lepšia Furča

TUK - Technical University of Kosice, Faculty of Arts

Project idea

The Dargovských hrdinov (heroes of Dargov pass) housing estate, located in Košice - Slovakia, is called "Furča" by locals. Furča was founded in the era of socialism at the end of the 1970s, much like the majority in the former Eastern bloc. Despite wide criticism, from the the mass society, but also from architects, to this day it is more or less in the same shape. Specifically in Košice, there was minimal attention paid to the issue of housing estates. If by chance, one of them was to build dominant building and not conceptual development. The "lepšia Furča" (better Furča) project is an ensemble of interventions, that come from the author's analysis of the problems of a particular location. The project is an analytical part of the author's master thesis, which deals with the development of that housing estate in the future, and the definition of development regulations. The author is a lifelong resident of the Furča housing estate.

Project description

The project analyzes the area in theoretical work. As part of the work are pictures illustrating simple interventions into the existing state of the housing estate. Theoretical work in the first part recalls and analyzes the history, it's origin and development. In the second part of the thesis, it analyzes the current state and it's cause. Main topics are:
1. Surrounding aspects
Due to the technology of prefab construction and planned socialist economy, the housing estate is isolated from the compact city. Housing estate cannot fulfill it's potential, unless it would be connected to the rest of the city without functionally poor areas (greenfield, brownfield) between them. The location on the outskirts of town has one advantage - recreational potential. The closeness of a nature offers to build a viewpoint, hiking trails and stops, cycling paths, cross-country trails - all with a start at housing estate.
2. Public and commercial amenities
The housing estate has plenty of original amenities - different types of schools and shopping malls. Their condition is miserable and it's functionally fully corresponds with a neglected state. Conceptual reconstruction and redevelopment can bring new features and improve it's surrounding area (community centers, local pubs, restaurants, shops, market, etc. At the top of the amenities hierarchy, there is missing housing estate's centre - the main meeting point, the main square - space for organizing social events, local municipality office. Project designs it geographically in the the center of the housing estate, near the main road - according to the former unfinished design.
3. Public space
Public space is, according to me, the most problematic aspect of socialist housing estates. While the inner city is concentrated in the streets, squares and parks, in housing estate public space flows around almost everywhere. The best way to see it, is by it's green areas - they are the same, undefined, anonymous. The solution is to functionally dividing and defining them into areas of various type of use - high quality park, dogs park, biocorridor, meadow, orchard, community gardens, playgrounds and sports fields.
4. Housing
The main feature of housing estates is socialism era prefab housing. It is necessary to assess them according to the period of time and political connotations in which they arose - disposition of flats was not solved badly. The project focuses mainly on the possibility of connecting apartment buildings with anonymous area that's surrounding them, and usage of a large roof areas.
5. Visual
40-50 years after construction of the housing estate, with a new layer of individual and unconceptional interventions, it seems like a visual chaos. As the last chapter of the work, project propose a uniform visual orientation system for the entire housing estate in the forms of a branding (postal code 04022), orientation panels, color and material regulation, regulation of advertising smog, info point in the center of the housing estate.

Technical information

Project consist of theoretical work, series of pictures and master plan proposal of the whole area (scale 1:2000). Vector staffage is downloaded from free library pimpmydrawing.com

Co-authors