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"The year 2024 was a very good year for Polish architecture."

16 of January '25

Hits and kits of 2024

The year 2024 was a very good year for Polish architecture. The best and most objective confirmation of this thesis is always international recognition, and there was no shortage of this in the past months. Let me list and comment on the most important events in chronological order:

1. the PLATO Gallery of Contemporary Art in Ostrava, designed by the KWK Promes studio, made it to the finals of the Mies van der Rohe Awards, i.e. among the five best buildings in Europe in 2023-2024. on May 25, a gala ceremony was held, during which we received the statuette, as well as the opening of an exhibition presenting forty buildings shortlisted for the competition. Among them was the building of the second Polish team, the Błonie Market, designed by Aleksandra Wasilkowska's studio. The exhibition is shown in more cities, not only in Europe, and is accompanied by lectures by the five finalists and the winners of the Grand Prize and the Emerging category award. It is worth mentioning that this was a celebration not only of Polish architecture, as it was the first time in history that a Czech building made it to the final of this competition. In Poland, this has happened before in 2017 with the Katyn Museum designed by BBGK studio, which younger readers may not remember.

The 2nd "Storm" Action Park of the Archigrest and topoScape studio's project became the best public space in Europe, winning the title of European Prize for Urban Public Space awarded by the CCCB in Barcelona. There, in October, the authors, along with the other four finalists, talked about their projects and later received the winner's statuette for their magnificent project. And here I would like to expand on the topic and explain why this project is great and why it won. It happened because the authors drew on what is ours, Polish. So we have an amazing, difficult story of a mound raised from the rubble of Warsaw destroyed during the war. And we also have another, contemporary layer to this story - a clever, balanced design that also focuses on nature. And how. I recommend everyone to visit the site. When we arrived there with Salon magazine, even before the results were announced, I said that this was the unquestionably winning project, for the reasons I wrote about. When we won this competition in 2016 with the square on the roof of the underground Museum of the Centre for Dialogue Breakthroughs in Szczecin, the jury also emphasized the reference to the difficult pre- and post-war history of the place where we designed. The same was true of the design of the Ghetto Heroes Square in Cracow by the Lewicki Łatak studio, which was in the strict final of this competition in 2006. The authors referred to the painful events of the place, creating a unique public space in the city. I remind you of this with a view not only to younger readers, but also to all those who ask me after lectures how to do good things that will interest the world and have a chance in competitions. That's right. Without copying, looking at the immediate context and stories of places.

The 3rd Metropolitan Railway Station building in Lublin by the Tremend studio made it to the finals of the World Architecture Festival in Singapore and won in its category - Transportation. Although it didn't win the Festival, it's a big success, having previously entered the finals and not won at least by architects such as Sou Fujimoto with his fantastic Final Wooden House or Bjarke Ingels with his Mountain Dwellings project. The aforementioned studios, however, had far more innovative design solutions. I watched their final appearances from the perspective of one who failed to make it out of the groups in which we competed at the time. But those failures were a huge lesson that allowed us to finally win this Festival in 2016. It was also the CDP museum in Szczecin. So I invariably urge Polish teams to try their hand with the best, because it develops incredibly. Just getting to the WAF is already a success, so winning a group and entering the finals even more so. You then have a chance to tell the great architects who sit on the Jury about your projection. Since the speeches at the festival are also televised, you can say that you present your project to the entire architectural world.

4 The opening of the Museum of Modern Art building by Thomas Phifer. I put this a little out of chronology, because a while later there was a partial closure, so that in a while the whole thing could be fully opened (this is not an accusation, because this is how it often happens). I wrote a separate text about this building for A&B, so I won't repeat myself here, I'll just say that the building is increasingly noticed abroad by critics and good titles of architectural media, and is also featured on the covers of those media.

5 The discussion that MSN has generated belongs to both categories: hit and putty. The conversations that are going on in our narrow professional bubble are nothing with the total social argument that is still going on. I think this is fantastic. People have started to talk about architecture en masse. As they can and as they understand it. The fact that the discussion is going on is a good thing, but its level clearly shows the scale of the misunderstanding of contemporary architecture. It's not surprising, of course, that laypeople don't grasp certain solutions and don't at least look at the broader context in which this building is placed. But having to explain this to people in the industry only reinforces my belief that it is worth thinking about and focusing on effective ways to educate.

We recently posted a photo of our Unikato on FB to celebrate a few years of its existence. Moments later, it must have been picked up by some portals with incredible reach, because we counted displays in the hundreds of thousands, and there were more and more comments. Sometimes silly, sometimes questioning. We thought it might be worth editing the post, adding a few words of clarification. It didn't change much, only reinforcing my belief that the Internet like FB, Instagram or TikTok won't allow anything to be explained or described well. The amount of information we are bombarded with, and the ability to swipe through it with a finger, makes the message very shallow. I used to still think that videos were some kind of chance, but the current average viewing time of 3 seconds leads to too much synthesis of content. Fortunately, there are still books, and with them it's different. They give space for in-depth content and time to delve into it.

Very few in our country write about contemporary architecture in a discernible way. This year I would like to draw attention to two items. The first is , "Grey Hour" by Filip Springer. In it, the author tries to look at architecture in the context of ongoing climate change. And although he doesn't give ready recipes or solutions on how to effectively prevent them, because no one really knows that yet, he draws attention to the problem, trying to say that it's not too late. I also believe in this. In my opinion, however, it unnecessarily divides architects into good and bad, because, first of all, nothing is black and white and things are usually more complex, and secondly, it can build unnecessary divisions that go beyond our environment, which probably serves no good purpose. The best example would be current politics. However, the book is as timely as possible, of the "for reflection" genre, and this book is now necessary. The second is "buildings + ideas," the Polish edition of our global monograph compiled in collaboration with American writer and architecture critic Philip Jodidio. I won't write too much about this unusual album, I hope some colleague describing hits and kits will do so, noting that for the first time in the history of Polish architecture there was a serious foreign monograph, available worldwide, presenting a domestic studio.

6 To both categories I would also like to include the situation related to the renovation and restoration of the Silesian Museum. Paradoxically, everything has a chance to end unexpectedly well, because a central park based on high greenery is being created, which this place badly needed. However, such things should not be decided by chance, and that is what happened here. Several years ago, the museum's previous authorities commissioned various architects to develop the revitalization of the historic brick buildings. By free hand, without a competition. At the same time, in 2018, the management commissioned the Repair the City Foundation to conduct a needs analysis for the Museum site based on public consultation. The analysis clearly indicated that there is a lack of tall greenery there, and this is what residents expect. The design studies, however, did not take these recommendations into account. No one at the time was interested in whether they took them into account, either. To make matters worse, no one also raised at the time that such an important area for the city should be included in a competition, and with a large dose of freedom for the entrants. After all, there was plenty of time to do so, as the studies received funding last year. Didn't our local SARP or Chamber know about this? We probably won't find out anymore.

Nothing can be done now, because not only was the funding triggered, but this year more than half of the Museum area has already become one big construction site. Including the new, leaky part of the Museum with glass cubes. And it was at this time in the summer that the new Museum Director Dr. Karol Makles came across my lecture quite by accident and saw that the impossible could be possible.
I showed how we brought life to the CDP museum square or greened the surroundings of the PLATO Gallery in Ostrava. Although it was not within the scope of our studies, irreverence and commitment helped. The director, full of good ideas, asked for a meeting, and we were shown the studies on the basis of which the construction was going on. Already the preliminary analysis showed that the projects for the restoration of historic buildings are fine, but there is a severe lack of high greenery around them. We had to come up with something and act immediately, because some of the redevelopments were due to be completed as early as November 2024! I knew that experienced landscape architects, looking at greenery in a smart, contemporary way, were badly needed here. The Good Space landscape studio Anna Olkis joined the discussions with the Museum. We were commissioned to create a strategy for the site, taking into account climate change, based on public participation. We are creating it in consultation and with the support of the authors of the new part of the Museum - Riegler Riewe. More meetings are being held with residents. Their results are consistent with the 2018 analysis. Hence our goal:to add native, self-sustaining medium and tall greenery, fostering pro-social functions and biodiversity. In a low-cost and environmentally friendly way, without total soil replacement, just spot-on, so that pioneering greenery has a chance to take root and begin to heal this post-industrial land. Importantly, the contractors do not have to add new trees. The company revitalizing the Gwarek Baths had ten of them in the project, today it is planting more than seventy. Grown-up birches and pines! The same is true of the contractor for the redevelopment of the new part. He helps, although he doesn't have to. Despite the deadlines, thanks to the understanding of the matter, the joint determination and support of the owner of this space the Marshal of the Silesian Voivodeship, the Katowice Forestry Commission, the new management and staff of the Museum and residents. I also want to thank here my fellow architects who left the comfortable bubble of feebus commentators and physically joined in the meetings. Your ideas and suggestions are invaluable in the fight for this space. This is the only way we can move forward now!

Remember the recent big brawl over the mature trees on Raciborska Street in Katowice, which were eventually cut down by the developer? Now there's an award-winning apartment building standing there, where due to a poorly written zoning plan, the building line had to be maintained and the project could not be modified. In the case of the Silesian Museum, with the lack of a complete, well-thought-out solution that was implemented, there was a similar sin. How many were sanctimoniously outraged at the time, how many protested, mostly on FB, to save those trees. But no one did anything. No one applied for a change in the plan. In the case of the Museum, we decided that we would do, not talk. I guess I would call this whole action a civic movement, which I believe will lead to a green space. I also believe that in such situations it is the role of architects to step out of their framework of daily activities and get involved in seemingly hopeless matters. Because, as you can see, it can be done.

7 Finally, the renovation of the Bunkier Sztuki in Krakow, a place that is close to my heart because of the competition won for its reconstruction. For me, the whole situation is largely putty, but a little bit of a hit too. Let me remind you that we have nothing to do with what happened here. This happened because of the failure to sign a contract with Bunker, which meant that our underground building with a floating roof - a plaza that "lets" art out - was not finalized. There was only a standard remodeling here, which, aside from some absolutely botched details like the electrical boxes at the entrance, is pretty OK. However, restoring the Bunker Café to a place where it completely obscures the facade of the remodeled building is, to me, of the abstract kind. We had planned to move it away from the facade and into the green area, but we assumed that this would have to be fought hard for during the project and probably the construction already underway. When we dropped out of the development of this redevelopment, there was an apparent lack of above-standard committed architects and like-minded management of this facility.

Tough luck, Krakow missed an opportunity. Instead, we took advantage of it when, moments after the failure of talks with the Bunker, we became involved in the project to convert the former slaughterhouse into the PLATO Art Gallery. That's where we were able to create a solution where art goes outside, outside the building, and becomes more accessible to the public. Sometimes failures are the beginning of something good, and nothing in life is black and white.


Robert KONIECZNY

more: A&B 1/2025 - Wood in architecture,
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