A good book is always a hit gift. So we have prepared a subjective guide to the best titles for a person interested in architecture and design.
"Podhale. Everything for Sale"
Aleksander Gurgul, "PODHALE: Everything for Sale" Czarne Publishing House, 2022
Photo: Jakub Głaz
"Zakopane - the native Las Vegas." "Podhale - Poland in a nutshell and on steroids". "In Podhale, construction law has not caughton." For a long time, these bon mots of dubious quality have desensitized us to the degradation of the landscape, nature and cultural heritage of Zakopane and its environs. The adage about building law is what the author of "Podhale... "Aleksander Gurgul calls an "embarrassing joke" and, in earnest, equipped with a good reporter's skill, he takes on the sins of Podhale: construction self-interest, pat-development, investor fires, reklamosis, destruction of nature and, from another register, violence against women and the torture of animals.
You can read the entire review of the book here
"Alina Scholtz. Designer of Warsaw greenery"
"Alina Scholtz. Designer of Warsaw's greenery" edited by Ewelina Solarek, Anna Wrońska, Museum of Warsaw, Warsaw 2021
© Museum of the City of Warsaw
The exhibition, followed by the book dedicated to Alina Scholtz, perfectly fits into the ongoing debate on the position of women in the design world. It even does so in two ways. Because it not only restores the memory of an extremely important figure for the development of Warsaw, it appreciates anew her achievements and tells the story of an undoubted career of a woman in a masculinized world. The presentation of Alina Scholtz's projects also turns the light on the entire field of landscape architecture, proving that it is something far more important than creating floral compositions on lawns in the park.
You can read the entire book review from the May issue of Architecture and Business here
"War on Beauty. A report on the disfigurement of Sweden"
Fredrik Kullberg "War on Beauty. A reportage on the disfigurement of Sweden"
© Dowody na Istnienie Publishing House
In the author's descriptions, Sweden appears as a paradise of futurists, for whom only what is new matters. The "War on Beauty" of the title is a blind gaze to the future without appreciating what is already there. Modernity, according to Kullberg and his interlocutors, appears as a process, not so much unnecessary as ill-conceived and authoritarian. A process in which all respect for what was has been overlooked. Why is Sweden facing such problems? Kullberg calls ita"country of engineers," which in itself may suggest a certain lack of aesthetic and social sensitivity.
You can read the entire book review here
"Walter Gropius. The Man Who Built the Bauhaus"
Fiona MacCarthy, "Walter Gropius. The Man Who Built the Bauhaus," translated by Jan Dzierzgowski, Filtry Publishing, Warsaw 2021
© Filtry Publishing House
In a story about modernity in architecture, a mention of the Bauhauscannot be missing. The school, founded in 1919, laid the foundations for modern design, graphic design and space creation. In the pages of a book dedicated to Walter Gropius, Fiona MacCarthy seeks answers to the question of who the founder of the Bauhaus was and the man who made a revolution in thinking about architecture and architectural education.
You can read the entire book review from the March issue of Architecture and Business here
"Social Realism and Socialist Realism. Interior Architecture in Poland 1949-1956"
Aleksandra Sumorok "Socialist Realism and Socialist Realisms..." - cover
Photo: Jakub Głaz
Socialist realism is often not taken seriously. The detail-overloaded mutations of classical styles, by the way, ask for it themselves. But by lumping all of Socialist Realism into a bag labeled "quirk," we deprive ourselves of knowledge of its many shades and little-known realizations. The cure for this deficit is Aleksandra Sumorok's pioneering publication devoted to Socialist Realist interiors.
You can read the entire review of the book here
