by the number of plaques commemorating
national figures or acts of violence committed during World
War II. The city’s veneer is coated with records of historical
trauma. In this sense Warsaw is the very capital of what Timothy
Snyder dubbed »bloodlands« – a vast territory »between
Hitler and Stalin« that saw the murder of some 14 million people
between 1933 and 1945. Reduced to ashes in 1944,
Warsaw is one of the rare cases of a city that really started anew.
But everybody remembers 1 August, when year after year in
what is perhaps the most Varsovian of acts, the whole city stops
for a minute to commemorate the 200,000 victims of the
Warsaw Uprising.
And then there is the urban fabric, which makes Warsaw
so unusual that it does not resemble a proper city. It has no
centre, or is in fact multicentric, with each small-scale centre
being slightly off-centre. Back in the early 2000s, Warsaw
was colloquially referred to as a concrete camping site. Krakow
or Wrocław – centres with a more continuous urban history and
with more charm –were considered proper cities. No wonder
04
dérive N o 72 — WARSAW. Devastation, Modernization, (Re-)privatization
one of the most famous music bands from Warsaw is the
Warsaw Village Band. Yet, there is an order behind what seems
like a random patchwork. In her essay reprinted in this issue
of dérive, Joanna Kusiak shows how Warsaw’s urban fabric –
elusive and nonintuitive at first glance – represents a palimpsest
of many attempts to break with history. In this sense, Warsaw
is a city that continuously starts anew.
Warsaw is a city that continuously starts anew
While the sense of looming history is indisputable and
visible in the omnipresent fingerprints of the past, the city’s chaotic
geography has become the fulcrum of possibility and
change. As a consequence, one of the most quintessentially Warsavian
debates has been on Warsaw’s actual geographical location.
The three essays we reprint here as Retroactive Manifestos
attest to the eerie sense of ambiguity as to where Warsaw actually
is. In their Warszawa Funkcjonalna research manifesto from
1934, Szymon Syrkus and Jan Chmielewski start their analysis
from a bird’s-eye perspective, looking at the larger international
flows and networks in which Warsaw is enmeshed. Their text
comprises a number of consecutive analytical steps, which are
also visually represented in the corresponding maps. We reprint
only the first eight of those steps, but the final outcome – the
Warszawa Funkcjonalna diagram – is the cartographic theory of
what constitutes, to borrow David Harvey’s phrase, the »structured
urban coherence« of Warsaw.
Just ten years after Warszawa Funkcjonalna was published,
Warsaw was destroyed and a new city erected in its place.
Yet a comparison of a map of contemporary Warsaw with the
Warszawa Funkcjonalna diagram shows that the city actually did
grow according to the logic Syrkus and Chmielewski had predicted.
The most traumatic of events – the Warsaw Uprising and
the Nazis’ destruction of the city – did little in the way of altering
Warsaw’s innate trajectory. The other two manifestos –
excerpts from the 1951 book entitled The Six-year Plan for
Warsaw’s Reconstruction and an essay by Bohdan Jałowiecki –
also pose the geographical question. Jałowiecki, in a gesture
that generated a heated debate back in 2006, argues that Warsaw
is not becoming a dead ringer for a Western city but instead
belongs to the family of cities from the Global South. These
texts are separated by long decades and each is dedicated to a
very different Warsaw. But if there is anything they have in
common, then it is the sense of Warsaw being somehow out of
step in terms of its geography, its actual location in the world
at large.
This geographical ambiguity is a source of discontents
for inhabitants (and perhaps the reason why Warsaw does not
have a clear-cut identity) but represents a great opportunity for
urban researchers. This is why the current issue of dérive coincides
with the 28th annual conference of the International Network
for Urban Research and Action (INURA). The conference
will be a week-long encounter between international and local
urban scholars and activists, who will – together – try to think
about Warsaw’ structured coherence and answer the question of
what makes it unique as a city.
Because of Warsaw’s reluctance to embrace an explicit
urban self-identity, it has often been spoken about as a site
where other, non-urban, processes unfold – such as a putative
transition from state socialism to market capitalism. But what
does labelling Warsaw a post-socialist city actually mean?
Instead of defining Warsaw according to what it no longer is (a
socialist city) or what, in theory, it is supposed to become (a
poster child for market capitalism), we will delve into places and
processes that define Warsaw’s contemporary mien. To this end,
we will employ INURA’s unique conference format – talking
about cities in the actual urban space and not inspecting Powerpoint
slides in air-conditioned rooms.
We will therefore study Warsaw from the bottom up and
treat it as a theoretical clean slate. Thus, we will forget about
jumbo theories and turn to elements of everyday life in Warsaw:
housing, transit, labour, consumption, migration, its natures and
its non-human denizens. It may turn out that, for example, the
annus mirabilis of 1989 does not constitute a watershed in
Warsaw’s trajectory after all. Instead, longer continuities may be
at work, and more recent forces may have shaken the city to its
core. On the one hand, Warszawa Funkcjonalna turned out to
have been uncannily precise in defining the pattern of Warsaw’s
spatial expansion, despite the dramatic intrusions that the city
experienced. Conversely, Poland’s 2004 accession to the European
Union ushered in flows of capital that engendered entirely
new spaces as well as redefining some extant ones, substantially
unsettling the city and altering its position in various networks
(global, national). It may be the case that Warsaw is positioned
in an entirely different place.
We hope our peripatetic intellectual experiment and the
encounter between local and international researchers will reinvigorate
urban theory. Walking and thinking have always b
een intertwined. Beginning with ancient philosophers, through
Rousseau and Kierkegaard and from modernist flâneurs to
urban ethnographers, many theories have originated from a surprise
peripatetic discovery or a chance encounter. Recently,
there has been plenty of jumbo-sized theorising about the
urbanization of our planet, and we have a plethora of microstudies
either describing certain places or dissecting specific
urban issues. With a few exceptions (such as Filip de Boeck’s
work on Kinshasa and Hidenobu Jinnai’s work on Tokyo),
we are in dire need of research that shows how various fragments
are, as de Boeck put it, sutured together. When Jinnai set off to
walk the streets of Tokyo in the 1980s, he probably did not
expect his peregrinations to allow him to discover a planning
paradigm that had never been formally expressed but in fact
explains precisely how his city came about and how it works.
The point of departure for Jinnai’s discovery was walking.
By the same token, a novel theory that stitches contemporary
Warsaw together into a coherent whole may be just
around the corner. We need only make our way there.
Kacper Pobłocki is Assistant Professor of Anthropology and
Urban Studies at the Warsaw University. He writes about
class, space and uneven development. He used to be an urban
activist and led the Alliance of Urban
Movements that ran in 2014 in municipal elections in eleven
Polish cities. In 2017 his book Kapitalizm
historia krotkiego trwania (Spatial origins of capitalism
the English edition forthcoming) came out.
Kacper Poblocki — WARSAW. A Taciturn City
05
ŁUKASZ DROZDA
WILD
reprivatization
Property restitution in post-communist Warsaw
Reprivatization, corruption, housing market,
reconstruction, property restitution, claim dealers,
tenant movement
Tenants activist Jolanta Brzeska;
»She died fighting for the right to live. The fight continues.«
Photo — Mateusz Opasiński
The phenomenon of wild reprivatization seems to pose one of the most
serious challenges to urban policy in Poland. It affects thousands of
properties and has become the subject of several books published in Poland
since 2016. The majority of these publications focus on Warsaw.
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dérive N o 72 — WARSAW. Devastation, Modernization, (Re-)privatization
ACTIVISTS FROM SYRENA AND CAFÉ KRYZYS INTERVIEWED BY LISA PUCHNER
It ALL Started
with RAGE and
ANGER
Housing, tenancy law, protest,
recommunalization,
eviction, privatization, tenants association, squat,
self-organization
Protest in front of the house of a tenant, who got kicked out of his flat
and beaten: »struck by the invisible hand of the market.«
1
The interview was conducted
in 2017, some current
information has been added
in square brackets by the
interviewees.
Syrena is an autonomous collective that is a headquarters for the Warsaw
Tenants Association which focuses on housing struggles and tenants’ rights.
Syrena is based in a reclaimed tenement building in Warsaw. The space functions
as a place for non-commercial activities and support for local initiatives
and inhabitants. The building is a typical case in the history of reprivatization
– the procedure of transferring community-owned houses to so-called investors.
It was a squat in March 2011, now it is inhabited by about 35 people
and hosts several other organizations like the Warsaw Revolutionary Theatre,
immigrant support and antifascist groups, a bike workshop, an anarchist
library as well as the coffeehouse Café Kryzys. Lisa Puchner of dérive talked 1
with activists from Syrena and Café Kryzys about their stories and the situation
of tenants in Warsaw.
Interview — It All Started with RAGE and ANGER
11
KACPER POBŁOCKI
SALON —
Domestication
of Warsaw’s Public Space
St. Alexander Church, Plac Trzech Krzyży Square.
Source: Warszawa stolica Polski, Społeczny Fundusz Odbudowy Stolicy, wyd. II,
Warsaw 1949, p.36
Capital, elite, gentrification,
bourgeoisie, working class, Old Town, Warsaw,
street life, salon,
reconstruction, urbanization, socialization
St. Alexander Church, Plac Trzech Krzyży Square, 2015;
Photo — Bartosz Górka, Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art
14
dérive N o 72 — WARSAW. Devastation, Modernization, (Re-)privatization
ANDRZEJ GÓRZ AND WOJTEK MATEJKO INTERVIEWED BY LISA PUCHNER
Creating spaces
for free thought
and FREE activities
All about a once long-forgotten site in central Warsaw
Public Space, autonomy, sustainability,
cooperation, housing,
accessibility, privatization, valorization
Photo — Adrian Grycuk
Jazdów is a site to the south of Warsaw’s city centre where the initiative
Open Jazdów offers a social, cultural and ecological public programme. It is
well known for the small wooden houses (Finnish houses) erected there after
World War II. For decades the area was all but forgotten by the city council,
until about six years ago when it took the decision to dismantle the houses
and destroy the surrounding gardens. Today the houses are still there. Lisa
Puchner from dérive spoke to Andrzej Górz, who lives at the site, and Wojtek
Matejko, who works there, about the history of the place, the threat of
demolition and plans to rescue Jazdów and the Finnish houses and develop a
non-commercial and autonomous space for the people of Warsaw.
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dérive N o 72 — WARSAW. Devastation, Modernization, (Re-)privatization
JOANNA KUSIAK
The Cunning
of CHAOS
and Its ORDERS
A Taxonomy of Urban Chaos in Post-Socialist Warsaw and Beyond
Chaos, order, Warsaw, neoliberalism,
shock therapy, modernization, improvisation, DIY urbanism,
Global South, post-socialism,
everyday life, privatization, property
The collage Warsaw ready for Euro 2012 created by a local artist after the decision
to build a temporary McDonald’s on the lot originally designated for the Museum of Modern Art;
Collage: Robert Danieluk
Chaos is found in greatest abundance wherever order is being sought.
It always defeats order, because it is better organized.
Terry Pratchett, Interesting Times
24
dérive N o 72 — WARSAW. Devastation, Modernization, (Re-)privatization
Kunstinsert / Artistic Insert
Joanna Rajkowska
Trees and Stumps
Joanna Rajkowska works in and with the public space, which she perceives as a highly political
place where different forms of life meet. In 2002 she realized her most famous project in Warsaw
– Greetings from Jerusalem Avenue. On her own initiative and inspired by a trip to Israel, she set
up the 15-metre-high artificial palm tree on one of the city’s main roads, the Alej Jerozolimskich.
It still stands there as an exotic foreign body that has become a point of identification and
orientation in the city. Rajkowska selected two photos for dérive showing how the tree is cared for
(again and again, the tree has to be provided with new bark), and related these to a current work
of hers that constitutes a monument to the deforestation of Polish primeval forests. She writes
about the photos:
1) This is the date palm tree bark that we use to cover the trunk of the artificial palm tree in
Warsaw (Greetings from Jerusalem Avenue, 2002), the brightest and most joyful project of all my
public works. It refers to the multicultural city that Warsaw once was, to its unbelievable vibe
and energy.
The bark is very expensive and we usually buy it in the United States. So we try to keep
some of it spare and even recycle it sometimes. In 2014 we decided to spread the new bark on the
roof of one of the buildings of the Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, allowing it to weather
and better match the old bark. It was damn cold on that day but I really wanted to capture the wild
look of it against the Warsaw cityscape. It was magic but my fingers got completely frozen and I
only regained the feeling in the tips of my fingers months later.
2) This is the trunk of the palm tree itself, under reconstruction. It is important to keep it looking
alive. Apparently it is an important point of reference for many visitors, newcomers and refugees
in Warsaw. They say it makes them feel at home. The palm tree is 15 meters high (including the
crown), so we need scaffolding to do anything. Years ago, when the weather was good, we would
usually have a couple of bottles of beer in secret, right under the palm tree leaves, high up. It was
great and I remember the sensation of having real power over Jerusalem Avenue down below.
Now, the regulations are so strict that we can’t do this any more. :(
3) Times are very different now in comparison to 2002, when Greetings from Jerusalem Avenue
came to life. This project (I shall not enter into your heaven, 2017) is a cry of desperation. It
points to an uprooting, a cutting off, or a wrenching. I created a wall of 22 tree roots stacked in
six columns. Not only is the right-wing government logging the ancient primeval forests in Poland,
but we, as humans and citizens, are also going through a period of extensive uprooting. It is
such a paradox that the more they are trying to root society in the national soil, the more uprooted
I feel. It is reckless and painful.
Joanna Rajkowski’s exhibition Suiciders at the TRAFO Centre for Contemporary Art in Szczeczin
(http://trafo.art) has just come to an end and is to be followed by a solo exhibition at l’étrangère in
London in September and the Qalandiya International Biennale in Ramallah from 3 October 2018.
rajkowska.com
Andreas Fogarasi
Joanna Rajkowska — Kunstinsert
37
TYMON RADWAŃSKI INTERVIEWED BY CHRISTOPH LAIMER
Urban grassroots
movements
in POLAND
Activists from Ruchy Miejskie dla Warszawy (Urban Movement Coalition in Warsaw).
Together they will run for this year’s local elections in Warsaw.
In Polish cities fundamental problems have been growing for years, hindering
their development and lowering the quality of life for inhabitants. That’s one
of the reasons why Poland now has a strong urban social movement, and has
had for several years. In numerous cities, groups that refer to the right to the
city idea or have a municipal orientation are active and quite a few are also
represented in local parliaments. To deepen cooperation between these
grassroots initiatives, the Kongres Ruchów Miejskich (Congress of Urban
Movements) was established in 2011. Several initiatives based on the interaction
of various urban movements at the national level have already emerged.
In 2013 Miasto Jest Nasze (The City is Ours) was founded in Warsaw and,
in 2014, the party had already fielded candidates in the local elections. Tymon
Radwański is an activist for Miasto Jest Nasze and one of the organizers of
the forthcoming Fearless Cities Conference in Warsaw. Christoph Laimer from
dérive asked him a few questions about the urban social movement in Poland
and especially in Warsaw.
38
dérive N o 72 — WARSAW. Devastation, Modernization, (Re-)privatization
MANIFESTO 1 (1934): JAN CHMIELEWSKI, SZYMON SYRKUS
Warsaw as a
FUNCTIONAL
CITY
Urbanization, traffic, waterways, topography,
transcontinental route, communication, transport,
network, planning, architects
Architects design buildings – which is to say that they compose the shape of
the future. The discipline we have studied, the engineering skills and practical
experience we have gained all demand to be perfected, but negative trends
in the economy are having a significant effect on our profession. The potential
productiveness of architects is not being exploited enough. Even those of
us who are working to full capacity feel that the work we do is not fully satisfying.
We face restrictions imposed on the building industry and technical
constraints; our professional skills are being wasted. And all this is happening
at a time when the need for construction is so strikingly apparent and the
mass of the population is being adversely affected […] The reason for the
constrictions imposed on our profession lies beyond the limits of our activities
as architects: it is rooted in a failure to bring order to the forces that underlie
the economy and society, and in the inappropriate way that goods are distributed
once they have been produced […] Architects will find their place in
the production process, as professionals, once the overall shape of production
has been put in order. Only then will they be in a position to design
cities, regions and indeed countries, while remaining fully aware of the ultimate
end in sight. […]
40
dérive N o 72 — WARSAW. Devastation, Modernization, (Re-)privatization
MANIFESTO 2 (1955): BOLESŁAW BIERUT
CARE for the
HUMAN person
population growth, Nazi occupation,
warcrime, socialist architecture, social infrastructure
46
dérive N o 72 — WARSAW. Devastation, Modernization, (Re-)privatization
MANIFESTO 3 (2006): BOHDAN JAŁOWIECKI
Is WARSAW
becoming a city
of the THIRD World?
Heritage, capital, housing, investor,
public space, creative city, public transport, mobility,
gated communities, star architecture,
social infrastructure
»The city is being developed by foreign investors in line with
their interests: it is a steered, dependent form of urban expansion.«
Photo — Wistula.
A city reflects its residents. It also shares their fortunes. The present state of
Poland’s capital, Warsaw, arises from the situation in the country as a whole.
It mirrors a large but relatively undeveloped country on the periphery of
Europe. Conditions in Poland have come to mean that Warsaw currently fails
to match the most important metropolitan centres of the continent. Equally,
however, a large influx of foreign investment and the arrival of subsidiaries of
international corporations have helped launch the process of re-developing a
city that was destroyed by war and then badly reconstructed according to
socialist realist architectural models. A meeting of old and new lies behind the
contrasts and imbalances in the city. Similar phenomena may be noted in
countries of the Developing World. But are these contrasts diminishing, remaining
stable or increasing? The following article attempts to offer an answer to
this question.
Bohdan Jal / owiecki — Is WARSAW becoming a city of the THIRD World?
49
Besprechungen
Otto Wagner – zweimal
zum Gedenken
Peter Leeb
Der 100. Todestag Otto Wagners ist Anlass
von Ausstellungen und Veranstaltungen, um
den großen Architekten aus dem Hintergrund
des Wiener Alltags in den Vordergrund
der Reflexion zu bringen. Mehr als
ein halbes Jahrhundert ist es bereits her, als
das Werk, im damals noch als Historisches
Museum der Stadt Wien bezeichneten Haus
am Karlsplatz, zum ersten Mal überhaupt
vertieft gezeigt worden ist. Seit damals
rückte der (Wiener) Vater der Moderne vermehrt
ins architektonische, aber auch ins
touristische Bewusstsein. Hier sollen zwei
Ausstellungen besprochen werden, eine im
Wien Museum und eine im Museum für angewandte
Kunst.
Die aktuelle, unter dem schlichten Titel
Otto Wagner, im Wien Museum von
Andreas Nierhaus und Eva-Maria Orocz
zusammengestellte Schau ist die bisher
größte zum Gesamtwerk und gliedert dieses
in chronologischer Ordnung. Im gesamten
Obergeschoß des Hauses werden unzählige
Zeichnungen und Modelle aber
auch Möbel sowie persönliche Gegenstände
– die Sammlung von Fotografien und
Visitenkarten bekannter und berühmter ZeitgenossInnen
lassen hier eine vergangene
Welt wiedererstehen – in 12 Stationen dem
Publikum vorgestellt. Die atemberaubende
Qualität der Zeichnungen, die durch die unermüdlichen
MitarbeiterInnen Otto Wagners
entstanden sind, überzeugt auch uns noch
durch deren Klarheit und Schönheit. Die
Blätter waren natürlich nicht Selbstzweck,
sondern gezielt eingesetzte Mittel zur
Durchsetzung von Projekten, ob als Wettbewerbsbeitrag
bzw. mit oder ohne spezifischem
Auftrag. So zeigt sich Wagner als
früher Meister der Öffentlichkeitsarbeit. Für
uns ist es aufschlussreich, im Fall gebauter
Wirklichkeit, das Verhältnis zwischen Projektion
und Realisierung zu erkunden, ein Thema
mit durchaus aktuellem Bezug. Es entbehrt
nicht einer gewissen Ironie, dass die
Idealentwurf des 22. Bezirks für die Studie »Die Grossstadt«, 1911,
Otto Wagner, (c) Wien Museum
Ausstellung genau an dem Ort stattfindet,
für den Wagner ein neues Stadtmuseum als
städtebauliche Rahmung des Karlsplatzes
vorgesehen hatte und der derzeit auf seine
Erweiterung in Form eines Aufbaus auf den
Bestand wartet. Wagners überragende
Könnerschaft wurde allerdings durch eine
Bauaufgabe befördert, die in Art und Umfang
ohne Beispiel war, nämlich der Gestaltung
sämtlicher Bauten der neuen Wiener
Stadtbahn. Seit dem Wettbewerbserfolg für
den Wiener Generalregulierungsplan 1892
war Wagners strategisch-moderner Zugang
zu den Problemen der rasant wachsenden
Großstadt bekannt. Ein Zugang, der bewusst
im Gegensatz zu den romantischen
Vorstellungen seines Zeitgenossen Camillo
Sitte stand. Obwohl für Wagner die brachiale
Methodik eines Baron Haussmann in
Paris nicht in Frage kam – er versuchte Bestehendes
weitgehend in seine Planung zu
integrieren – stellt die bewusst gewählte
horizontale Trassierung der Stadtbahn gegenüber
der Wiener Hügellandschaft einen
topografisch radikalen Schritt dar. Die Bogen-
und Stationsbauwerke gelangen auf
diese Weise zu deren unverwechselbaren
lokalen Eigenart. Wagners Meisterschaft
wird aber auch beim eigentlichen Benützen
der Bauwerke deutlich: gibt es denn bequemere
Stufen oder angenehmere Geländer
und Handläufe? Die überaus klar organisierten
Stationen, ob nun als Torbauten
über Niveau geführter Geleise oder als Pavillons
einer unterirdischen Trassenführung,
werden bis zum heutigen Tag vom Publikum
einmütig geschätzt wie kein anderes Infrastrukturprojekt
der Stadt, die Donauinsel
einmal ausgenommen. Sind auch einige
Stationsbahnhöfe und beinahe auch eine
ganze Brücke fortschrittsgläubiger Erneuerungsbestrebungen
zum Opfer gefallen –
der Kampf um genau jene markiert ein Umdenken
in der hiesigen geschichtlichen
Architekturrezeption. So ließ sich die Stadtbahn
in das heutige U-Bahnnetz der Stadt
integrieren und ist derart im Nachhinein zu
einem herausragenden Beispiel zukunftsweisender
Gestaltung geworden, das bei jeder
gegenwärtigen Planung ernst genommen
anstatt als selbstverständlich vorausgesetzt
werden sollte.
In der Ausstellung wird immer wieder die
Modernität Otto Wagners betont. Was
aber bedeutet diese? Wagner erkannte,
dass der Historismus keine adäquaten Antworten
auf die Fragen dynamischer Industrialisierung
und den sich daraus ergebenden
Veränderungen des Lebens bieten
kann. Sein Vorschlag eines Nutzstils, der
Besprechungen
55
Bor
Die Baugruppe Bikes and Rails errichtet das 1. Neubauprojekt im habiTAT,
dem Mietshäuser-Syndikat in Österreich. Am Wiener Hauptbahnhof
entsteht ein Passivhaus mit 18 Mietwohnungen, Flüchtlinge-
Willkommen-WG, Gemeinschafts-Dachterrasse, Veranstaltungsraum,
Radwerkstatt, Proberaum und Grätzel-Cafe. Das Haus wird der
Verwertung am Immobilienmarkt entzogen und sichert selbstbestimmten
und bezahlbaren Wohn-, Arbeits- und Kulturraum für viele Generationen.
afü a
Du kannst Erspartes als privaten Direktkredit mit frei wählbarer Laufzeit
in unser Haus einlegen und unterstützt uns damit bei der Schaffung von
selbstverwalteten und solidarischen Räumen im Herzen der Stadt.
Interesse Dein Geld sozial, lokal und transparent
in unser Haus einzulegen?
Infopaket anfordern unter www.bikesandrails.org.
* Bk a * Öko * Sol * Uk *
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68
dérive N o 72 — WARSAW. Devastation, Modernization, (Re-)privatization
»The phenomenon of wild
reprivatization seems to
pose one of the most
serious challenges to
urban policy in Poland.«
Łukasz Drozda — Wild reprivatization, S. 12
(Re-)privatization, urban movements, housing, eviction,
transport axis, public space, destruction, chaos/order, neoliberalism,
modernization, gentrification,
reconstruction, property restitution