People in (and outside) glass houses

The Ogrody Ulricha gardens are situated next to the Wola Park shopping centre in north-western Warsaw. “They have a rich history that dates back to before the war, when Jan Bogumił Ulrich set up the first horticultural centre in Warsaw on this site. At its centrepiece were the iron greenhouses, where exotic fruit and tropical plants were grown. With the desire to restore the Ogrody Ulricha gardens to their former glory, we decided to create a new version and put it to new use,” explains Anna Bozhenko, the director of Wola Park. “It’s important to us that the renovated space resembles the gardens during the days of the Ulrich family, but that it also meets the needs of both residents and our customers, which were established through a public consultation process in 2018,” declared Artur Drączkowski, a project manager at Ingka Centres, as the work began in May 2021. Lessons from history for the designers The design concept for the Ogrody Ulricha garde