I'm a generalist, activist, eco-social innovator and a city lover; mobility urbanist in the Municipality of Skawina, Poland and a academic teacher at Katowice School of Technology. Member of the PPS Placemaking Leadership Council, Society of Polish Town Planners and Society Together for Nikiszowiec. I'm very much into working with local communities and children on their places using LQC approach. I'm especially kind of building rain gardens and using them as a tool to strengthen communities, the same time tackling local stormwater management issues. I like seeing Placemaking as a the New Environmentalism. My other field of interest is sustainable urban mobility.
Which additional experience/skills can people of Placemaking Europe reach out personally to you for?
I know quite a bit about the urban stormwater management, especially about rain gardens. I took part in the creation of 11 constructions of various types. Two years ago I've started exploring urban mobility issues and I'm getting more and more knowledge in that field. My main point of interest is children mobility and safe school travel. I will further develop that topic working on "The Last Safe Kilometre" project, that is developed locally in Skawina. This project merges Placemaking with safe and sustainable children mobility. Besides of that I've carried out numerous workshops with teens focused on transforming dreams into plans and projects.
Which experience/skills can people of Placemaking Europe reach out to your organisation for?
In the Municipality of Skawina we try to break down silos to empower placemaking and set multifunctional places in the cores of communities. Although we are still in the trial and error process, we can share our thoughts and experiences. We've also conducted five participatory workshops in order to create rain gardens and promote sustainable urban mobility plan. As a municipality we strongly support bottom-up initiatives and embed Placemaking in our strategic and operational documents and plans. Skawina is also quite innovative in terms of using LQC techniques to promote sustainable mobility, using stencils and chalk to create temporary signage for instance.
Describe one of the projects you are most proud of
"Uncover the city - Together for biodiversity" was a placemaking project conducted in Skawina in June 2018 by together by the local residents of three houses surrounding a courtyard with old sandpit. The aim of the action was to transform old and dilapidated sandpit into new green space that the local residents can enjoy and where they can meet. As the action was inspired by the depave.org activity, other goal was to remove impervious surface and replace it with greenery. Despite limited budget and time, action brought numerous volunteers from all over the town and was a huge success both in terms of social interaction and neighbourhood integration.
