MURAWA 2

The Murawa 2 complex of single-family houses is located in a highly attractive area of Poznań, adjacent to Cytadela Park. Previously, the site housed a single-storey commercial pavilion, which has since been demolished.

Fully utilising the potential of a plot within an urbanised area, with excellent access to public transport, is—in our view—the right design approach to counteract the trend of urban sprawl.

The project is a kind of fusion between single-family and multi-family housing. In our design work, we find a lack of technical regulations that would allow these two types of development to be meaningfully combined. For example, design rationalisation would be possible by eliminating individual staircases for each building. Instead, single-family homes could be grouped and served by a shared, safe stairwell.

The designed complex consists of two-unit buildings with a horizontal division—one residential unit above the other. Most units have access to an elevator serving a cluster of several buildings. Distances between buildings in the communication zone are tight, but this makes it possible to increase spacing in the garden areas—where it is most desirable. The design challenge was to find a building form that could be rotated freely on the site in the search for light and privacy, without expanding the typology. Thanks to this, the apartments receive excellent daylight.

We aimed to balance the density of development with abundant greenery. The plot, originally almost entirely paved over, has been transformed into a lush, green residential enclave. Nearly all existing trees were preserved. In several cases, their canopies define the façades of the buildings—the trees were here first, so the development must adapt to them. Cars were placed mainly in the underground section, allowing the slab above the garage to be greened. Vehicular traffic is largely separated from pedestrian routes.