Student participiants:
Nauras Hamdan, Natália Jušková, Zuzana Kopiláková, Maja Mawusi, Jakub Rej, Zuzia Spaltabaka, Zygmunt Śliwiński, Dóri Zachár, Vladimir Kysela
Location: Poznań Centres for Sport and Leisure- Rataje Division
POSiR (the Poznań Centres for Sport and Leisure), Rataje division is a facility constituting a sport and recreation complex located in the centre of Poznań. An undeniable advantage of the centre is its picturesque location on the bank of the Warta river, which is particularly impressive in the summer period. In the near vicinity, there are tram and bus stops within the walking distance of 10 minutes. In the neighbourhood there is also a very popular cycle path – Wartostrada. The users of the centre are residents of different ages enjoying actively spending time. The users include both local residents and those who travel from other parts of the city specially to engage in a specific sport discipline. Within the area of the centre there is a modern bowling space, tennis courts, football pitches, basketball and volleyball courts, skate park and a safe playground. An important element of the division is the Nice Lady Fitness club designed exclusively for women, equipped in modern cardio, gym, and spinning equipment, and sauna.
ACTIVITIES
Youth can use pitches and courts with synthetic surface designed for football, basketball, volleyball, as well as the first skate park in Poznań created in a pit of a historical open air swimming pool – referred to as the Island. The Rataje division has three full-size courts of beach volleyball, as well as one pitch under the Orlik complex. This is why it is a perfect place not only to train and play, but also to organise professional tournaments.
NEEDS
The Rataje Division presented two locations for the project activities. One of them is the entrance to the centre from the side of the alley running along the Warta river. It used to have a representative character, characteristic for its semi-circular brick wall which constituted a background and a backrest for wooden siting which served as a convenient rest spot. It used to be the main entrance and the ticket office to the indoor swimming pool which used to be part of the centre in the 70s.
Currently, what is left after the seating next to the old ticket office are only the metal mounting elements, while the brick wall became covered in various drawings and graffiti. This place was originally supposed to constitute the most representative part of the centre and serve as a rest stop for cyclist, sport enthusiasts, seniors or students of the nearby schools exercising near the Warta river. It is also possible to paint the walls in a single colour and create a visual cohesion of the entrance by the use of wooden elements in the construction of seats, information boards or visual identification of the place. The second place is the proximity of the volleyball courts. Elements placed in its vicinity should respond to the needs of rest of both individuals as well as organised groups participating in tournaments and other such activities. Seats could also serve the function of the stands for observing the games and competitions.
FINAL RESULTS
The group immediately recognised the great potential of this place – which was not only an impulse inviting to use the extensive sport infrastructure of the centre but also a popular rest spot for cyclists and passers-by due to the vicinity and the view of the river. Unfortunately, despite long talks, the group did not manage to convince the administration of the centre to reopen the old ticket offices of the swimming pool and consider placing a refreshment kiosk there – with ice cream, soft drinks or waffles – which would be a huge impulse for revitalising this space. The administration agreed only to paint window openings of the disused ticket offices with a uniform, gold colour – which was the young designers’ idea for emphasising the interesting shape of the building. The main element of the students’ project was a resting platform which used the given geometry of a brick wall. The form of a platform was determined by the mirror image of its arc. A piece of seating-lounging furniture emerged which resembles a leaf shape. Different inclination angles of specific split surfaces provide significant variety of usage. A piece of comfortable city furniture was created, which does not constrain the users’ movements and fits perfectly into the landscape of the Warta river bank.
Tutor: Marcin Kwietowicz + Gaja Bieniasz
Architects from Poland
Marcin Kwietowicz, a designer, besides the main, commercial trend works in the various art fields. In addition to the interior of Galilu Olfactory Perfumery in Warsaw and Po he is a coauthor of the lobby of the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art (together with W. Kotecki and A. Salamon) and the Institute of Vanguard –Edward Krasinski studio on the roof of a block at the avenue Solidarity in Warsaw (with BAR Architects, Rotterdam) and the Art House/Studio in Warsaw (P. Brzoza), which was awarded in the 8th edition of the competition 20 + 10 + X WA Awards. He is an author of exhibitions, (i.a., of the Polish pavilion in the Art Biennale in Venice. 2005) and film (Artur Żmijewski’s „Repetition”), and theatre (Ivan Vyrypaev’s July) scenography. His projects were published in the Wallpaper Magazine, Architecture – Murator, Architecture & Business, as well as at the web portals (deezen.com, architektura.pl).
Gaja Bieniasz studied architecture at the Architecture Department of the Kraków Technical University and at Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid (Universidad Politecnica de Madrid). Finalist of SARP’s Annual Zbyszek Zawistowski award for diploma project of 2008. She also finished the postgraduate course in historic buildings conservation at Arquitectura de Madrid (Mater Oficial de Restauración y Conservación del Patrimonio Arquitectónico). Her professional experience includes work in the Madrid office under the supervision of her master and diploma supervisor Alberto Campo Baeza. She runs her own studio since 2013.