Photography by Marysia Maćków
House number two, a former kindergarten, was raised to the ground in 2006. The singlestorey wooden building was destroyed not long after it had been handed over to private owners. A very important element of the housing estate, which played a public role amongst community, had disappeared from WuWA's landscape. In 1929, the creators of WuWA exhibition had a concept of a spacious, bright and hygienic kindergarten which showed how modern and ahead of its times the complex was. It met social needs that were new for the time. The brilliantly designed building demonstrated modern construction knowledge and a notion of space taken from Maria Montessori's school of thought which to this day is considered modern. The building comprised a main rectangular play room with vestibule: a waiting room for the parents and lower floor rooms for group activities, a kitchen and bathrooms, etc. to the sides. Light entered the main room through windows in the gable walls. The building was covered with wood and constructed from a system of interconnected, wooden elements. After regaining the plot in 2011, in addition to the destroyed kindergarten, the Wrocław City Government handed it over to the Dolnośląska Okręgowa Izba Architektów (DSOIA – Lower Silesia Chamber of Architects), under the condition they restore the building. The architects had been looking for a suitable location for their office, so they eagerly got down to examining the urban revitalisation plans of the WuWA housing estate. These detailed that the regional authorities fund one-third of the kindergarten renovation cost from EU grants, the rest of the funds come from DSOIA membership fees. The restored building will not only serve as an office for the architects' council but also as an exhibition venue for WuWA. It was also important that out front there be an authentic reproduction of the sandboxes and flower beds. Zbigniew Maćków, Chairman of the DSOIA Council is also one of the contributing designers of the kindergarten restoration project.
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