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This award does not make us better architects - an interview with Przemo Lukasik

03 of February '25

One of the greatest honors in Polish architecture is the Honorary Award of the Society of Architects, which has been awarded since 1966. In the pages of A&B, Wojciech Fudala talks about the professional path, SARP activities and current events from the world of architecture with the winners and laureates of this award. This time his interlocutor is Przemo Łukasik, who received the SARP Honorary Award together with Łukasz Zagała in 2024.

Przemo Łukasik, laureat Honorowej Nagrody SARP 2024

Przemo ŁUKASIK - a graduate of the Faculty of Architecture at the Silesian University of Technology in Gliwice, also studied at École d "Architecture Paris-Villemin in Paris, France, and gave lectures and classes at École Spéciale d "Architecture. The Paris period in his life resulted in gaining experience in the studios of such architectural icons as Jean Nouvel and Odile Decq. In 1997, together with Lukasz Zagala, he founded the proprietary Medusa Group studio, which today has offices in Bytom, Warsaw and Dubai. The team has been awarded the Grand Prix in the Architecture of the Year competition of the Silesian Voivodeship three times (for: the Wasko office building in Gliwice, the Infinite Dreams office building in Gliwice and the TechPark Kanlux), numerous nominations for the European Mies van der Rohe Award, the Mies van der Rohe, the Architecture Award of the President of the City of Warsaw for the best public building for Akademeia Highschool, and the SARP 2022 Award of the Year in the category of Office, Education or Administration Building for.KTW in Katowice. In 2024, the architects won the SARP Honorary Award.


Wojciech Fudala:I've been following Medusa Group's activities since I started taking an interest in architecture, and one thing has always intrigued me. "Przemo" is your full name or an element of your public image to emphasize something?

Przemo Lukasik: It's definitely a simpler story and no image treatment. "Przemyslaw" is the name for the City Hall and the Tax Office, "Przemo" is for all friends. Since I was young my aunt used to call me that, and that's how it has stuck to me. When I was in college, I always signed my name as "Przemo" - on projects, on the attendance list or on exams. This, by the way, aroused the interest of some professors, who would suspend their voices when reading my name. For me, however, it was something natural. When we received the SARP Honorary Award, I got a phone call asking how they should actually describe the award - "Przemo" or "Przemyslaw"? I consistently answered then that "Przemo".


Wojciech Fudala:You received the SARP Honorary Award together with your business partner Lukasz Zagala, with whom you co-found the Medusa Group studio. How did you get to know each other?

Przemo Lukasik: Lukasz is first and foremost my friend. We met during our first year of studies at the Faculty of Architecture at the Silesian University of Technology in Gliwice. At that time, however, none of us suspected that this would result in cooperation for thirty consecutive years. We were in different dean's groups, so we passed each other in the corridor or in the queue for index entry. We had our first longer conversation on the way to an open-air drawing session in Bielsko-Biała in Lukasz's red toddler car, but it wasn't until our second year of college, when we were designing single-family houses, that we started to look at each other's projects and see who was thinking how. Since then, our conversations have already focused primarily on architecture, and it has remained that way to this day.

kapliczka/krzyż przydrożny, Bronowice, Kraków, 2016

shrine/cross by the roadside, Bronowice, Krakow, 2016

Photo: Przemo Łukasik


Wojciech Fudala:When was the first time you did a joint project?

Przemo Lukasik: In the third year of our studies, we started to get interested in international competitions. We weren't alone in this, by the way, as other colleagues from college had similar interests, including Wojtek Małecki, along with his future wife Asia, Oskar Grąbczewski and Robert Konieczny. We all decided to enter the competition for the Center for Cultural and Religious Studies in Osaka. Wojtek and Asia won an honorable mention at the time, we and Luke unfortunately lost. In our group, however, there was no unhealthy rivalry or feeling that we were present and future competitors for each other. Everything had the hallmarks of an alternative adventure happening alongside the standard activities at the university, where there was no lack of sympathy and camaraderie. We enjoyed the success of Wojtek and Asia, and we remember the Osaka competition as the first project done in the Lukasik-Zagala duo. We got along well, so we decided to continue working together.


Wojciech Fudala:Your resumes also included an episode in Paris. How did it come about?

Przemo Lukasik: Once upon a time I read in the "Gazeta Wyborcza" about the possibility of studying abroad. At that time, there were no programs like Erasmus yet and studying outside Poland was rare. So I went to our rectorate to find out more. I was told that if I wanted to study in France, I should apply to the embassy. So I did, and the following week I was already at Piękna Street in Warsaw. I managed to get through an exam in French, which I had studied at a construction technical school, after which the embassy representatives asked me why I wanted to study specifically in France. I was strongly interested in French architecture, which at the time abounded in bold designs. So I told them about the Grand Travaux buildings, which brought a lot of new content to modern architecture, such as the National Library in Paris by Dominique Perrault. A few months later, I received information that I was the only Pole to qualify for these studies in Paris. I went there, and Lukasz joined me two years later.

Nowy Rynek (budynek D będący IV i V etapem zespołu budynków biurowo-handlowo-usługowo-mieszkalnych z garażami podziemnymi i zagospodarowaniem terenu), Poznań, 2018-2021

Nowy Rynek (building D being the fourth and fifth stages of a complex of office, retail, service and residential buildings with underground garages and landscaping), Poznań, 2018-2021

Photo credit: Juliusz Skokołowski


Wojciech Fudala:Was it easy to find your way in the new country?

Przemo Lukasik: Nothing was easy back then, and my arrival by bus at the Place de la Concorde was the beginning of the adventure of my life.
When I went to Paris, I felt that I was moving from the provinces to the big world. However, it quickly became apparent that where I came from and where I was educated was not a limitation at all; on the contrary, it was an added incentive and motivator. We wanted to greedily get everything that was not available in Poland at the time. And there were not many things: magazines about architecture, bookstores, books, exhibitions, lectures by famous architects or even the Internet.
We also managed to get jobs in very good offices. I gained experience at Jean Nouvel, and later, already with Lukasz, we ended up in the competition team at the studio of Odile Decq and Benoît Cornette. It was a big world for people from Bytom or Gliwice, and I remember it really well.


Wojciech Fudala:What did your stay in Paris give you?

Przemo Lukasik: Staying in Paris was a school of life. I owe a lot to that period. We lived mainly on architecture, baguettes and canned goods that our parents brought us. In the 1990s, France was much more technically advanced than Poland. My school had a modeling room and other laboratories at its disposal. It was there that I first started using a video projector to present projects at school. When we returned to Poland, we used this technique, among others, when defending our diploma.
To make some extra money, I worked at the bakery next to our apartment on Rue Lepic on weekends at night. When I wasn't serving customers, Lukasz would join me and we would discuss our diploma entitled "City Codes" until dawn.

Bolko Loft - adaptacja budynku lampiarni zakładów górniczo-hutniczych na przestrzeń mieszkalną, Bytom, 2001-2003

Bolko Loft - adaptation of the lamp room building of a mining and metallurgical plant into a residential space, Bytom, 2001-2003

photo: Przemo Łukasik


Wojciech Fudala:Did you do one joint degree?

Przemo Łukasik: Yes, we did it together and defended it together. By the way, we made a bit of a fuss about it, because it was probably the first such situation at the university. We had a great promoter, Andrzej Duda, who was open to all the ideas that occupied us at the time, which we brought from Paris, among other places. We defended our diploma in 1997, and presented it in a way that no one had done before. We covered the entire exhibition area in the Department of Architecture (the main hall) in black, so that no light came in. Then, using our experience in Paris, we set up several televisions and slide projectors on scaffolding. Mock-ups made of transparent plexiglass stood next to them, and on a giant screen, through a video projector, we presented our work in the form of a film. In the end, after a heated discussion, during which Henryk Zubel, along with Andrzej Duda, argued in favor of this new convention, we managed to defend our diploma with distinction. It was then that we once again reaffirmed that our cooperation had value, and hardened by our stay in Paris, we felt that we could test our friendship under even more difficult circumstances. We decided to embark on a further adventure together, this time already under the banner of "our own studio."


Wojciech Fudala:You come from Bytom, but Lukasz is from Gliwice, where, incidentally, you studied. Bytom therefore does not seem an obvious choice for the location of your studio.

Przemo Lukasik: Originally the office was established in Gliwice. We rented a room of 12 square meters at the back of the City Hall. Then we entered our first SARP competition for Pilsudski Square in Gliwice, in which we won an honorable mention.
Our team expanded, we met Bożena Fedas and Bartłomiej Brzózka and they showed us the "Ikar" Department Store. A while later we installed a studio there, on the fifth floor. It was a large open space and a great atmosphere to work in. The 100 square meters was still too much for us at the time, but the rent was the same as at 12, because no one wanted to rent this space. Before that it was a warehouse space that had no windows, only a large central skylight in the roof. We spent ten years there. During this time, our team grew more and more, until finally even the 100 square meters were no longer enough.
Once, while walking around Bytom, I noticed an empty red brick building on Józefczak Street. It was beautiful, though neglected and seemed unused. I tried to interest local Bytom businessmen in it. However, no one saw any potential in the facility, and the building continued to stand and deteriorate. I persuaded Lukasz that we should move in here ourselves. So we did, and we have been here for twenty years now.

dom w Bieszczadach, 2019-2020

home in the Bieszczady Mountains, 2019-2020

Photo: Przemo Lukasik


Wojciech Fudala:It's clear that you are very connected to Bytom. Do you have any favorite places here?

Przemo Lukasik: Bytom in itself is a beautiful city and I could point out some great places in it. Certainly I have to mention the districts of Bobrek, Szombierki and the excellent buildings located there, such as the Szombierki Comb ined Heat and Power Plant or the Krystyna Shaft, which is being taken care of by local citizens, and our studio is trying to find a new function for it, adequate to the possibilities and scale of our city. We have already made three projects there, and a year ago we installed a sound and light installation on top of it, which was intended to provoke and draw attention, not only of Bytom residents, to this valuable post-industrial object. Today we already know that we managed to obtain financing and there is a chance that the progressive degradation of the Krystyna Shaft can stop. I hope that we will not only keep it as a symbol, but that it itself will become a flywheel for the development of the surrounding areas and the entire district.
If we are talking about favorite places in Bytom, then for sentimental reasons I still have to mention my lamppost at the Bolko shaft - my home and its surroundings.


Wojciech Fudala:In designing this house at the turn of the 20th century, you showed great foresight. You pointed out the direction of change for post-industrial buildings, which became a trend a few years later. At the time, few people were still thinking about reusing industrial spaces and giving them new life, and you converted an abandoned post-mining lamppost building into a residential house - the Bolko Loft.

Przemo Lukasik: This house was not created as a manifesto, it was not meant to impress or set trends. I knew nothing at the time about how reusing post-industrial, existing buildings could be a way to combat climate change. No one was writing about circular architecture at the time. I was only driven by the desire to create a space for my family, which was just being built. I was looking for a place where I could raise my children, relax or work for relatively little money.

Jazz Club Fantom (projekt aranżacji wnętrz), Bytom, 2012-2013

Jazz Club Fantom (interior design project), Bytom, 2012-2013

© Medusa Group


The very idea for Bolko Loft was born by accident, when I was looking for materials for a model in a small dump behind Bolko Shaft. Back then, there were no model stores like today, so mock-ups were just made from things found in junkyards or simply in garbage. Picking up scraps of wire, I raised my head and saw a building I hadn't noticed before. It stood in the back, tucked behind the former bathhouse. It was not exposed from the street. It fascinated me with its form - it was detached from the ground and stood on reinforced concrete pillars. My heart beat harder, and I stored its image in my memory. A few months later, my wife and I were looking for a place for a house. I thought of this building at the time. I managed to reach the owner, and he agreed to sell the land along with the lamppost. We raised two sons in it, who today are also studying architecture, and I think that these circumstances of their childhood and adolescence, opened their imaginations a little beyond the horizon of typical possibilities.


Wojciech Fudala:Do you see any differences between designing for outside investors and designing for yourself?

Przemo Lukasik: Bolko Loft is a project for which I can almost 100 percent take responsibility. I was not the one who created it, but I found it, designed its rehabilitation, went through all the administrative procedures, obtained financing and tried to do some of the work myself. In this process I was an investor, project manager, inspector and architect at the same time. This is a rare situation, but it teaches a lot. In today's discussions, it is easy to accuse architects of irresponsibility, but we are really just part of a large construction industry. We have to take responsibility for our decisions, but they are only a fraction of all that affects society and affects the climate of our planet.

regały Kista, Bytom, 2011 

Kista bookcases, Bytom, 2011

Photo: Wojciech Eksner


Wojciech Fudala:Do you have in mind discussions such as at the Łódź Design Festival in 2022? You were attacked then for your design of a house in the Bieszczady Mountains. All the participants in the discussion, headed by Filip Springer, unanimously said that you had done something wrong and unenvironmental.

Przemo Lukasik: I respect Filip Springer, who invited me to this discussion. However, many people later told me that it was a kind of set-up. I believe that if you are invited to a discussion, it is in order to honestly share your thinking about the architecture that I create with my team for different clients and in different contexts. If someone wants to have a discussion, it means they want to listen and understand you first. I listened about the "unplugging" of architecture from electricity and the immoral design of houses for the wealthy of this world in "out of town" spaces. I know how difficult it is to combine theory and practice, although in both cases you need faith and a strong commitment. In this company I was the only practitioner, and perhaps that is why the gap between us was so sharp. The daily work of a practitioner is measured not only by theory, it is also besieged by a heavy mass of additional circumstances and paradoxes.


Wojciech Fudala:In his column for Architecture & Business, Jakub Szczęsny criticized architects who design for very rich clients ["What a Beautiful View," A&B 09/21]. In his opinion, things are then created that are made for show.

Przemo Lukasik: I don't consider myself a preacher, so I wouldn't want to tell someone what is right or wrong. I live my morality every day as a father, husband, son, brother or associate of architects at Medusa Group. I try to do things the way my family, culture, and education have shaped me. Would it be moral to refuse to do a project for a gentleman who has a little more money than the other gentleman today? Or should one refuse an investor to whom Jakub Szczęsny designed the Keret House in a gap between buildings? I don't know whether this interesting and distinctive house was a real housing need, and whether by chance, although hidden in the shadow of two blocks of flats, it is not, "architecture for show." I have no idea what such architecture is and it is not my role to judge others. I have to focus on my designs, on the needs of my clients, on a good recognition of the context, but I never start designing by judging my investors on whether they are too rich to own a house, garage, office building or shed.

regały Kista, Bytom, 2011 

Kista bookcases, Bytom, 2011

Photo: Wojciech Eksner


Wojciech Fudala:Let's go back to Bytom for a moment. In the aforementioned Bolko Loft, you didn't quite consciously set the direction in which you should go in saving the post-industrial heritage. The same happened with the Phantom Jazz Club, which you renovated in 2012-2013.

Przemo Lukasik: In Bolko Loft I didn't want to set trends, but I felt it was a good, but not for everyone, way to live in a substance with an industrial past. What the Phantom Club in Bytom has in common with the lamp room is not only the location, but also the skillful search for a connection with the past and the prudent management of a small budget.
We bought all the furniture in Fantom, along with the bar counter and the "back" of the bar, from the second circuit, on Allegro or from sales in furniture commissaries. At the time, there was no Brda Foundation, which stores materials from selective demolitions to use in new projects. We left the interior itself, with the visible scars of an earlier renovation, with paint roller tattoos on the walls, to keep the spirit of the earlier, highly successful place. Today, this approach to design is called circular architecture, and back then it was about a strong idea for the interior of a club with a past and a modest budget. That was more than a decade ago, and today we continue to apply this thinking in situations that favor it.


Wojciech Fudala:In recent years, Medusa Group has begun to be associated with commercial architecture. Among your projects one can find quite a few office buildings that stand out from others of their kind. How do you approach the design of the office function so that ultimately valuable architecture is created?

Przemo Lukasik: Medusa Group has never been afraid of the word "commercial." After all, it's not a bad thing that we get paid for our services, and the architecture of office buildings, train stations or shopping malls, constantly hosts more users than magnificent museums or concert halls. It, too, deserves a good idea and a well-thought-out space, so it can't be treated as second-class. In architecture, regardless of scale, we seek simple forms and versatility in projections. We have the conviction that this will allow such surfaces to prove themselves in new scenarios in the future. We also like to use non-obvious materials, experimenting with them first on ourselves.
For example, at Bolko Loft we used cable trays (modular, openwork, galvanized prefabricated pieces for distributing electrical wiring) to surround the plot with a fence. The solution worked well as an alternative to prefabricated concrete fences, so we decided to repeat it, in larger projects. The Kanlux office building in Radzionkow and the Nowa Fabryczna office building in Lodz gained a second skin to protect the glass facades from excessive solar energy and allowed us to protect birds from colliding with the architecture. Although we used the same element in each of these projects, each of them received an individual and distinctive "face" of the facade. The use of non-standard solutions has always attracted us. We look for them, given the circumstances and scale, but the investor himself must always be ready for it as well.

Tuna (restauracja rybna na Powiślu), Warszawa, 2021-2022

Tuna (fish restaurant in Powiśle district), Warsaw, 2021-2022

Photo: Przemo Łukasik


In the Tuna restaurant project in Warsaw, looking for a metaphor of fish scales, we used ready-made steel canning lids as a wall finish. In the Kista project, using recycled meat and milk containers and using a simple cross, we designed a shelf that can be arranged in various forms. The same thinking also accompanied us on a larger scale when we designed the Wave office building in Gdansk. Its modular façade was created using trapezoidal sheet metal, used every day for lost formwork. Using these non-obvious but simple solutions, we try to make our buildings stand out from the rest, looking for a distinctive and possibly economical architecture for our clients, not only on the facades, but also in the projections.


Wojciech Fudala:We met in connection with the SARP Honorary Award, so I'd like to talk about the Association. When and why did you sign up for SARP?

Przemo Łukasik: Together with Łukasz, we signed up for SARP in 1998. We were introduced to the association by Piotr Fischer and Bartłomiej Brzózka, who were architects who were active in both the market and SARP. Since then, we often visited the Katowice branch, mainly during post-competition discussions. These were very dynamic discussions, full of engagement and interesting arguments. These were lessons we drew from when working on subsequent competitions. A lot of inspiration came from watching Tomasz Taczewski, Piotr Średniawa, Piotr Fischer, Bartłomiej Brzózka, Henryk Zubel and Andrzej Duda, as well as the most articulate Alexander Franta. We learned from them how to talk about the project and exchange arguments in a forceful but cultured way.


Then, in 2003, there was a generational change in the Association. The Silesian District Chamber of Architects was formed, with the most experienced members of SARP Katowice moving away, and being replaced by young, courageous architects such as Tomasz Studniarek, Malgorzata Pilinkiewicz, Wojciech Malecki, Tomasz Konior and Oskar Grąbczewski. You could feel the new energy. What's more, no one bothered each other, as the older ones concentrated on the Chamber, and the young ones were free to come up with new initiatives, such as the Masters of Architecture series or Archibar, which has become a cult meeting place for local architects.

biurowiec Wave (kompleks dwóch budynków), Gdańsk, 2017-2020 (budynek B w trakcie realizacji)

Wave office building (complex of two buildings), Gdansk, 2017-2020 (building B under construction)

Photo: Juliusz Sokolowski


Wojciech Fudala:So why have neither you nor Lukasik ever become more involved with SARP Katowice?

Przemo Lukasik: We don't have such clear associational traits in us. We never thought to solicit participation in the structures, nor did anyone ever specifically invite us to join. After the generational change of the early 21st century, SARP Katowice was the first such young branch in Poland. It represented bold, new thinking, and there were ambitions to undertake new activities - those that had been neglected by the previous generation of architects, and in new circumstances became new needs. Luke and I were very proud to be a part of these changes, while acting as a group of friends, competing in competitions.
At some point, the camaraderie began to break down. A lot of bile flowed out, which quickly flooded this beautiful and young SARP of Katowice. We didn't understand all the contexts and didn't want to take sides. We decided to limit our involvement in the Association only to participation in competitions. To this day I find it difficult to understand what really happened then, because so many friends turned into enemies. I am very sorry that this wonderful energy did not stand the test. I am still a member of SARP Katowice, although on a daily basis today I have more contact with the Main Board in Warsaw.

TechPark Kanlux (projekt adaptacji byłej stołówki wojskowej na obiekt biurowy), Radzionków, 2015-2016

TechPark Kanlux (project to adapt a former military canteen into an office building), Radzionków, 2015-2016

Photo: Tomasz Zakrzewski


Wojciech Fudala:How did SARP Katowice react to you winning the SARP Honorary Award?

Przemo Łukasik: We received an email congratulating us.


Wojciech Fudala:And that's it? This is the first time in twenty-five years that the SARP Honorary Award has gone to Silesia - we should all be proud of that. I asked this question because I personally really missed the public congratulations from our SARP in Katowice.

Przemo Lukasik: Believe me, the entire Medusa Group team is proud of this nation. We are not petty and are able to rejoice in our own company. We don't hold a grudge against anyone because of this. Marcin Brataniec from the Cracow branch of SARP called a few days after the information that we had been awarded this honorary prize and invited us to the next lecture in the Meeting with the Master series. As you can see, sometimes a Silesian is closer to a Malopolska [laughter]. This award does not make us better architects. Rather, it provokes thoughts, memories, thanks. It is also a great credit of confidence. We will continue to try to repay it with interest.

Nowa Fabryczna (budynek biurowy w Łódź Nowe Centrum), Łódź, 2015-2017

Nowa Fabryczna (office building in Lodz New Center), Lodz, 2015-2017

Photo: Przemo Łukasik


Wojciech Fudala:One of the previous recipients of the award is Zbigniew Maćków, who says that the word "architect" has social activity written into it [cf. A&B 05/24]. You, in 2011, got involved in helping the residents of the Bytom Karb district, who lost their homes overnight. Their neighborhood had almost entirely sunk into the ground due to looted coal mining. I remember how you tried to get other architects interested in this topic. What did you manage to do then?

Przemo Lukasik: It all came out of the initiative of the then Ombudswoman, Mrs. Irena Lipowicz, who approached me as a resident and architect from Bytom. She asked if we could do something about the problem of the displaced residents of Bytom Karb. Many meetings took place then, and Robert Konieczny and Oskar Grąbczewski also took part in one of them.


At that time I had the idea to make an art installation, which I called "Neighbors." The residents of the Karb district had to leave everything they had in one moment and run away. When they later returned to this place, their houses were already fenced off and could only be seen from a distance. I proposed taking portrait photos of the residents who would agree to do so, to then hang these faces in the windows so that they would look at each other. It was to be a photo installation with the simple message that not only matter - buildings - would be demolished, but human relationships, friendships and the oh-so-important neighborly bonds would collapse with them. At the time, I had the impression that some people did not see the human factor in this destruction. Unfortunately, everything got blurred in official and administrative procedures, until finally the buildings were demolished and the installation was not built.

H2O (przebudowa wieży ciśnień), Bytom, 2013

H2O (water tower reconstruction), Bytom, 2013 - adaptive conceptual design

© Medusa Group


Wojciech Fudala:Don't you think you could have achieved more then, if you had been involved in the SARP structure, instead of acting as a single architect?

Przemo Lukasik: Ms. Ombudsman approached a group of people in which I was also a part. The stature of the Office of the Ombudsman offered guarantees and leverage. I myself never wanted to hide behind any organizations. There are really a lot of things that we can do individually as well, simply by being representatives of the environment. We are designers, and it's up to us how much we can give to that part of society that doesn't order projects from us.
We have done so in other situations, for example, when we felt that our capital and experience could influence the decision not to demolish the water tower in Bytom on Oswiecimska Street. We made a concept, gathered all the information and proposed a hypothetical solution and function. We were looking for an investor to save this modernist building. We haven't found one yet, although ten years have passed, but the tower is constantly visible in the skyline of Bytom. The same was true of the Szombierki Combined Heat and Power Plant and the Krystyna Shaft, for which we prepared, in addition to the project, a light and sound installation.


The architect always worked for the people, on their orders. Less often he did it without invitation, on his own initiative and at his own expense. As history shows, he usually worked, as a rule, for the wealthy: kings, popes, bishops, princes, craftsmen or industrialists. Today their place has been taken by developers, although in fact, even if we come to design a bathroom or a small house, we are still working on someone else's commission, for someone else's money and fulfilling the needs of a particular investor.
However, there is a group of architects who have a need to offer their time and some of their experience to a wider audience, even if that audience does not ask for it. One can often expose oneself to all sorts of epithets by doing so. We then hear from fellow architects that we are doing a project for free, and that, after all, is spoiling the market. My opinion is that sometimes it is necessary to do a project for free, to offer your experience, your time, and sometimes your image, when the situation really requires it.

„Latarnia Bytom” (instalacja świetlno-dźwiękowa na Elektrociepłowni Szombierki), Bytom, 2019

"Lantern Bytom" (light and sound installation on Szombierki Combined Heat and Power Plant), Bytom, 2019 - adaptive conceptual design

Photo: Przemo Łukasik © Medusa Group


Wojciech Fudala:I've already mentioned that the last time the SARP Honorary Award went to Silesia was in 1999, and the winner was Ryszard Jurkowski. Later, in 2008, the award still went to Silesian-born Marian Fikus, but he tied his design business to Poznań. Do you think we'll be waiting another twenty-five years for another Silesian Honorary SARP Award?

Przemo Lukasik: The architects you mentioned I respect very much and I have received congratulations from both of them. And another SARP Honorary Award for Silesia is, in my opinion, a matter of time. A whole host of names of potential winners comes to mind, although I wouldn't want to mention them, because I will still leave someone out and do them an injustice or it will be a disservice to them.
Very important in all this is the role of the Katowice branch of SARP, to send the right signals to the chapter and nominate the achievements of colleagues from our region. A great deal depends on the Silesian environment. Whether we are proud of the work and creativity of our members, whether we are able to put aside everything that sometimes divides us. SARP is, after all, a collegial association, and we should accentuate this more, not just by speaking to each other by name.

„Latarnia Bytom” (instalacja świetlno-dźwiękowa na Elektrociepłowni Szombierki), Bytom, 2019

"Lantern Bytom" (light and sound installation on Szombierki Combined Heat and Power Plant), Bytom, 2019 - adaptive conceptual designs

Photo: Przemo Łukasik © Medusa Group


Wojciech Fudala:You received the SARP Honorary Award at a rather young age compared to previous winners. Quite a few projects are still ahead of you. So what does this award mean to you?

Przemo Lukasik: Forgive me, we are not that young anymore. It's a very nice moment, of course, but we treat all awards as something that just happens to us. The award is largely a by-product of the work we do to solve the problems our customers entrust us with. I Prize in a competition leads to realization. The 2nd Prize is the impetus to mobilize and find something in the next project that makes it stand out. The SARP Honorary Award, on the other hand, is a great honor, because we were among architects we ourselves hold in high esteem. It's also worth emphasizing that it's an award given by the environment, and as our conversation resounded, it's a highly complicated environment, often very critical of each other.


There are different moments in the work of an architect. Sometimes we receive criticism. Then we try to think them over and analyze them. And when an award happens, we are happy that there are people who think that what we do deserves some attention. However, we do not divide awards into the most important and less important ones. Each of them is a sign of respect for the work that the entire Medusa Group team is doing and a motivation for further work.
The SARP Honorary Award is addressed to specific individuals. However, for Luke and me, it is an award whose honor we want to share with the entire Medusa team, because without our colleagues, without their daily efforts, our Medusa would not be a group.

Wojciech Fudala:Thank you for the interview.


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