A green district for Warsaw

The site of the former FSO car factory stretches over 60 hectares on the picturesque banks of the Vistula in Warsaw. The legendary car brands Polski Fiat and Warszawa were once manufactured here. As recently as the 1990s, the plant employed around 20,000 people. A similar number of people could find a new home on the former industrial site in the future. The site is to be transformed into the modern FSO Park district by 2050. Construction work on the first stage is already scheduled to begin this year.

The plan is for around 17,000 residents to live in this green, traffic-calmed district, which is located just five kilometers north of the city center. Around 13,000 jobs are also to be created. The ambitious project is being developed by Warsaw-based planning offices WXCA Architectural Design Studio, SYWAWA and Buro Happold from Bath in collaboration with JKO Consulting and the City of Warsaw. The real estate developer OKAM, which currently manages the site, is acting as investor. Recently, the architects from WXCA and the urban planners from SAWAWA presented the master plan for this large-scale project, which is to be designed according to the principle of the 15-minute city.

A ten-hectare park is to be created at the heart of the new district, stretching over a kilometer and acting as the main green axis. Public facilities are planned along its edges, which will be particularly dense at the intersections with the cross axes and merge seamlessly into the green inner courtyards of the residential blocks. With a focus on education and recreation as well as the creation of numerous communal spaces, the aim is to strengthen neighbourly interaction.

A central highlight will be a 3.5-hectare school and leisure complex.
Another important aspect of the master plan is the preservation and conversion of parts of the industrial heritage. Fragments of the foundry, the assembly hall and a passageway to the welding shop are to frame the main square of the quarter in future. The characteristic saw-tooth roof of the industrial architecture will also be reused as a design element in new buildings. The car, once the heart of this place, is to be largely banned from the area in order to create space for cycling and pedestrian traffic. Instead, car traffic will be routed via an outer ring road, while ensuring good transport links.