Cities for Climate and Water Resilience, Sustainable Growth, Healthy Citizens and Environments
Wroclaw’s demonstration projects tackle the dual risks of flooding and heat stress. They are located in the Olbin district, a dense urban area that ranges from wealthy to socially deprived. They include several nature-based solutions– swales, raingardens and greenery. Community gardens and natural play areas gave space for the local people to socialize and produce their own vegetables. Biodiversity also benefits from the improved habitat, birdhouses and insect hotels.
Local
Poland
city Wrocław, district Ołbin
Mainly urban
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
Yes
Horizon2020 / Horizon Europe
The project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 730283
The program started in 2017, designed in 2018, built in 2019-2020, monitored by the Wroclaw University of Enviromental and Life Science until 2022. Now being evaluated by the University of Manchester.
No
Yes
2022-06-30
As a representative of an organization, in partnership with other organisations
Name of the organisation(s): Tecla Sp. z o.o., Daszyńskiego 3/6, 50-309 Wrocław; PHU Dworniczak Sosnowa 20 54-015 Wrocław; A&K Studio Pracownia Architektury Krajobrazu; grupa doprzodu; mentol architects Oławska 21/7, 50-123 Wrocław Type of organisation: For-profit company First name of representative: Dagmara Last name of representative: Żelazny Gender: Female Nationality: Poland Function: the company's proxy Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Daszyńskiego 3/6 Town: Wrocław Postal code: 50-309 Country: Poland Direct Tel:+48 602 337 956 E-mail:biuro@tecla.pl Website:https://tecla.pl/
Grow Green project aimed to create climate and water resilient, healthy and livable cities by investing in innovative and nature-based solutions (NBS). Seven cities were chosen as partners of GrowGreen. These cities all have complex challenges associated with climate resilience, as well as a range of social, economic and environmental issues. Demonstration projects were designed and implemented in Manchester (UK), Valencia (Spain) and Wroclaw (Poland) and Wuhan (China).
In Wrocław we have designed nature-based solutions - demonstrative projects to tackle the dual risks of flooding and heat stress. Solutions are located in the Olbin district of Wrocław -- Daszyńskiego street, yard 3 and 4, within a dense urban area that ranges from wealthy to socially deprived. Various forms of greenery were introduced to create the ‘green street’, shading pedestrians, cars, and passengers waiting at the tram stop. These included planting trees, wooden structures with greenery - ‘parklets, also creepers and climbing plants on buildings. Two courtyards among tenement buildings have been redesigned and renovated including a whole package of nature-based solutions – swales and rain gardens help rainwater to soak into the soil, and new trees and greenery providing shade. Community gardens and natural play areas give more space for the local people to socialize and produce their own food. Biodiversity also benefits from the improved habitat, birdhouses and insect hotels.
The goal was to demonstrate the potential for nature-based solutions to improve living conditions in the city - climatic conditions, air quality and noise reduction, to reduce heat stress and flooding and to provide other co-benefits and engage citizens in designing nature-based solutions that meet their needs. The impacts of the demonstration projects had been monitored by the Wrocław University until 2022.
nature-based solutions (NBS)
public spaces
stormwater use
biodiversity
local community
First of all, project transformed Daszyńskiego street from transit and parking one (focused mainly on cars), into more local and calmer one (designed primarily for pedestrians), with green infrastructure engaging citizens in taking over the space and designing solutions that meet their needs.
A key goal of the project was to base on the solutions and resources available in the catalogue of nature-based solutions. For example, where there was a problem with rainwater run-off, it was directed to a place where it would benefit the plants, instead of diverting into underground drains and causing dampness of foundation walls, the use of drainage vegetation was chosen. Where there was greenery but a lack of social involvement, new functions were introduced, that have created social bonds and a better self-awareness. The used tools were based on using as much organic and mineral material as possible and infrastructure others only where necessary. Some used building materials were recycled, such as demolition bricks for the shelter or stone for the floor and thresholds. All infrastructure related to road drainage, management of rainwater from the roofs, cooling the air temperature and enhancement of biodiversity uses simple solutions visible in the landscape. These are groups of specially selected plants, basins, rain gardens, creepers, new trees, bird and pollinator houses. Sustainability is also about the balance of costs in relation to the objectives achieved. Without investing in expensive infrastructure, it was possible to significantly improve the quality of the landscape, and also the safety and enjoyment of the area. There is space for all of the city's inhabitants, both human and animals.
The project can be seen as an example of sustainable investment in the public because of focus on maximizing space potential and solving major problems. The measures applied were based on directly diagnosed disadvantages of the space and providing a simple but effective solution
The aesthetics of the space was mainly based on the introduction of diverse green material into the historic fabric, along with structures and shells supporting them. The execution of all was rather low-tech style using much of recycled materials. Designed greenery was intended to be resilient and form self-supporting systems in a harsh urban environment - which is why the greenery is quite diverse in its expression and appears somewhat wild. The essence was to create a resistant microsystem that would survive in difficult conditions of dense downtown. The green material is complemented by modest, standard materials such as stone, brick, wood, built into the public space and providing a backdrop to the events in that space.
The main theme of Courtyard no.3, was the element of the earth - agriculture, clay, brick and warm colors. Pedestrian paths had a mineral surface, a garbage shed and a bicycle shelter were built of demolition bricks. Allotment garden was created and supplemented with a hand pump (Abyssinian). The courtyard no.4, whose leitmotif is stone and water – showed the possibility of its collection, retention and reuse.
Daszyńskiego street had been remodeled as better quality local public space. New greenery was introduced, and the sidewalk slopes had been corrected to direct the storm water into the bioswales. The goal was to demonstrate the potential for nature-based solutions to improve living conditions in the city and create better conditions for shops and services in ground floors of tenement houses to develop.
People start to appreciate the greenery appearance and gradually request for more. After being used to the surrounding ugliness and poor quality of the space, people started to be exposed to the new aesthetics. That helped create a different point of view, where there's more need of organizing and using public space. People are being encouraged to further actions, and started to feel comfortable in a pleasant and more friendly environment.
The Green Street Daszyńskiego had been narrowed - so was meandred the driving lane, car traffic slowed down, new greenery was introduced. The goal was to improve living conditions in the city - climatic conditions, air quality and noise reduction, to reduce heat stress and flooding and provide other co-benefits such as better conditions for humans to live.
Small architecture allowed the elderly people to rest on seats within greenery along the street, and this encouraged them to exit home more willingly and use the public space without fear of limited range of pedestrian movement for them.
New functions were introduced in the backyards. The greenery created space and conditions for children and elderly people to have various activities in their forecourt - in semi-public space nearby their homes. That also created opportunities of contact between neighbors and between different age groups so the could interact and help each other.
Some areas were left to be developed by the residents themselves, which has had the effect of creating a stronger bond with the space, as well as significantly reducing costs. The successive events that have taken place reveal an inexhaustible reservoir of energy and a desire to act from people of every age. The space has been cleaned from the excessive parking to provide space for pedestrians and greenery. Pensioners and children have been included by creating a safer space for them. Clear classification of functions previously mixed, gave a proper lead for users, so they feel free to come out.
Firstly, the city's residents had been invited to 2 stages of public consultation. The first pre-design stage was to gather information on the needs of the residents. The second stage was to present the preliminary designs and to plan together the location of each element.
Residents participated in workshops organized by the city and in the planting activities in the courtyards. Once completed, the community gardens were put into use, with vegetables being grown on a regular basis. Residents are eager to use the designed spaces and are also adding their own elements. Swings, new planting, seating, a playground and similar have all come from people's own initiatives. A very important and visible aspect is the constant change seen in the landscape, which shows that the space is being used intensively.
The Neighborhood Council has recognized the potential of these changes in terms of creating neighborhood communities and has contributed by organizing picnics and other activities.
The project was consulted and implemented on a local level within the Wrocław city district as well as internationally. Wroclaw's partner cities were Manchester (UK), Valencia (Spain), Wuhan (China) and the Fellow cities Brest (France), Zadar (Croatia) and Modena (Italy). During the preparation of the project, the experiences of other cities and their approaches to climate change were exchanged. In the summer of 2019, a delegation from the above-mentioned countries visited Wrocław. Together with the City Hall, we took joint walks and discussed design concepts. As each city was struggling with slightly different issues, it was a very interesting collaboration. At the municipal level, the Municipal Office cooperated with the Wroclaw University of Environmental and Life Sciences, who prepared the introduction of the adopted solutions.
As part of the project, we invited affiliated design offices from various fields such as dendrology, landscape design, road design, engineering and architecture and design to participate. Locally, both the Ołbin Estate Council and the Local Activity Centre (Żółty Parasol) and the Ekorozwój Foundation (NGOs) were involved. They all helped to organize the public consultation. The involvement of such various partners helped to tackle such a broad and difficult topic substantively.
The project is based on a combination of knowledge from the fields of architecture, engineering, landscape architecture and design but also sociology, economy and social assistance. Problem diagnosis were determined in site studies, public consultations and consultation with the city and its partners. Together with invited team of designers and professionals, innovative ideas were developed, that were later implemented. Interaction consisted of constructing the optimal concept combining all disciplines. For example, direct cooperation between a road designer and a dendrologist resulted in a successful compromise in the form of using rainwater from the road and sidewalk surface to feed the green swales. It was also significant that cooperation went beyond the formal line-up. There were NGOs involved voluntarily giving their feedback to the project. The combination of specialist in different fields resulted in very interesting outcome.
The result of the project was the start of a trend towards greening the neighborhood in the most densely populated area. Disconnected stretches of greenery (parks, family gardens and the like) are gaining links in the form of tree rows, pocket parks and green courtyards. The beneficiaries of this direction are the residents of the district (especially those who were previously excluded like senior citizens) as well as the small animals living in the city. The range of activities in the area is increasing, as indicated by the consecutive city design competitions for neighboring streets (introduction of trees and blue-green infrastructure). Commercial services and private businesses in the ground floors of tenement houses have flourished. The new, better quality services for the population are emerging and pedestrian traffic and also cycling traffic is increasing in the street.
In this context, the changes introduced are expanding and the project is increasing in range. The neighborhood is slowly beginning to regain its splendor, thanks to greater community involvement and the city. The previously forgotten neighborhood is starting to become a welcoming place and is recognized as a better place to live. People are beginning to identify with the neighborhood, where they can find both the advantages of a dense city, shops and services but also greenery and biodiversity.
Greenery has become a popular theme for projects selected in the participatory budget program of the city of Wrocław for several years. There green street has inspired district council to initiate works on next green street – Wyszyńskiego that is adjacent to Daszyńskiego Street. The public consultation for this idea had been performed on Green Street – on parklets located on section Daszyńskiego with Wyszyńskiego.
So far, the direction of improving city space has been based on renovation of hard infrastructure. This approach is quite expensive and does not involve people’s energy, therefore they are usually critical about it. The change based solely on aesthetics ends in devastation because there’s no one to take care for it. Soft actions associated with people’s engagement had a completely different effect. The range of other solutions given to the public (NBS) wasn’t fully accepted at first (residents demanded f.ex. façade renovations or more parking spaces), but in time people started to see and actually feel the real benefits.
The foundations of the GrowGreen project gave us new tools to implement innovative ideas. In order to further monitor and valorize the project, we were able to use non-standard materials and solutions. We decided to plant trees where no one did it before – on the crossroads, narrowing the road to minimum width. With one thing we could adress the heat, safety and parking issues. Additional benefits came later with the arrival of pollinating insects or better air quality nearby The non-obvious approach was also expressed in the treatment of greenery not as a decoration, but as a real working infrastructure. Over the years, the municipality's focus have changed and now it is almost mandatory to manage rainwater mainly outside the sewage system.
Polish law does not promote NBS solutions yet, but the environmental lobby is getting stronger. The real and visual effects convince decision makers to change the existing law. The latest document is the Urban Climate Change Adaptation Plan for Wroclaw (2019) with a strong focus on nature-based solutions. The blue-green infrastructure action plan, developed as a part of GrowGreen links to this Plan. As a result, the Municipality of Wrocław has introduced a policy of including NBS in all urban investments, which means that NBS are part of the standard solutions that must be taken into account in public tenders
There were few stages of the project formation:
-Firtst stage was to choose locations of the project demonstrators;
-Next stage was to perform public consultation and collect data about people's need;
-Meanwhile there were a problematic issues being defined;
-We prepared the first sketches and presented the ideas to the public on a second public consultation;
-The municipality in collaboration with the University valorized our project using advanced modelling program;
-In cooperation with the construction company we prepared project in a “design and build’ procedure;
-The construction started in 2019 and contained a community involvement and workshops, we conducted author's supervision meanwhile;
-The Wrocław University monitored the results of the project until 2022;
-The final valorization is being prepared by the University of Manchester and will be presented soon to the public;
-The project will be monitored and analysed for the next 5 years by the Local University.
The complemented approach connecting many stakeholders was present during the whole process, so we could touch the broad context. The combination of scientific and social approach gave a satisfying effect to the residents as well as the scientific research and studies.
Many aspects of the project can be replicated or transferred to other locations.
First thing is the collaboration of many field professionals in one project. It created a platform for outside of the box thinking and knowledge exchange.
The creation of projects with the inhabitants and their participation is the key to success in every aspect. What is a better source of information than a user?
The methodology was based on defying problematic areas and then responding to them in a most accurate way. In our case we based on University and Municipality research and then their evaluation of our proposals. This self checking system made us realize what is the optimal way to achieve the best effect.
Because the locations chosen for the project presented initially very low quality, the context was very difficult. The necessity of comprehensive renovation was huge, but we were able to base only on NBS. The final result of the project showed that more important action is to revitalize not only restore the site. The amount of funds doesn’t have to be high as long as the community is growing.
Definitely using a special gutter-like construction to plant small trees inside was a smart proposition to avoid a future underground network's destruction.
Creating a lot of scattered watergardens prevented the foundations from getting wet and planting hydrophilic plants helped to dry the terrain.
The road on the courtyard serves to direct the rafting into the bioswales, which make it also a part of working infrastructure apart from its primal communication function. The foundation of the green road in the yard is also permeable to water.
We tried to give more than one function to each element, so it creates a self-sufficient machine. Even the walls serve as a trellis for creepers, and houses for smaller lives.While exchanging experience with partnership cities (Manchester and Valencia) we discovered that the problems we are struggling with are very similar.
The main global challenge is the coming climate catastrophe and the lasting changes that it causes. We can no longer maintain existing status quo, which costing us more and more everyday. The price is no longer money, but the future.
Local actions are the elementary component of global changes. For this purpose, we tried to present activities that can be successfully implemented by individuals.
The public space has become hostile, and the optimal way to mitigate this effect may be a return to nature. Imitation of nature is used as an excellent example of a well-designed mechanism that can adapt to existing conditions. The number one problem to solve was the local and further city resilience to climate change. In order to significantly influence this issue, small and understandable solutions have been implemented. Their strength lies in the simplicity and ease of execution. The educational aspect allows to raise children in contact with nature. They can observe and learn from it, as well as commune with nature, which we lack.
Anonymity is strangely characteristic of the high density area of buildings in the city. Usually, the more people live in the same area, the less they interact with each other. Ołbin is one of the most densely populated districts of the city, and also in Poland - with an average population density of over 25,000 ppl/km2. Focusing on local actions has benefits in creating a more aware and engaged society.
