COULD WARSAW BE DIFFERENTLY REBUILT – ALTERNATIVE HISTORY OF THE CITY

JAN MACIEJ CHMIELEWSKI, MONIKA SZCZYPIORSKA

While outlining an alternative concept of post-war reconstruction of Warsaw, it is expedient to recall that the future shape of Warsaw and even its capital status were discussed in the post-war years. On the one hand, there were architects pragmatists who functioned well in the architectural projects market and saw a chance to rebuild the destroyed houses by their current owners. This group included admirers of the historic city who wanted to rebuild damaged monuments. On the other hand, an influential group of radicals promoted the momentus changes of the capitalist city. Those with socialist views demanded immediate taking of urban land by the municipality, because they believed that without communalisation reconstruction of Warsaw was not possible. The article discusses two preliminary concepts for the reconstruction of Warsaw from early 1945 to reflect the differences in attitudes amongst urban planners and architects. It also discusses the ideological basis, not only typical for Poland, that guided the concepts of urban reconstruction after the World War II. The situation of destroyed Warsaw and ongoing activities of Bureau of Capital Reconstruction (BOS) were also portrayed. The opinion of Tadeusz Tołwiński about the sketch map of Warsaw made in BOS was recalled and the likely spatial characteristics were outlined for reconstruction of Warsaw to show potentially what it would look like if it was reconstructed by another group of planners. The final part summarises: what Warsaw irretrievably lost, what has been achieved and what could not be realized.

Keywords: Warsaw, reconstruction, concepts, implementations