The city of Warsaw, as many other European capitals, has developed its urban structures on the banks of a river. The Vistula river, the largest river in Poland, that goes all along the country from the south to the north, crosses Warsaw and divides the city into two parts. The river has always played a significant role for the city, just to mention its geographical and economical importance. But it has been the concern of last few decades when the authorities of Warsaw, urban planners and architects began to investigate how to explore enormous potential of Vistula river banks for the improvement of quality of urban life.
It has become the major challenge how to integrate the area of the waterfront with the rest of the city due to the construction of one of the city’s main motorways going along the river’s left bank. Since late 70’s, when the motorway was opened, few lanes of heavy car traffic have created a strong barrier, both functionally and visually, and disturbed the communication between the city and the river. The separation of waterfront has resulted in gradual deterioration of that area.
The main objective of the proposal was to create new relationship between these two separated zones, to explore mutual connections between the city and the river, in particular between the Old Town and leisure areas over the water and to improve the quality of river banks developments.
