Barren urbanity : transition and superimposition

Abstract

Last winter I visited a housing cooperative named 'LSM' in Lublin, Poland. In a town of 350,000, 50,000 people lived in the estate located 1 kilometer southwest from the medieval and nineteenth century city center. What I saw was a cold barren landscape dotted with rectilinear concrete slab buildings barricading a livable environment. In contrast to my impression, I held a respect for the place. I saw potential in using the existing apartment buildings and saw a beauty in the abused natural landscape. I felt that the existing environment could become more humane and livable. This would not be by means of salvaging, repairing or decorating, but rather reinterpreting what was there and interacting with the new and the landscape. Within the thesis I have chosen to portray chronologically the design process of a new city center and its integration into the estate. I do not consider the thesis to conclude into a design solution but rather as a pictorial description of my thought methodology cumulating in some ideas that I believe could be approached for urban environments of this sort.