Warsaw Uprising Mound

The Warsaw Uprising Mound is a fully anthropogenic landscape overgrown with spontaneous vegetation. The hilltop is also a commemorative site for the 1944 uprising. Once on the city’s periphery, the area is now rapidly urbanising, with a growing population. The project connects locals by creating a space for everyday recreation while preserving the dramatic memory of the past. The mound’s anthropogenic geology and ecology became the basis for a narrative of the Anthropocene, promoting appreciation for the aesthetics of recycling. The site is reclaimed symbolically, ecologically, and materially.

The site was perceived as inaccessible and generally unsafe. Its ecology was determined by impoverished soils and ruderal vegetation. The project therefore aimed to transform it into a multifunctional, and accessible public space—low-maintenance and resilient—using local resources (vegetation, rubble). Designing began with observations of how people and nature gradually reclaimed the area, followed by the continuation and moderation of these processes. It was informed by multidisciplinary research in phytosociology (ecological succession), architectural history and material technology (rubble concrete). The park’s layout gives sense of security by evoking landscape ‘patterns’, while leaving areas of wilderness inaccessible to people. The community was engaged in consultations, research (BioBlitz), and pocket forest planting. The resulting site-specific design offers a coherent narrative rooted in its materiality, cultivating acceptance for the aesthetics of recycling and imperfection.

The park’s construction was guided by circular principles and low-impact methods. During implementation, various strategies for recovering rubble from earthworks were applied. All the excavated material remained on-site. Rubble was sorted and reused: large fragments were displayed, smaller ones filled gabions, and loose material was processed into modern rubble-concrete for retaining walls. From a distance, their composition reveals the site’s anthropogenic geology; up close, one can discern fragments of the former city—bricks, tiles, etc. This local rock—Warsaw’s “urbanite”—will gradually be overgrown with moss transplanted by a moss–yoghurt mixture. Ruderal vegetation was preserved and complemented with native species adapted to alkaline soils. The plant community is drought-resistant and requires no irrigation. Fascine fences stabilize slopes and support soil formation, while no-dig principles minimize disturbance. Maintenance is limited to selective mowing once or twice a year.