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Plaz Cracovia
Plaz Cracovia
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Plaz Cracovia
This urban design project in Poland’s most historic and second largest city, Krakow, is located in a unique urban situation. Krakow was formed in concentric rings of development, and this site is located on the edge of two areas separated by just one large avenue but over 300 years of history. The city’s largest green space, Park Błonia, is a large meadow that comes to a sharp point on the site. The street on which the site is located has two important visual end points. To the east is the spire of the St. Mary’s Cathedral in the main square within the heart of Krakow, and to the west is Kościuszko Mound, the location of a buried Polish king. Across this street from the site is a large square and a national museum. Currently, the city is planning for this part of Krakow to become an entertainment gateway, with cinemas and two sports arenas adjacent. In many senses however, this site is caught between a somewhere and a nowhere. Although it is surrounded by significant and highly charged places, it currently lacks an identity and is more of a transient space than a destination. The task presented here was to create a new gateway, a new node of activity.The program type is mixed use, with a large retail center including housing and offices. The design responds to all the forces near the site. The retail rests on the lower levels, which is the height of the nearby historic structures. The circulation overlooks an atrium with unrivaled views of the expansive meadow. A void is sliced through the center of the new block, creating a visual and physical connection from the new Cracovia arena to the main avenue. A tower is erected on the corner to maximize high-rent space. However, it is angled to be respectful of the visual connection from Park Błonia to historic city spires. The angle also responds to the diagonal of the park and is the width of the museum facade across the street. Finally, to demonstrate the progression of rural space in the west to density in the east of the city, a grid with dimensions of the museum’s columns is placed on the square. The grid dematerializes to become green spaces where children can play in fountains or areas for weaving from stall to stall in a farmer’s market.
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