15 minutes of fame – again

Urban planning has always been subject to the prevailing cultural and technical trends of the day. Major epidemics, however, have often been catalysts of change. The cholera outbreaks of the early 19th century gave rise to modern sewerage systems, a result of which was that clean drinking water was made universally available and buildings were thinned out. Public parks were created, where you could take a stroll while keeping a safe distance from others. Rules were laid down for how much light and air a home had to have to minimise the threat of respiratory disease from the pollution generated by industrialisation.

The current pandemic, which has engulfed the whole world, could, paradoxically, also have its upsides – one of which could well be the growth in the popularity of the mixed-use quarters that have been slowly appearing in and around the centres of cities. There are districts where pedestrians have the right of way and that feature central squares planted with lush greenery and surrounded by residential, retail and office buildings. As well as the grey roads and buildings that typically make up a typical city’s infrastructure, the infrastructure of the blue and green is of no less importance.

Architecture is both a science and an art. According to Vitruvius, a Roman architect and near contemporary of Julius Caesar, a building should have three main attributes: firmitas, utilitas, and venustas, or permanence, utility and beauty – and that’s also true of such mixed-use quarters: They combine historic buildings with innovative, avant-garde uses of space to address the needs of the different modes of living that characterise modern society.

Trending once more

This is by no means a new idea, as cities already have such districts as well as long term development plans for them. There has been the trend for a good few years to renovate and convert dilapidated factory and warehouse sites that have long been derelict to create revitalised complexes with an architecturally consistent style. Such projects an unexpected boost and added raison d’être by the onset of Covid-19. Social distancing has generated the need to submerge ourselves in surroundings that are a balm to the senses, where we can meet up and relax. “Urban architecture has been evolving in the direction of sustainable mixed-use projects with office, retail, residential, sports, cultural and recreational components. With the clear trend for automation and sharing, the need for parking space will be much reduced and the space this frees up can be turned into parks and public areas,” believes Anna Górska-Kwiatkowska, a landlord representation manager at Cushman & Wakefield.

Everyone we spoke to agreed: Covid-19 should prove to be a something of a blessing in disguise for mixed-use quarters. “The pandemic will have a beneficial effect on the development of mixed-use projects. It will be a boon to those developers who in previous years were already taking into account future styles of working and living in their projects. Over the last 100 years too many open and green areas have been swallowed up,” claims Alexandre Huyghe, the CEO of Revive, one of the developers of the Łazarz district in Poznań.

A time for visionaries

During the last real estate boom, which lasted quite some time, almost every project could be sold. But good times don’t last forever, as we have become very aware of over the last few months. “Who has remained in the field of play while the market has been contracting? Mostly it’s been those visionaries who can see further than just the next office or retail project. Their ambition is to actively help form the city and change how its residents see their immediate surroundings. A project should be mixed-use because then it engages not only with its residents but also business and culture. It should be like a living organism that interacts with the local community. The key to success in this case is organising the common areas in such a way that the project will merge seamlessly into the fabric of the city, which it will also help to create,” explains Robert Pastuszka, an associate director at consultancy Nuvalu.

Place-making should ensure continuous, sustainable development. Modern cities tend to be plagued with such issues as suburban sprawl, economic segregation and the degradation of the natural environment. But here the idea of mixed-use quarters comes in to play, as it fits in with the new philosophy of ‘urbanism’, according to which cities should not be centred around the car and all the disparate residential projects should not be built as isolated neighbourhoods – instead they should give their immediate area a sense of identity and a genius loci.

Everything within walking distance

Such an approach to space creation fosters and strengthens the feeling of community – regardless of how people live their lives, whether you crave anonymity or rather feel the need to have strong social ties with your neighbours.

“Local communities make people feel safe. At the moment local stores and smaller shopping centres are the most popular ways of doing your shopping. We want to have everything within walking distance, which in an urban setting is only possible in a mixed-used development. And this is not just about personal safety during a pandemic – it’s simply more convenient when we have everything to hand and we can save our precious time,” argues Béranger Dumont, the CEO of BPI Real Estate Poland, one of the joint developers of the revitalisation of Poznań’s Łazarz district.

This brings us to the recent revival of the concept of the ‘15-minute city’, which is based around the idea that everything we need for our everyday lives should be just a short walk from our homes. The ‘15-minute city’ stands in stark contrast to traidtional urban development where residential districts are separated from local businesses, retail, industry and recreation. It entails a return to local communities and the decentralisation of life and services. And it’s not only an obvious way to breathe new life into a city, but also a signpost for the future, by reducing the need for travelling, pushing life back onto local shopping streets and thus strengthening the sense of community. “They can have, for example, boutique cinemas to provide one way of spending time out by making use of entertainment and recreation facilities, but with a more intimate atmosphere. Retail and services, such as restaurants, can be lined along pedestrianised streets that mark out the historic buildings,” explains Kinga Nowakowska, a member of the management board of Capital Park Group, the investor behind the Norblin Factory project in Warsaw.

New priorities

Due to a lack of funding, local authorities have often been guilty of neglecting public space. Now the need for this has become more pressing, and so such money will have to be found. People have a greater need to walk around. This hasn’t quite happened yet in Poland, but some cities around the world have actually closed streets off to motorised vehicles so that people can maintain social distancing. The pandemic has increased the value of public space, which was previously of less importance than private space. “These are places where throughout the day there are about the same number of people, but spread out. At no time are there many more than this, as the arrangement of the buildings is designed to leave as much open space as possible, with greenery and natural light, and to allow in a constant flow of visitors,” explains Marcin Materny, a board member of Echo Investment, the developer of such place-making projects as Fuzja in Łódź, Browary Warszawskie in Warsaw and a new project in the capital’s Kabaty district.

Moving at full steam ahead

The investors that have major ongoing projects to completely revitalise city districts insist that their work is on schedule. “We’re planning to finish the design stage at the beginning of next year and so the construction work should start before the end of 2021,” reveals Ewa Łydkowska of the marketing department of Vastint Poland, the developer of the Stara Rzeźnia project in Poznań’s Garbary district to renovate a 19th century abattoir. Torus, the developer of the Doki quarter in Gdańsk, also has no pandemic-induced plans to put the work on hold in the former shipyard district: “We are continuing with all the design and investment work but at the same time we are closely monitoring the situation. The office blocks we are planning to start building in a few months will only be ready in around three years. There are many different market forces currently in play and a lot of different signals to interpret, but at present it’s hard to say whether there have been any clear changes and trends resulting from the pandemic,” explains Sławomir Gajewski, the president of Torus.

The main potential stumbling block is that we don’t know what the future will bring. But usually, the number of developments can be directly correlated to what’s happening on the financing and investment market. “New buildings need to be financed and it’s an open question what the banks will be interested in after the pandemic. Often properties are only built in order to be sold on to investment funds, so their strategies to some extent shape what the developer will build. But will high-risk developments still be attractive if the pandemic continues into the long term?” wonders Łukasz Kałędkiewicz, the head of advisory and transaction services at CBRE.

Despite these reservations, developers are in no doubt that their cards have already been dealt. According to Raied Tanous, the CEO of Asbud: “The future belongs to mixed-use projects that will not only completely meet the needs of society but also merge into the city’s fabric. Developers have to bear in mind that they are participating in the creation of a city and therefore need to think about how it should be in the future.”