Mordor, Warsaw

Mordor, also known as Mordor on Domaniewska Street, is an informal name for the area, mostly composed of office buildings, in the city of Warsaw, Poland, located within the neighbourhoods of Służewiec (Służewiec Przemysłowy) and western Ksawerów in the district of Mokotów. It is located in the area around Cybernetyki, Domaniewska, Marynarska, and Wołoska Streets. The area is mostly composed of office buildings, including the headquarters of branches of many multinational corporations.

It is named after Mordor, a fictional location in the 1954–1955 fantasy novel The Lord of the Rings written by J. R. R. Tolkien. The local government had declined to officially recognize the name of the area. However, in 2022, two streets in the area had been named after J. R. R. Tolkien, and Gandalf (character from the novel), in reference to the unofficial name.

Characteristics
The area in the city of Warsaw, Poland, known informally as Mordor, is located within the neighbourhoods of Służewiec (Służewiec Przemysłowy) and western Ksawerów in the district of Mokotów. Its boundaries are commonly accepted to be Cybernetyki, Domaniewska, Marynarska, and Wołoska Streets.

The area mostly consists of office buildings, counting over 100 of them. It includes headquarters of the branches of many multinational corporations. According to the estimates, to the area commutes between 80 and 100 thousand employees, and 87% of the employees of the corporations were of age between 20 and 39 years, with the biggest group, counting 39%, being people from ages between 26 and 30 years.

The huge number of people commuting to and from the area every day, together with local road systems not designed for such a number of vehicles, is causing the area to be regularly sight of massive traffic congestion, as well as lack of parking spaces. Many candidates cite difficulties in commuting, as the main reason for turning down offers to work in the area.

In March 2019, the average number of areas not being rented, was equal to 19.8%, with the average for the whole city of Warsaw, being 9.1%.

History
In 1952, the area of modern Służewiec Przemysłowy, had been designated as the industrial area of the Industrial–Storage District of Służewiec (Polish: Dzielnica Przemysłowo-Składowa „Służewiec”), marking the beginning of the construction of the industrial factories and magazines there. It covered an area of around 2.6 km2. In the early 1970s, in the area worked around 20 000 people.

In the 1990s, the manufacturing industry ceased to exist in the area of Służewiec and the nearby western part of Ksawerów. As such, it had caused the appearance on the real estate market of huge and developed estates, located near the city centre and the Warsaw Chopin Airport. It then contributed to the development of the business industry in the area, and eventually leading to the creation of the biggest complex of office buildings in Poland One of the first new infestations in the area was the construction of Curtis Plaza office building in 1992, located at 18 Wołoska Street. From 1995 to 2001, in the area had been built the complex of office buildings known as Mokotów Business Park, located in the area of Domaniewska and Postępu Streets. In 2000, in the area had been opened Westfield Mokotów (originally known as Galeria Mokotów), one of the biggest shopping centres in the city. By 2019, in the area had been built 83 office buildings. They were mostly built without city oversight and contributed to the development of the office monoculture. In 2019, the area begun losing its status of office centre, to the district of Wola.

Name
Due to increased industrial development leading to chronic traffic congestion, the area began being informally referred to as Mordor. The name was popularized by a Facebook page titled Mordor on Domaniewskiej in 2013. In 2018, the fansite had gained 100 000 followers, and by February 2022, it has over 170 000. There is a magazine named Voice of Mordor addressed to local workers.

Accordingly, the corporate employees in the area are informally referred to as orcs. In the book, they inhabited the fictional Mordor. The name was coined as a commentary on the rat race culture that many of the employees engage in.

There is a movement to make Mordor the officially recognized name of the area. In 2015, its supporters hung a street sign with name Mordor in the area, which however quickly taken down by the authorities. In 2018, the local inhabitants had proposed via the participatory budgeting, the recognition of the name, which however was not approved. Since 2015, the name is accepted in the search of the Google Maps. On December 12, 2020, two small streets in the neighborhood of Służewiec were named in reference to Tolkien, J. R. R. Tolkiena Street and Gandalfa Street.