Can a downtown neighborhood truly be resilient to climate change? What role do its residents play in creating urban resilience? As part of the "Civic Workshop – Green Plac Grunwaldzki OD NOWA" project, we are examining Wrocław's Plac Grunwaldzki neighborhood through the lens of sustainable development and the challenges climate change poses for the local community—both living standards and the user experience. The final outcome of this process will be a project proposal for the Wrocław Participatory Budget in 2023, along with a social campaign that will encourage Wrocław residents to vote for the green project in Grunwald.
From the outset of the "Green Grunwald Square RENEWED" project, we focused on building a community around our activities. The first step was to initiate an interdisciplinary working group to better understand our neighborhood and identify what is most important to Grunwald residents. This stage of the project was primarily devoted to diagnosing and mapping the needs of the local community. The framework for our work is the assumption that the neighborhood can be resilient to severe weather events, food supply issues, and even be bicycle-friendly. However, before we achieve this goal, we need to learn more about Grunwald itself and the infrastructural and spatial conditions that dominate it.
Our working group is comprised of individuals who share a passion for ecology, cities, architecture, and the environment, as well as a desire to transform urban areas. The diverse competencies of our group members allow us to take a broader perspective on design issues, combining various skills and tools. What have we accomplished so far?
On December 15th, we launched the project – Artur Celiński from DNA Miasta accepted our invitation to give a lecture on good (and bad) practices within urban participatory mechanisms related to green and blue infrastructure in public spaces. The event was open to the public, but due to the pandemic, it was held remotely using the Zoom platform.
On January 22nd, we set off on our first walk through Grunwald. "Architecture, History, and Potential" was an event developed and led by Ewa Pluta from the Wrocław City Museum and the ART Transparent Foundation. This winter walk, following the most important architectural projects and the complex history of the estate, allowed our group to explore the local context and the reasons why Plac Grunwaldzki is such a unique case study.
After the first two events, which provided a solid substantive introduction to further activities, we turned our attention to the needs of the project participants. Because "Citizen Workshop – Green Plac Grunwaldzki OD NOWA" is a long-term process, we wanted to precisely identify the motivations and expectations of those who decided to join the working group we initiated. On February 23rd, a workshop called "Mapping Group Potentials" was held, led by Dr. Kamila Kamińska-Sztark and Marcin Rosiński. During this workshop, we were able to map what motivates the people involved in our project and what they want to avoid. This knowledge allows us to tailor the project's content to the expectations of the working group members, and thus connect the project's strategic goals with the individual needs of the young activists involved in our activities.
The Plac Grunwaldzki estate has a diverse and ambiguous social fabric. Residents have lived here for decades, students living in student dormitories, corporate employees, tourists heading towards Centennial Hall, and finally, people running errands at the shopping center and changing buses at Rondo Reagan. The next meeting within the project (March 5th – "Social Diagnosis of Grunwaldzki Square Users") was devoted to diagnosing the habits and practices of those who use Grunwaldzki Square. The facilitator (Hanna Achremowicz from the Critical Education Association) introduced the workshop participants to mind mapping – Kevin Lynch's methodology, which allows us to understand the causes and motivations behind the behavior of actors in Grunwaldzki Square and to understand the values they attach to this space. Together, we identified barriers and areas that the local community is likely not using, and we also identified the most popular paths and routes in the estate. We will soon use the knowledge we have gained in practice, conducting research in the public space of Grunwald.
Another workshop we organized was "Foodshift: Cultivation and Circulation of Food in the City." This event took place on March 16th, and its development and leadership was entrusted to Dr. Marta Sylla from the Institute of Spatial Management at the Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences. During the meeting, we learned about projects related to transforming the food system towards low-emissions, examined Grunwald in the context of local food cultivation, and explored the topic of urban community gardens. Why is the topic of food featured in our project? We believe that urban and neighborhood resilience—along with preparing for severe weather events, energy poverty, or even problems with access to potable water—is precisely food independence. Currently, the production and transportation of products in this category generate enormous carbon and water footprints, thus burdening the natural environment. As we look for solutions and ideas for resilient neighborhoods, we are looking at ways to shorten supply chains, projects related to growing food right here in the city, and building communities around urban gardening.
We have one more event coming up this month – on March 25th, we'll be heading out into the field to explore the blue and green projects in the public space of Grunwaldzki Square. Our guide will be Grzegorz Synowiec, head of the Environmental and Climate Management Department at City Hall, who will introduce us to the processes related to sustainable urban infrastructure and talk about Wrocław's Municipal Climate Change Adaptation Plan.
„Civic Workshop – Green Plac Grunwaldzki OD NOWA” is a project financed by Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway from the EEA Grants under the Active Citizens Programme – Regional Fund.
