One of the most important points of “Łasztownia, the New Heart of the City” project will be an international architecture and urban development competition for the best development of the island in December 2016. We want to make Łasztowni interesting not only to architects and city planners from Poland but also for those from Europe and all other parts of the world, says Piotr Krzystek, the mayor of Szczecin.

 

Łasztownia is a space with a lot of value to offer which is something we’ve highlighted for a long time. Take the idea of the Floating Garden for example. The place is already home for new institutions important for the city, such as the modernised Stara Rzeźnia (Old Slaughterhouse), points out Piotr Krzystek. In the future, new developments will serve cultural as well as office and residential purposes. The city also wants to open a sailing centre on the Łasztownia Island.

 

What else is in the municipality’s action plan for the coming months? In March the city will reveal its decision about municipalisation of the property management company Gryf Nieruchomości, the owner of the listed building of the former city slaughterhouse. Graduation projects of students from Brussels, who visited Szczecin last year, will be put on display in late June and early July. At the same time the municipal authorities have also planned public consultation and discussions including experts and stakeholders. In October, the new round of Westival, will include an open air event for architects focusing on the development of Łasztownia.

 

The city has allocated the second part of the year for organisation of the aforementioned competition. Results will be announced in September 2017. The competition results will be incorporated in the planning work and changes will be made to the local zoning plan. As a consequence, the new zoning plan for Łasztownia will be passed in the second half of 2018. The final stage of the project involves the search for investors, organisation of tenders for municipal property and investment projects related to other property.

 

We are talking about a project that will span years, not months. At the same time, the project can be as important to the spatial development of Szczecin as the day when the city stopped being a fortress or when the decision was made to build Wały Chrobreg embankment, points out Piotr Mync deputy mayor of Szczecin.

 

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