Hits and kits of 2025
In the rather turbulent times we live in, it sounds like a blessing to say that the passing year did not stand out in any way.
Dramas are still happening near and far from our borders, threats have not disappeared and tensions are rising, but in 2025 in Poland they did not take material form. The architectural output of the year is similarly mediocre - no great events that heated up discussions, no spectacular successes or great disasters. And that's fortunate! Freedom from great emotions is a gift in our time. And since in 2025 it was difficult to have great highs and lows, why not look at architecture from the perspective of who it is for - human beings?
head: a sensory learning space
In 2025, there is a building in Poland whose beauty is not just about aesthetics, it is much more complex. The new headquarters of the Department of Psychology at the University of Warsaw was built on the university's ever-expanding campus on Banacha Street. The campus itself is not an interesting place, rather haphazardly built up with buildings of different shape, scale and style (the oldest building dates from the Socialist Realist era, there are representatives of the 1970s, 1990s and the last decade), it does not offer friendly public spaces or places conducive to developing student relationships. And against this background, the new Psychology Department stands out.
Selected in the 2018 competition, the design by Projekt Praga and Piotr Bujnowski office (the second prize in this competition was won by Marek Budzyński's proposal) - is the building, but also the surroundings: arcades and a square in front of the entrance equipped with roofs, pergolas, greenery, seating areas, bicycle parking. And also the green terraces on the roof and the open, public, bright, expansive lobby on the first floor. The body itself brings to mind academic buildings erected in the 1960s and 1970s for American universities, simple, based on geometric rhythm, due to the use of concrete associated with the current of brutalism. And here concrete appears, but smooth, with a warm hue. It was perfectly composed with a restrained and disciplined body, concentrated around the atrium surrounded by galleries; the simple rhythm of the building's divisions is broken by balconies and bays protruding from the floors (hiding rooms for individual work).
The more attentive viewer or user will find in the building a multitude of formal attractions affecting various senses. From the imitative three-dimensional floor to the photogenic spiral staircase, from the nooks and crannies where surfaces of different texture, structure, color and temperature are strikingly combined, to the details in warm shades of browns and oranges. Consistently realized, the building is conducive to learning and collaboration, while also being a sophisticated work of architecture.
hands: manual control
Even a dull year can't do without scandals, because that's how the competition for the design of the public edifice of the New Library in Rzeszow can be called. After the results were announced, it turned out that the winning design by Kengo Kuma and TKHolding was chosen without respect for good practice and transparency of the jury's work.
The Rzeszow controversy is a trifle compared to the hand-wringing over the competition for the position of director at the Museum of Literature in Warsaw, but as usual on such occasions, it is architecture that loses the most: the controversy over the actions of officials overshadowed the debate about the architecture of the building, which is to become an important landmark on the map of Rzeszow.
2025 was also unlucky for another competition procedure. A trivial error in the competition regulations also this year led to the invalidation of the selection of the new director/director of the National Institute of Architecture and Urbanism, an institution that, after eight years of existence, could certainly use a refreshing reform.
heart: the old new symbol
More than seven decades old, the Palace of Culture and Science (PKiN) continues to stir emotions. For many it has long been the most important symbol of the capital, while others still dream of its demolition. Many extreme opinions about it appeared in the public space with the opening of the Museum of Modern Art building at its feet and the creation of the public Central Square, and even more when Marszalkowska Street on the axis of the Socialist Realist skyscraper was crossed by a wide pedestrian crossing, better opening the view perspective on the Palace from the Royal Route. It seems that this year PKiN has finally been unquestionably recognized as an iconic object of the city. The master plan currently being developed for Warsaw, the most important planning document, finally abandoned the concept of enclosure, or covering the Palace with skyscrapers, which had been in effect since the early 1990s. Rather, low-rise buildings are now planned in the immediate vicinity of the PKiN. In this way, the domination of the most recognizable high-rise building over the center of Warsaw has been constituted.
belly: all for sale
The full bellies of investors, owners, developers are more important than the common good - this is a non-new thesis that anyone who lives in Poland and observes both the way cities are built up and the protection of architectural heritage understands. The former headquarters of Miastoprojekt Kraków, an architecturally interesting building that is also important as a birthplace of the most important post-war concepts of city development, became a victim of this phenomenon in 2025. It turned out that Krakow, in the view of its officials, is still a provincial settlement that has to build its value and fame on the backs of famous figures. A famous actor who was a face of a commercial hotel project was enough to allow a far-reaching reconstruction of the Miastoprojekt office building (only the facade remained of the "gutted" building, and the fate of the modernist villa next door is uncertain). Voices of defenders of the city's architectural heritage were countered with the need to attract loud names and develop a "parochial" city. Similar situations are repeated in Poland at every turn, and one can enumerate dozens of buildings important for the history of architecture that have disappeared to make way for investments that are more profitable for their owners.
legs: walk or ride, that's the question
Jane Jacobs and Jan Gehl wrote about the value of a pedestrian-friendly city decades ago. These theses, the validity of which has been proven in countless metropolises around the world, are still being accepted with great resistance in Poland. Spectacular proof of this from recent months is Opole. There, in one of the busiest parts of the center, pedestrian crossings have just been eliminated. Officials responsible for the decision blamed pedestrians for creating traffic jams - taking away their right to cross the roadway is supposed to smooth out vehicle traffic, which was considered a priority. Other cities have been somewhat luckier: in recent years and months in Gdansk, Krakow or Warsaw, footbridges and underpasses have replaced zebras on the ground.
Decisions to make the city more accessible to all its users, including those with mobility problems, the elderly, those pushing strollers or dragging suitcases, are still a gesture of great courage, even revolutionary zeal, and are initially met with great criticism. The elimination of the underpass on the axis of the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw by pro-car groups was presented as a barbaric attack on freedom and freedom of movement (by car - because freedom to walk in this context is never a value). Meanwhile, after a few months of existence, the above-ground crossing is used by up to 10,000 people from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., including hundreds riding bicycles. There has been no increase in traffic congestion.
