All around the garden

Viewed from the outskirts of the city, Warsaw seems like the very vision of a burgeoning modern, sustainable European metropolis: glittering high-rises with new public squares, renovated historic buildings, flower-filled meadows, expensively-planted trees, cycle paths, parks and socially responsible businesses. Even if this is a picture that has been half conjured up by marketing and PR, it is still one that has been painted with real buildings and public amenities. But those of us who live just outside Warsaw are sometimes so jealous of all this that our entire families go to sleep sobbing into our pillows.

Where I live, a spatial plan was drawn up more or less ten years ago, but that doesn’t mean that this document has since been turned into a clear local development plan. From time to time, plans are drawn up for a new residential estate out in the fields nearby. Sometimes smaller plots are joined together and the land is assigned a different usage. A week never goes by without some consultation with local residents such as myself taking place – and you’ve really got to keep your eye on the ball if you don’t want to miss the deadline for making a formal complaint about the plans for a plot that’s just outside your window. Everyone knows that these sites are needed for homes and supermarkets and so the locals are doing all they can to attract investors and increase the value of the land in question.

Not so long ago, ‘Eurobuild’ took the opportunity to take in the view from Varso Tower, from where you can see not just the Warsaw cityscape, but – in a way – the rest of the world. If you use extremely powerful binoculars, on the horizon you can see the intense activity that is underway to make the land just outside Warsaw more attractive to investors. The grass is being cut along with hundreds of old apple trees, while the small natural ponds are being filled in with potato peelings, old roof tiles and empty packets of crisps. You can just about make out the fields that are ploughed and sown but not harvested, which is why the local air carries the scent of a mature vegan cheese made out of rotting cabbage and onions. As soon as anyone’s efforts bear fruit and the designated function of some site changes, a walled-off estate suddenly appears, including of a playground the size of a Mercedes supply van and gardens with enough space to park a Fiat Panda. That’s about the as far as the extras go to maximise the return on the investment.

Any area not covered by any general plan would be happy to welcome any kind of developer. Large warehouse developments are just as warmly welcomed as residential estates. Because on the one hand, hundreds of thousands of square metres of logistics space are involved, while on the other, hundreds of people can finally get the opportunity to have a place they can call their own. So occasionally, unfortunate misunderstandings and bitter conflicts are bound to arise.

The local roads in these neighbourhoods are neglected because the authorities can’t afford to repair or even signpost them. Built a few decades ago, they are worn away each winter until they look like Hawaiian lava flows, grotesquely warped and cratered with potholes, ruts and crevices. Sometimes, alongside the traffic you will spot a mother pushing a pram, maybe because her little one can only sleep when rocked as though caught in a storm at sea. Such mothers are actually lucky – as we were told quite recently by one planner working on yet another scheme with the local authorities. Unlike those who live in the city and have to leave their homes to go to the park, apparently she only needs to step into her garden where you can go for a long hike, train for a marathon, do all your gym exercises, teach your children to ride a bike, and also feed the carp, squirrels and ducks.

Who knows what possessed that particular mother decided to leave the immense greenery of her own garden and venture out on a road with no pavement? It’s quite possible that she doesn’t have a garden, since in our area you can also find apartment blocks lined up in precise rows that just follow the path of the electricity pylons.

Besides this, where we are is very beautiful – in particular, the sky can look fantastic. The silence at night is only broken by the familiar rumble of freight trains and illegal street races in which extra points are awarded for drifting. And you might occasionally hear a cat wailing. All the beautiful sounds that say that spring is upon us in the city outskirts.