t.bs – tu. blisko swoich (here. close to your people): Affordable Social Housing in Poland That Reimagines Community Living | Bachelors Design Thesis

Site Context

The site is located on Rychtalska Street in Wrocław, in a transitional area between the inner city, post-industrial land, and new residential developments. It is a fragment of the city with a diverse structure, where different scales and typologies of buildings coexist side by side. The project consciously inscribes itself into this mosaic, proposing a model of social housing as an equal component of the urban fabric.

The building programme combines residential use with everyday services and shared spaces. In addition to the flats, a bakery on the ground floor, a shared laundry, extensive bicycle rooms, and accessible recreational areas are planned. A special role is played by intermediate zones—the semi-public ground floor, the green atrium, and the accessible roof—which create a gradient of privacy between the dwelling and the city. In this way, social life is not an add-on but an integral part of the architectural structure.

Design Process

The design process began with an analysis of urban relationships and patterns of use in the surroundings—pedestrian routes, building scale, and potential neighbourhood connections. In the first phase, multiple massing variants and layout schemes were developed, testing different ways of daylighting the apartments and organising circulation. A key moment was the move away from a conventional stair-core layout towards a building with an internal green courtyard as a space that both integrates residents and structures the plan.

The apartment layouts were developed “from the inside out”—from everyday use scenarios. Priority was given to clarity of layout, flexibility, and a clear division between day and night zones. Each dwelling was given its own outdoor space. During the design, physical and digital models were used to study the courtyard proportions, visual relationships, and degree of privacy in the various zones. Important references were housing precedents with a strong social component and a clear human scale.

Final Outcome

The result of the project is a three-storey residential building with an atrium layout, combining a compact form with a rich system of shared spaces. The building forms a clear street frontage on the side of Rychtalska and a more open, green interior on the courtyard side. The atrium functions as a communal garden and meeting area, with places to sit, play, and spend time outdoors on an everyday basis. 

The ground floor has been designed as an active and partly accessible layer, with a bakery, shared spaces, and bicycle rooms visible from the outside. Circulation is arranged via galleries and staircases opening onto the courtyard, which enhances visual contact between residents.

On the roof, a common recreational area for residents is planned as an additional communal layer. The architecture of the building is based on simple, durable material solutions and a modular logic of flats, which makes it possible to control construction costs without losing spatial quality.

Conclusion: Ultimately, the project shows that social housing can be economical, flexible, and community-building at the same time and that well-designed shared spaces have a real impact on residents’ quality of life.

[This Academic Project has been published with text and images submitted by the student]