A city quarter developed by Echo Investment in the Warsaw's Wola district continues to surprise. The developer brings a part of the district back to the city, revitalizing historical buildings and restoring its urban character. In addition to  classical streets and walking paths, the first Warsaw woonerf will be built here. Thanks to this approach, moving around the Warsaw Brewery will be free and safe, as well as connecting the Meeting and Flavors District with the city.

The term woonerf, of the Dutch origin, literally means "a street to live in". It is a so-called "living street" – a city lane with greenery, without transit traffic, with only local services and slow traffic. There is no strict separation of  zones for vehicles and pedestrians, but there are amenities for pedestrian and bicycle traffic. It connects restaurants, shops or service outlets with the space of the street and handles occasional events: fairs, markets, shows and outdoor exhibitions.

The idea of the woonerf in street designing has been around since the 1960s. It was a response to rapidly increasing road traffic and an attempt to oppose to grabbing  previously multifunctional, "free" urban spaces of streets by cars. This concept encourages to promote an urban space and its traditional character as a place for meetings, recreation, walking, shopping, eating out, moving freely, creating places where a busy life can slow down.

From a traditional street to the Haberbusch and Schiele's woonerfu

An internal street in the Warsaw Brewery has been an important part of the project from the very  beginning. The developer let the residents of Warsaw to choose its name. From among three proposals, participants of the poll decided that it should commemorate the famous Wola brewers Błażej Haberbusch and Konstanty Schiele and they became the patrons of the street. The idea behind Echo Investment and Jems Architekci was to create a space that refers to modern trends in designing space for people, connecting traffic routes with surrounding squares and res areas.

- We want the project to become a natural, integral and above all hospitable part of the city. We compose the Warsaw Brewery in such a way that it welcomes with its original and sophisticated restaurant concepts and open and encouraging to spend time in the city squares. A network of streets and paths will lead to the most important places in the quarter, no gates and barriers. A list of  occasions for which it will be worth to visit our quarter we can add the woonerf. I am convinced that by developing an internal pedestrian and road route of Haberbusch and Schiele according to this concept, we create another place where a man and his daily needs stand in the centre,' stresses Michał Gerwat, Project Director of the Warsaw Brewery.

The new Haberbusch and Schiele arcade will be 135 metres long and 6 metres wide. Car traffic in the woonerf will be only one-way and slowed down.

- The woonerf will cover a uniform flooring, which refers to the post-industrial character of this place. It will be followed by horizontal, painted marks inspired also by a factory-style of the space. In the former brewery, among others, signs painted on concrete slabs separated loading zones, handling routes of  raw materials. In the new Warsaw Brewery, special iconography will mark out the zones of restaurants, recreation, pedestrian and bicycle traffic or fire roads," adds Michał Gerwat.

A large part of the woonerf will be occupied by "islands" reserved for restaurateurs who have their places at the Haberbuscha and Schielego Street. They will have tables of restaurants and cafes, where you can have breakfast, meet for coffee or business lunch. The whole area will be free of curbs and poles. Along the whole street there will be varied greenery in the form of trees, bushes and perennials. Echo Investment will plant 18 trees here - pin oaks, Yosino cherries, common hornbeams.

The post-industrial character of the woonerf - urban installation in the Warsaw Brewery

Echo Investment, together with architects from JEMS Architekci, has developed a unique urban furniture. A "pipeline", as they commonly call this urban installation, will lead guests of the Warsaw Brewery from the Brewery Gate Square to the Malthouse Square.

- We refer to pipelines that were used to transport raw material or beer, that were characterstic for many factories, including the Warsaw Brewery. The corten, rusty pipeline will remind us of a beautiful past of this place, at the same time fulfilling completely new, urban functions," says Michał Gerwat.

One part of this construction will be a special, LED lighting, which will lead guests in the evenings from the Brewery Gate to the Brewery Market. During holiday seasons it will be possible to hang extra illumination on it. Suspended benches will hang from the pipeline at the Market Square. The installation will also be an urban gallery, fixed infrastructure for organizing exhibitions of photographs, paintings and graphics. 

The Warsaw Brewery is a part of the city in the heart of the Warsaw’s Wola district, developed by Echo Investment. This urban space with its apartments and offices is connected with original eating places, that will serve dishes from all over the world to their guests. There will be cozy cafes, fragrant florists and beauty salons. The whole project will be complemented by social spaces - the presentable Brewery Market Square with a secluded courtyard of the Laboratory, the vibrant Storage Cellar located in 170-year-old cellars, a green park in the Central Garden and the comfortable Breakfast Square and the Brewery Gate Square. This previously inaccessible area recalling a brewing tradition and a rich history of entrepreneurship will be returned to the map of Warsaw in a completely new form.

The project is planned to be completed by the end of 2020.