architect.
finished. 1952
A.k.a. Osiedle Przyjazn (Friendship Community), which came from osiedle Przyjazni Polsko-Radzieckiej (Community of Polish-Russian Friendship). It was built to house the thousands of Russian workers who came to build the Palace of Kulture. The housing was surrounded by barbed wire and had a guard at the gate. The community had all sorts of ammenities: a movie theater, cafeteria, club, library, post office, baths and steam-heating plant. There were barracks for the workers and single family homes for the management. Some of the houses were built with material salvaged from a POW camp near Olsztynek while some of the houses were pre-fabs from Finland. After the PKiN was finished in 1955 the houses were turned over to Warsaw and used as university student housing.
This is a really charming corner of Warsaw. Even visiting it on a cold day in December I had to appreciate how picturesque it was; low, long, colorful wood houses settled amongst trees and lawns. It kinda had a feel of American campus life with columns at the entrance to each building and grassy knolls in front. There was a surprising lack of cars and a general aura of peace and quiet (it could be that I was there early on a Sunday morning and all the students were sleeping off their hangovers though).
No comments:
Post a Comment