Three years ago, on March 10, 2022, at the age of 86, passed away an outstanding architect and exceptional figure - Jerzy Gurawski. On this sad anniversary, we remember the work of a man who became a permanent part of the history of Polish architecture and theater.
We recall an extremely witty and full of fascinating stories conversation between Jakub Glaz and Jerzy Gurawski in 2021:
Born in 1935 in Lviv, just after the war he moved with his family to Bielsko-Biała. He completed his architectural studies at the Cracow University of Technology, and there, out of his love for theater and as a result of his master's thesis, defended in 1960 under the title "Experimental Theater," he began working with Jerzy Grotowski and his Laboratory Theater, creating arrangements for theater spaces. The cooperation between the architect and theater director lasted for many years, during the time when they both lived in Opole.
In 1968, Gurawski began creating together with Marian Fikus (you can read an interview with the architect in the April issue of A&B), the duo with an almost athletic streak competed in successive architectural competitions, both in Poland (including for the center of Kedzierzyn, Dzierzoniow, Glogow and Wloclawek) and abroad, including for the design of the Paris Pompidou Center.
It was both sport and ambition. And ambition was about pleasure. Of course, where we were winning. In turn, we lost where we really wanted to win. This was the case with the competition for the Pompidou Center. [...] Those were great times!
- Jerzy Gurawski recalled.
In the 1970s, as a result of winning the competition to design the campus of the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan (Morasko), Gurawski, Fikus and Jan Godlewski, who worked with them, moved to Poznan. However, the project was not implemented as planned; according to Gurawski's vision, only the departments of Physics, Geography, Mathematics and Computer Science and a sports hall were built. In 1989, he founded the author's ARPA studio.
The Department of Physics at the Morasko Campus in Poznan.
Photo: Klapi | Wikimedia Commons © CC BY 2.5 en
In addition to teaching facilities (including the Academy of Music in Poznań), the architect has created apartment buildings (including Wstęga Warty and Casa Verona) and spaces related to the theater, which is close to his heart - in 2021, his design for the headquarters of the Polish Dance Theater in Poznań won the Architecture Award of the Wielkopolska Region in the "public interior" category.
The headquarters of the Academy of Music in Poznan
Photo: Radomil | Wikimedia Commons © CC BY-SA 3.0
Gurawski's work cannot be easily pigeonholed - he took what was inspiring from current trends, but never let himself be swept away by fashion
- Jakub Glaz wrote about the architect's work.
In 2007 he received the SARP Honorary Award, recognized for - in addition to his architectural achievements - his exemplary professional attitude and pedagogical achievements. Jerzy Gurawski was an insightful but humorous observer of the surrounding world, which he immortalized in numerous sketches. From his stories, one can sense that architecture was a great adventure for him, and designing a great fun.
The Wstęga Warty apartment building in Poznań - a project created with Przemysław Cieślak
Photo: Radomil | Wikimedia Commons © CC BY-SA 3.0
Gurawski was able to talkabout architecture, his own and other people's, about theater, broadly understood culture and many other phenomena of the modern world in an exceptionally light, interesting and witty manner. Never ex cathedra, always with a distance to himself and reality. He was a great storyteller and an insightful observer and commentator. Casual and intelligently mocking. Aptly and with just the right amount of malice ,he was able to point out inept decision-makers, stiff academics or the misguided works of his colleagues.
- Jakub Glaz recalls.
