GREEN WALLS - housing and service development

Project idea

The original assumption was to create a typical quarter. Then, the project evolved to a quarter building with a green interior closed from above. To this end, it was narrowed and two staircases centrally located were added. From staircases through the layout of footbridges, we get to individual apartments, which are shaped in six cuboids, with one flat per floor in a rectangular. The external walls of apartments located from the inside of the building are green system walls, thanks to which in the interior of the building we can feel the closeness of nature and relax while spending time in the common space. In the projection we can see the ring system divided into functions of rooms. All service rooms, such as bathrooms, laundry rooms and kitchens have been located from inside the building. The next ring is rooms, bedrooms and living rooms, while from the outside there are spacious balconies. The building has a common ground floor for the whole assumption, which connects the entire building. Parking spaces and storage rooms are located in the underground storey.

Project description

Six-storey buildings with five above-ground storeys are being designed. Storey -1 is an underground car park with 54 parking spaces for passenger cars and 4 for mopeds. In addition, there are 26 storage rooms and a heat exchanger on this floor.
Ground floor or storey +1 is intended for services, it consists of two large service premises with the necessary technical facilities. In the central part there is a room for bicycles and prams for children. At the northern entrance, a cleaning room with a toilet was located.
The levels +2, +3, +4, +5 are residential, each of them has been designed with six repeatable apartments of various sizes.
Vertical communication inside the building is carried out by means of two staircases and two passenger lifts, while horizontal communication is provided as reinforced concrete footbridges spread between individual apartments and staircases.
The entrance to the building is from the south and north.

Technical information

On the basis of analyzes and field visions, it can be noticed that the nearby surroundings do not have a uniform architectural or urban style. The conceptual design of the land development was based on the links of the area with the surrounding area, viewing axes and compositional axes that already existed were extended or curved dividing the area into three parts. Part I is a continuation of Marshal Józef Piłsudski Square.
The viewing axis from Primate Józef Wyszyński Street has been continued and limited by the frontage of newly constructed buildings. The resulting square is an extension of the existing Piłsudski Square and is a foreground for newly designed administrative buildings. Part II is a grid of nine compact quarters, as this type of development is characteristic of the center of Gliwice. The buildings are service-provisionally residential (storeys from +1 to +2 are service, while +2; +3; +4 depending on the building are residential floors). Car traffic in parts I and II has been moved outside through the surrounding streets. Two floors of underground car parks are planned under the area. In Part III, four residential and service buildings as well as one completely service with a dominant function, which are offices, have been designed. The layout of this part refers to the areas that are located on the northern and western sides of the study area, through its free urban composition. Residential and service buildings have been cut off and sheltered from the Felix Orlickiego street through a building on the arch plan that completes and completes the entire composition arrangement.


Architectural form of the object
The building has the shape of a rectangle made up of six smaller cuboids, centered around a central glass cuboid in which internal communication is focused. The facades of the building are shaped by glazing of balustrades, glazed flats and reflecting colors of the green walls of the building. The whole gives the impression of one large lump cut into smaller ones with many different and unique, time-varying facades that are created by combining green walls with glazing.
Construction of the object
It is a structure with a frame structure, a post-beam structure, additionally stiffened with reinforced concrete walls. The structural module is 8.1 m. The foundation is a foundation slab additionally reinforced under posts. The ceilings, just like flat roofs, were proposed as monolithic reinforced concrete, with the exception of the roof over the communication part, where due to the greater span - 10.8 m, a truss was designed that transfers loads from the glass roof to reinforced concrete walls. Internal stairs were proposed as monolithic reinforced concrete. Windscreens also have a reinforced concrete structure.

Co-authors

Promoter of engineering work:
dr inż. arch. Damian Radwański