Falowiec: The Wave Building of Gdańsk

In the late 1960s and the early 1970s, a series of peculiarly shaped apartment blocks were constructed in the Polish city of Gdańsk. They were collectively called “Falowiec”, from the Polish word “fala,” which means “wave,” and whose plural form is “falowce.” These buildings earned the name Falowiec due to their distinctive wave-like pattern as they alternate between blocks. There are eight such buildings in Gdańsk, with the most renowned located in the Przymorze block. It has 11 floors, 16 staircases, 1,792 apartments in which nearly six thousand tenants live. It’s like a small town. Photo credit: Reddit The dimensions of the building—32 meters high, 13 meters wide, and 860 meters long—place it among the leading residential giants. The building stretches like a huge train with three bus stops along its length, and four addresses. The building is so large that it affects the air movement creating a microclimate around it. In the north it is colder, and snow and frost last longer. In the south, the average temperature is slightly higher, and in hot weather, grass and trees dry faster. The Falowiec were built during a period when there was an acute housing shortage. The buildings were meant to be a temporary solution. However, they became embedded in the seaside landscape for many years. The blocks were designed and erected according to a similar scheme. Most of the apartments are accessed from open galleries that run along the north wall. In the beginning, it was possible to walk from one end of the building to the other. But then, boarders erected walls separating the individual apartments from each other. Photo credit: Vortilogue/Flickr There are a total of eight Falowce in Gdańsk. All of them were built in the 1960s and 1970s, when there was a huge housing shortage. They were meant to be a temporary solution. However, they became embedded in the seaside landscape for many years.