Niedźwiednik
High above Gdansk, to the north of Slowackiego Street, on the moraine hills stretches the Niedźwiednik housing estate, which is part of the district of Bretowo. The whole district covers an area of 7.23 km2 and has a population of 7,529, with a density of 1,041 per km2. On the north side, Brętowo is adjacent to Oliwa and VII Dworem, and on the east side to Wrzeszcz Górny. The district’s southern boundary reaches Piecky-Migowo and Jasień, and the western boundary reaches Matarnia. The forests of the Tri-City Landscape Park (TPK) account for almost half the area of Brętowo, making its mid-forest boundaries difficult to delineate accurately in the field.
Niedźwiednik is primarily a residential area and woodland. In the residential part, single-storey single-family buildings can be distinguished, located in the area of Niedźwiednik (formerly Birenwinkel) and Leśna Góra streets. During the construction of the housing estate in the 1970s, some of the houses here were extended with additional storeys, which also changed the mansard roof structures. Before the war, this neighbourhood was characterised by very homogeneous buildings resembling those of Wileńska Street in neighbouring Piecki-Migów. The houses here, together with gardens and outbuildings, were intended for lower-ranking soldiers from the garrison of the ‘death hussars’. The higher-ranking officers lived closer to the barracks, in more elegant buildings.
The Niedźwiednik housing estate, which gave shape to the area, was designed by Danuta Dzierżanowska and Szczepan Baum. Although it was built between 1978 and 1983, the first designs and spatial studies were made as early as the early 1970s. In 1974 Maria Czernichowska, in collaboration with Krzysztof Hueckel, prepared a study of the area’s disposition, which formed the basis for further work on the character and size of the future housing estate. The study covered an area of 120 hectares, which was slightly larger than the settlement that was eventually created. The study included the area of the former military training ground in Potokowa Street on the south side of Slowackiego Street. Most of the land intended for the planned housing estate was unused, making it an excellent location for this type of investment.
The estate was built in two phases using the Szczecin system. One of the most important guidelines given to the designers was that the housing estate should be laid out in such a way as to emphasise the visual qualities of the terrain. During the construction of the housing estate, the 11 residential and 23 commercial buildings that stood on the site were demolished due to their poor technical condition – they were mainly wooden structures. In order to prevent the potentially fatal effects of slope and hillside erosion, it was decided to place the buildings on the cut tops of the hills and to locate terraced housing on the slopes. The most valuable areas in terms of landscape and nature were left in their natural formation. The concept of storied buildings with varying terraced heights was linked not only to the desire to preserve the character of the natural landscape, but also to emphasise it with the way the buildings were shaped. The taller buildings were situated on the plateaus, while the lower buildings ‘fall’ on the slopes. The valley of the shooting range was left undeveloped and designated as a playing field and sports areas.
Distinctive semi-circular plastic elements were incorporated into the architecture of the buildings and the site facilities. In the part of the balconies they were further emphasised with different colours, which was a distinguishing feature of the estate. Nowadays, however, after thermal modernisation and the application of colours to the entire facades of the blocks, these elements have lost one of their distinguishing features.
The four- and five-storey buildings were designed based on the documentation of the Zatorze II housing estate in Kwidzyn. The seven- and nineteen-storey blocks, on the other hand, were erected using large-panel technology. Realisation of the estate took place in two phases and began in 1976. In the first phase, four buildings were constructed for workplaces and three buildings for the Robotnicza Spółdzielnia Mieszkaniowa (Workers’ Housing Cooperative), whose investor was Inwestprojekt. A total of 240 flats with a total area of 14174 m2 were delivered in this part of the development. The layout of the housing development was designed by opening up the interiors towards the south or south-east and south-west. A service centre and a leisure and sports area were located centrally to the entire development.
The second phase of the project consisted of five multifamily housing tasks that were already being implemented in 1981. Niedźwiednik II comprises 1396 flats with an area of 75983 m2 for 4763 people. Terrace developments were also designed in this part (102 flats in total), which were located on slopes inaccessible for multi-family housing. The average size of the flats on Niedźwiednik was 54.43 m2. The general contractor was the Gdańskie Przedsiębiorstwo Budownictwa Mieszkaniowego.
One of the most interesting developments on Niedźwiednik is the estate of terraced houses with an unusual ‘staircase’ layout. The location on a slope made it necessary to design buildings with an unusual shape. They were erected in 1987-1989 on the initiative of the Inter-factory Housing Cooperative ‘Własna Chata’, which, under a notarial agreement of 1982, became the perpetual usufructuary of the land. The first designs by Ryszard Gruda and Teofila Labiedź-Gruda, in cooperation with Przemysław Łapiński and Bogdan Kledzik, were drawn up as early as 1985.
The text comes from a historical and spatial study of Niedźwiednik and Brętowo prepared for NARRACJE by Dorota Kucharczyk.
