concrete Temida
When Marek Budzyński and Zbigniew Badowski designed the Supreme Court building in the early 1990s, they wanted the building to express the solemnity of the Third Republic. It must be admitted that they succeeded in achieving the intended goal, although in retrospect the pistachio color of the pillars and the greenish reflective strobe soften somewhat the austere face of Temida. Still, it is hard to resist the impression that "there is a not-so-deeply concealed totalitarian temptation hidden in the postmodern aesthetic. "4 In later years, subsequent architects did not soften the strong message with postmodern icing. Justice received gray, concrete robes.
Supreme Court in Warsaw, 1999, designed by Marek Budzynski, Zbigniew Badowski
© radiogagarrett
When designing the Rzeszow District Court,Tomasz Konior said his goal was "architecture that is restrained and serious in expression." It's hard to disagree with him. The concrete facades, the symmetrical composition of the mass and the portico supported by pillars leave no doubt - here we are entering the edifice of a menacing and serious institution. The Katowice courthouse by Małgorzata Pilinkiewicz and Tomasz Studniarek evokes a similar impression.
District Court in Siedlce, 2017, proj.: HRA Architects
© HRA Architekci
The designers at HRA Archite cts created a "monumental building in Siedlce, which would be unambiguously associated with the judicial authority, and thus formally refer to the stability of the law. "5 However, the monotonous rhythm of the simple pillars and the economical, almost minimalist architecture do not evoke associations with ancient Greece, to which the creators refer, or the Roman edifices of Mussolini's time.
The numerous opinions of outsiders (as well as students of architecture) saying that the architecture of the court should inspire respect and even fear are food for thought. But should a citizen of a democratic state fear the judiciary? Does the stature of state institutions have to be built with monumental architecture? Perhaps this particular fascination with classicizing modernism is about something else....
order and order
Let's leave the area of power architecture and turn to objects dedicated to culture or commercialism. Boleslaw Stelmach has been designing buildings with characteristic minimalist-monumental forms for many years. The Zana House office building and the Meeting of Cultures Center in Lublin or the office building on Szucha Avenue in Warsaw present similar solutions in terms of exterior composition.
Detail of the facade of the office building on Szucha Avenue by Boleslaw Stelmach.
Photo: Łukasz Kosztyła
An orderly rhythm of repetitive vertical elements creates an impression of order and seriousness. The tectonics of the facade, deepened by the play of chiaroscuro, evokes associations with distant echoes of antiquity. The Warsaw edifice Nowogrodzka Square (HRA Architekci) or the Nowy Targ office building in Wroclaw (Maćków Pracownia Projektowa) give a similar impression.
The newly constructed office building on Nowogrodzka Street by HRA Architekci refers to the nearby buildings of the Military Geographical Institute (arch. A. Dygat) and the Trade Union of Local Government Employees of the Republic of Poland (arch. B. Krzemieniewski, arch. L. Suzin).
© HRA Architects
Although the lisens and pillars were replaced in them by prefabricated reinforced concrete frames and razor blades, the effect of the imposed formal rigor remained the same. Interestingly, the spatial context of the listed buildings is different. Only the locations at the intersection of Jerozolimskie Avenue and Nowogrodzka Street and Szucha Avenue are in neighborhoods that "impose" similar solutions.
So have modern architects succumbed to the charm of the Second Republic? Or perhaps the Second Rome? Pniewski and Dygat, Libera and Piacentini... The list of potential inspirations is long.
Radical modernism is often associated with socialism, prefabricated housing estates and Corbusier's "housing machine." Postmodernism, on the other hand, is the architecture of the times of transition, plum jackets, creche tracksuits and street trading. A time of chaos and makeshift, when a part of society, on the advice of politicians, "took business into their own hands" building Polish capitalism. Neither of these trends represents the present times. Today we need architecture that is modern, but serious in expression. Buildings that seem to say "look at us, we are solid and trustworthy, and modern at the same time." After the era of machine buildings and the flamboyant (though not charmless) chaos of postmodernism, the time has come for solidity, order and order.
Let's just hope that in the wake of the rows of concrete pillars, the public space is not once again filled with even ranks of uniformed young people for whom order and order will be the primary goal....
Błażej Ciarkowski
1 G. Piątek, J. Trybuś, Meat and icing, 40000 Painters Publishing, Warsaw 2012.
2 S. Brukalski, Pole Mokotowskie, "Architektura i Budownictwo" 1935, no. 2.
3 P. Bieganski, Mussolini's Architecture of Italy, "Architektura i Budownictwo" 1937, no. 10.
4 K. Nawratek, Ideologies in space - attempts at demystification, Wyd. Universitas, Cracow 2005.
5 District Court in Siedlce, www.architekturaibiznes.pl
