Under One Roof: Single-Family Houses in Poland
According to research conducted in 2017, 60% of Poles would like to live in a villa with a garden, while only 10% prefer a flat in a multi-family building over having their own house. It seems that the residents of Poland are consistent in making their dreams come true.
Although in 2006, the majority of Poles lived in blocks of flats, the proportion then turned in favour of single-family homes, wherein 56% of Polish citizens live today. Interestingly, this indicator is very close to European norms, as data from Eurostat shows that in Europe, on average, 58% of the population lives in single-family homes. The percentage of inhabitants residing in this type of construction is highest in Croatia (70.7%), Slovenia (65.2%), Romania (64.7%), and Hungary (63.8%).
Between 1945 and 1989, the building or possession of a single-family home was a privilege available only to a few. It is most likely because of this that having your own house – even if for the past three decades, anyone could build one – is still a symbol of success, an indicator of status, and proof of having achieved a higher position in society. Thus, it is worth looking at the architecture of single-family homes – because their designs are still an emanation of the ambitions and aspirations as well as the dreams and ideas of Poles about how a successful person should live.
The decentralization and deregulation of the private housing market, with the possibility of building a private villa, was the most significant change that contributed to Polish architecture after 1989 – it caused dynamic developments in the field, which until then was marginal. Single-family housing changed Poland’s landscape, urban planning, and the way cities are organised, visibly influencing changes in lifestyle.
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Polish village, 1989, pictured: family before building a single-family house, photo: Chris Niedenthal / Forum
The social changes that have occurred as a result of the development of single-family architecture in Poland have become the subject of much research, but it is primarily the design of the houses themselves that are criticised – as being devoid of finesse, monotonous, kitsch, disproportionate, mismatched to their surroundings, overly original or lacking in individual features. It seems, however, that we still have some issues around the architecture of these houses.
Due to a lack of local development plans governing it, but also of building culture or of respect for the environment, we have allowed the architecture of single-family homes too much freedom in their physical appearance. Can a typology be established amid the chaos of these structures? From a cacophony of shapes, will we manage to create a list of the most popular?
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Plaster lions at the gate of a single-family villa, Czarna Góra, 2013, photo: Krzysztof Chojnacki / East News
Even though in recent years, this architectural form has clearly lost its popularity, in the 1990s, it was a symbol of the new single-family home. It was believed that erecting ornamented, striking pseudo-manor houses – often exceeding the limits of common sense and good taste – was a way of reacting to the years spent in uniform blocks made from large slabs. There are probably many more reasons why Poles are so fond of manor houses, and many of these can likely attributed to still-living fantasies of having noble origins.
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The Manor in Osieczek, photo: promotional materials of the Manor in Osieczek / www.osieczek.pl
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House design 'Elka 2' by MTM STYL Design Office, photo: MTM STYL promotional materials / www.domywstylu.pl
A readymade house design – purchased from a company and not personally ordered from an architect – does not have to be a bad or boring building. Even catalogue designs can be modified and tailored to your own needs as well as the surroundings or conditions of the plot. However, to personally tailor the finished design requires some knowledge and intuition on the part of the investor, which Poles probably still lack.
As a consequence, Poland’s landscape has been filled with villas that are suspiciously similar, too large, and terribly suited to the terrain’s conditions – with stone-paved terraces, pastel facades and slightly sloping roofs. An important hallmark of such houses are garages, usually located (completely contrary to logic and aesthetics) in the front part of the house, constituting a significant element of the building's facade.
Natalia Przesmycka, a researcher from the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture at the Lublin University of Technology, estimates (because no one is keeping track) that in Poland, the percentage of personalised projects compared to standard projects is in the proportion of 1:20.
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'Two Barns' by Robert Skitek & Szymon Borczyk, RS + studio, Tychy, photo: Tomasz Zakrzewski / archifolio.pl
The fact that Poles have perhaps slowly begun to rid themselves of the complex of having peasant roots can be demonstrated by a return to houses shaped like cottages. In the 1990s, in the era of manor houses, rural farmhouses were almost taboo. Today – when living in harmony with the rhythm of nature, homeliness and naturalness are again being valued – peasant huts have become an inspiration for many projects. These are, of course, contemporary variations of rural farmhouses. They are connected by simple slabs and a gable roof, but everything else, from the size to the building material, differs. Such a ‘modern barn’ can be built from bricks, covered with sheet metal, and equipped with terraces as well as balconies.
A new take on the cube house
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Single-family house in Wilanów, transformation of a cube house from 1979, design: Paweł Lis, photo: Paweł Lis architects / www.pawellis.pl
The cube house, called the ‘sześcian mazowiecki’ (the ‘Mazovian cube’) in the environs of Warsaw, is still a significant element of the Polish landscape. Importantly, in its heyday, i.e. in the crisis years of the 1970s and 1980s, it appeared not only in villages, but also in cities. Today, the questionable beauty and quality of the legacy of the cuboidal blocks made of hollow bricks can be a heavy burden, particularly on pricey urban plots. Hence, more and more projects are arising for rebuilding cube houses.
It turns out that the ‘recycling’ of such buildings, or their transformation and reuse, is not only cheaper or more ecological than demolishing them, but also results in interesting projects. Many architects hold the belief that rebuilding an existing building is much more difficult than actually building a new one. It seems that in dealing with ‘cubes from hollow bricks’, Poles have it in their DNA, because most of these rebuilds are successful.
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'Willa Poznań' (Poznań Villa) by Moomoo Architects, photo: courtesy of Moomoo Architects / moomoo.pl
The architecture of single-family homes reflects the mentality and societal aspirations of Poles like a mirror. While a dozen or so years ago, a private house had to impart wealth at first glance, today, minimalism is gaining popularity. White facades, large windows, compositions of basic geometric shapes devoid of decorations and details are more and more often the set of motifs indicating the investor's good taste. A touch of Bauhaus and modernist achievements from the Interwar period or modern designs straight from American films of the 1950s are all in style.
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Ecological house by Piotr Kuczia, Łąka near Pszczyna, 2009, photo: Juliusz Sokołowski
Ecology, respecting the environment, sustainable development – these are slogans that are particularly substantial in the architecture of the 21st century and also in the ideology of single-family housing. And regardless of the amount invested, you can just as well distinguish those projects in which ecological slogans are only a pretext (to use installations and equipment that raise the price of the structure) from those in which the forms and materials used really do result from understanding and respecting the laws of nature.
Environmentally friendly designs of single-family homes do not have to differ from ‘ordinary’ houses. Their ecological efficiency can be found in nuances, in the materials used (e.g. airtight construction ensures much less heat loss), window placement (arrangement based on where light is most ample saves on lighting or heating) or using renewable energy sources. There are also houses clearly detached from what is considered more ‘standard’ – built out of clay, straw, hemp, from waste, covered in greenery, hidden in the hillside. Or simply... small. Because excessive metres are not beneficial for nature.
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'Quadrant House' by Robert Konieczny, KWK Promes, 2015, photo: Olo Studio, Juliusz Sokołowski, Jarosław Syrek / KWS2015
Although, according to estimates, only every 20th Polish single-family house is built from an architect's original design, these particularly original projects are widely described and praised. The best example of this is the work of Robert Konieczny, who for almost two decades has designed residences with very individualized structures. In a sense, he has showed Poles what a house can look like with a little bit of imagination and a large budget.
The media eagerly pay attention to unique, original designs, and the visionary villas are later used as sets for films and shows – a natural and positive effect. However, if part of this attention, as well as discussion, was directed towards the more average yet most popular structure of single-family homes, Poland’s landscape would finally be the one to benefit.
Originally written in Polish by Anna Cymer, translated by Agnes Dudek, Apr 2020