What does it mean to be an architect today? What are the conditions for practicing this profession? In the series "The Architect's Profession" we address these two questions to Polish architects, and illustrate their statements with unrealized office projects. In today's installment, Marcin Kolanus and Jozef Franczok of the PORT studio answered our questions.
Marcin Kolanus and Józef Franczok
1 What does it mean to be an architect today?
Great modernists like Le Corbusier or Oscar Niemeyer believed that architecture could solve social and societal problems, be a cure for problems in the world. This thought, though perhaps stripped of the mechanical, utopian and totalitarian nature of many modernist ideas, is a value. Architecture affects the way we live, our sense of happiness, our emotions, and can promote development or block it. Being an architect today requires a sensitive ear for the needs of the people and our times, this hearing also includes needs that are unexpressed and unconscious. Hearing ranges from climate and ecological issues, to the pace of life and ever-present stress, to the need for contemplation, reflection and introspection in individuals. In what he does, an architect can try to create a space that is conducive to these needs, responds not only in a systemic way, but also individually, to a person.
2 What are the conditions for practicing the architectural profession?
The economic and legal situation of the profession in Poland does not reflect its stature, making it a difficult mission. Stress, haste, a flood of visual noise and content and products of poor quality are additional difficulties. On the other hand, the modern world gives us a multitude of opportunities and tools. Starting with technological opportunities, access to the flow of information, knowledge, the best design, opportunities to work remotely and design in different regions of the world.
Jozef FRANCZOK, Marcin KOLANUS
PORT studio and architecture studio
