Mrówkowiec, Residential skyscraper in Wrocław, Poland.
Mrówkowiec is an eleven-storey residential building at Drukarska Street in Wrocław, 235 metres long and 15.7 metres wide, with nine stairwells and 590 flats. Its name means 'Ant House'. The sixth floor was originally planned as a shopping centre, not the ground floor.
Mrówkowiec was designed by engineer Leszek Zdek in 1963, with Stanisław Kamiński as structural engineer. Construction started in 1965 on the site of pre-war villas destroyed in World War II; the ruins were demolished in the 1950s. The first residents moved in in 1967. At about 1,500 zł per square metre and 63 million zł in total, it was then the cheapest building in Poland.
The building's name, meaning "Ant House", may come from its roughly 3,000 residents or from pharaoh ants that spread from a nearby German cemetery. Opposite the block stands the Miranda café, built as a meeting place for residents. Sylwester Chęciński filmed scenes here for 'Only the Dead Will Answer' (1969).
Mrówkowiec runs along ul. Drukarska for 235 m, so it is best approached from the street side rather than from the courtyard. The building has nine stairwells, and the entrance matching a given address is not obvious from a distance. The planned shopping level on the sixth floor was never built, so do not look for shops inside.
The name's origin is uncertain: it may come from the roughly 3,000 residents at peak occupancy, or from pharaoh ants that spread from a nearby German cemetery and infested the building. The first communal television antenna in Wrocław was installed on the roof.
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