Why were buildings shaped like waves built in a Polish city with its own microclimate (5 photos)

How giant temporary panels became the favorite housing in Gdansk.





Several modest giants settled in Gdansk, a coastal town in Poland, many years ago. They stand out against the background of the urban landscape: panel buildings with an unusual wave shape resemble a huge wall that separates residential areas from each other.



Local residents call these buildings “falovets”. From Polish the word “fala” is translated as “wave”, and “falowiec” means waves. There are eight such buildings in Gdańsk, and they were once built as temporary homes to solve the housing shortage. The construction of wave houses took place in the 1960s and 1970s, and in theory the residents were supposed to move out of them. However, “Falovians” are still popular among tenants.





Some “Falovians” resemble an entire town. For example, the largest building is 860 meters long: it has almost 1,800 apartments, which will house six thousand tenants. The building is so large that there are 3 bus stops along it, and the house itself has not one address, but four. It even forms its own special microclimate: the fact is that such a huge structure affects air movement. So, in its northern part it is colder; the snow does not melt here even longer. In the southern part it is completely the opposite: the temperature here is always higher, and the grass and trees dry out much faster.



Such huge houses were not easy to inhabit. Residents moved in in stages: while one block was being occupied, the second was just being completed. For many years, the area around resembled a construction site: mountains of sand, concrete mortar and not a single hint of sidewalks or green spaces.



However, all this is long behind us, and despite the fact that the “Falovets” are old buildings, they continue to be in demand. The fact is that they were built in a good area, and from the windows of the upper floors you can even see the sea.