The 2023 Revitalisation Centre in Włocławek has been completed. The building, designed by Analog studio, was created as a result of an architectural competition decided in 2017. The centre is located on the street connecting the former New Market (now Liberty Square) with the Old Market on the Vistula River and is part of a broader programme of activities aimed at renewing degraded areas of the city. The investment is an attempt to restore the significance of a place with a deep history, the traces of which disappeared as a result of the dramatic events of the 20th century.
Revitalisation Centre – a space with many layers
The area on which the Centre is located used to be part of the so-called Jewish Revir, established in 1803 during the Prussian era. In the interwar period, the Jewish community of Wloclawek numbered around 13,000 people, accounting for one fifth of the total population. A small eclectic tenement house at 18 3 Maja Street housed a female Jewish school in the 19th century. In the immediate vicinity was also a synagogue built in 1854, designed by Franciszek Tournelle, destroyed by the Germans in October 1939.
Part of the town’s revitalisation
The Revitalisation Centre is part of the Municipal Revitalisation Programme of the City of Wloclawek for 2018-2028. The building is intended to have a social function, supporting the process of transformation of the degraded urban fabric. The Centre’s spaces include a civic café, an activation and entrepreneurship centre, flats for talented graduates and a so-called participatory courtyard. The project’s premise was to create a place that would counteract negative social phenomena through architectural quality and functionality. The carefully designed space is intended to encourage involvement, cooperation and responsibility for the common environment.
Architecture as a tool for transformation
The historic building, like much of Wloclawek’s built-up area, has suffered significant degradation over the years and was eventually abandoned. As part of the work on the Revitalisation Centre, all the buildings filling the plot were demolished and the facade of the building was later reconstructed. The entrance leads through a historic gate. As you walk through the spaces, you reach the participatory garden, located at the rear of the property. During the reconstruction of the front façade, the historic details were restored while maintaining a consistent, abstract composition based on the white colour. The window openings and their joinery were reconstructed based on archival iconographic sources.
New development of the Revitalisation Centre
Within the newly designed parts of the courtyard, full-glass facades with discreetly integrated ventilation windows have been used. The colour of the woodwork and metal details was harmonised with the front part of the building. Sections of the outbuildings have been partially reconstructed and built with hand-formed bricks, also recycled. The unplastered walls divide the space into a public activity zone and a private residential area intended for the talented graduates the city wants to retain or attract back.
The townhouse on 3 Maja Street before and after redevelopment. Photo: Google Maps and Analog
Dialogue with the past
Two functional elements have been introduced into the courtyard space: an office wing connected to the historic buildings and a suspended studio with a flat for the resident artist. Deep in the courtyard, an opening of proportions inspired by the architecture of the now defunct Tournelle synagogue has been inserted in the brick wall. It has a practical dimension as a window, but also a symbolic one. It is an expression of the memory of the lost community and its place in the history of Wloclawek, and at the same time an opening towards the future.
A new quality of space
The Revitalisation Centre is an example of architecture that influences behaviour and builds social identity. It becomes a space for meeting, interacting and reflecting on the history of the place. It stands out against the background of neglected buildings, but not as an alien object. On the contrary, through references to the local context, it builds continuity and offers a framework for future activities.
project: ANALOG
partner: Piotr Smierzewski
Photographs: Jakub Certowicz
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