The Wave House as second-circuit architecture. A project by Piotrowicz and Miller

Blanka Piotrowicz and Gabriela Miller of the Sopot Academy of Applied Sciences, propose a bold reinterpretation of one of the most distinctive residential buildings in Poland – the Danzig wave building on Obrońców Wybrzeża Street. Their project “FALOWIEC – architecture of the second circuit” treats the large-panel block not as a problem to be removed, but as a resource with enormous adaptation potential.

south modular berths

© Blanka Piotrowicz, Gabriela Miller

wave building as a frame, not a relic

The wave house – a symbol of the socialist era – is still a viable, functioning structure inhabited by some 6,000 people. Instead of another superficial modernization, the authors propose a systemic transformation that combines ecology, circularity, social integration and new forms of housing.

The project assumes that the existing structure can become a platform for a future model of housing. The goal is not to erase the building’s identity, but to rewrite it – from a symbol of the past to a vehicle for a new, positive narrative.

storm – a wall of challenges

© Blanka Piotrowicz, Gabriela Miller

Inspiration came from, among others, Le Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation – a modernist vision of the housing estate as a social machine. Piotrowicz and Miller adapt this idea to the realities of the 21st century, combining it with climate, urban and demographic challenges.

upcycling as a design strategy

The core of the concept is upcycling – not as a detail, but as a logic of construction and program. The side elevations of the wave building are transformed into active infrastructure: gardens, verandas, staircases, recreational spaces and energy storage.

The key material becomes… used wind turbine blades. Difficult to recycle, but extremely durable, they are being used as:

• structural elements of external staircases
• load-bearing structures for balconies and gardens
• rainwater tanks (hollow section of blades)

The wave building begins to function like a warehouse in circulation – a building that not only consumes resources, but accumulates them and makes them available in the future.

western green wave

© Blanka Piotrowicz, Gabriela Miller

sun, shade and the logic of function

Based on the analysis of the insolation of the facade:

• west elevation – highest radiation → black wall / solar chimney + green verandas
• Northeast elevation – shade → 17-meter climbing wall

The latter is not just a sporty addition – its height symbolizes the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, and its form (geometric blue triangles) alludes to the sea and the context of Gdansk.

three spatial narratives

1. western Green Wave
Individual gardens on each floor, green balconies, water retention, local biodiversity. Transparent covers act as mini-greenhouses.

2nd Storm – Challenge Wall
Climbing wall behind a glazed facade, integrated with transportation and bicycle infrastructure. Architecture as an activator of movement and relationships.

3 Southern Modular Gardens
Prefabricated verandas as spaces for daily life – work, rest, contact with the city. Modules that can be dismantled and reused after 20-50 years.

western green wave

© Blanka Piotrowicz, Gabriela Miller

Recycled Equitone slabs were used – the facade acts as a dynamic material store. When the panels are needed elsewhere – they can be dismantled and passed on. This is the realization of the idea of BAMB – Building as Material Bank.

southern modular berths – equitone

© Blanka Piotrowicz, Gabriela Miller

Blanka Piotrowicz and Gabriela Miller’s project shows that even the most “ordinary” residential structure can become a laboratory of the future: social, ecological and urban. The wave building ceases to be a block of flats – it becomes an active, living infrastructure of the city.

Aleksandra Skorupa